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Portugal Religious Practices
The practice of religion in Portugal showed striking
regional
differences. Even in the early 1990s, 60 to 70 percent of
the
population in the traditionally Roman Catholic north
regularly
attended religious services, compared with 10 to 15
percent in
the historically anticlerical south. In the greater Lisbon
area,
about 30 percent were regular churchgoers.
The traditional importance of Roman Catholicism in the
lives
of the Portuguese was evident in the physical organization
of
almost every village in Portugal. The village churches
were
usually in prominent locations, either on the main square
or on a
hilltop overlooking the villages. Many of the churches and
chapels were built in the sixteenth century at the height
of
Portugal's colonial expansion and might and were often
decorated
with wood and gold leaf from the conquests. In recent
decades,
however, they were often in disrepair, for there were not
enough
priests to tend them. Many were used only rarely to honor
the
patron saints of the villages.
Much of the country's religious life had traditionally
taken
place outside the formal structure and official domain of
the
Roman Catholic Church. This was especially true in rural
areas
where the celebration of saints' days and religious
festivals
were popular. The most famous of Portuguese religious
events was
the supposed apparition of the Virgin Mary to three
children in
1917 in the village of Fátima in the province of Santarém.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims have visited the shrine
at
Fátima in the belief that the pilgrimage could bring about
healing.
Rural Portuguese often sought to establish a close and
personal relationship with their saints. Believing God to
be a
remote and inaccessible figure, they petitioned patron
saints to
act as intermediaries. This system of patronage resembled
that
operating in the secular realm. To win their saint's
goodwill,
believers presented the saint with gifts, showed that they
gave
alms to the poor, and demonstrated upright behavior,
hoping that
the saint might intercede on their behalf with God.
Women tended to practice their religion more than men
did, as
evidenced by church attendance. In addition, the Virgin
Mary, who
was the most popular of the spiritual mediators, was often
revered more than Jesus and served as the patron of
religious
processions. The image of the Virgin, as well as that of
Christ,
were commonly displayed, even in labor union offices or on
signs
in demonstrations.
The Roman Catholic Church sometimes criticized
religious folk
practices for dividing people from their God. The church
could
not monitor all folk customs, however, and such practices
continued even in the 1990s. Moreover, the church
recognized that
many Portuguese felt at least as much loyalty to their
saints and
customary religious practices as they did to the more
formal
church. For these reasons, it was not unusual that the
church
tolerated and sometimes even encouraged these practices as
a way
of maintaining popular adherence to Roman Catholicism.
Other aspects of Portuguese folk religion were not
approved
by the official church, including witchcraft, magic, and
sorcery.
Formal religion, folk beliefs, and superstition were
frequently
jumbled together, and in the popular mind all were part of
being
Roman Catholic. Particularly in the isolated villages of
northern
Portugal, belief in witches, witchcraft, and evil spirits
was
widespread. Some persons believed in the concept of the
"evil
eye" and feared those who supposedly possessed it. Again,
women
were the main practitioners. Almost every village had its
"seers," practitioners of magic, and "healers." Evil
spirits and
even werewolves were thought to inhabit the mountains and
byways,
and it was believed that people must be protected from
them.
Children and young women were thought to be particularly
vulnerable to the "evil eye."
As people became better educated and moved to the city,
they
lost some of these folk beliefs. But in the city and among
educated persons alike, superstition could still be found,
even
in the early 1990s. Sorcerers, palm readers, and readers
of cards
had shops, particularly in poorer neighborhoods, but not
exclusively so. In short, a strong undercurrent of
superstition
still remained in Portugal. The formal church disapproved
of
superstitious practices but was powerless to do much about
them.
In contrast to that of Spain, Portuguese Catholicism
was
softer and less intense. The widespread use of folk
practices and
the humanization of religion made for a loving though
remote god,
in contrast to the harshness of the Spanish vision. In
Portugal,
unlike Spain, God and his saints were imagined as
forgiving and
serene. In Spain the expressions depicted on the faces of
saints
and martyrs were painful and anguished; in Portugal they
were
complacent, calm, and pleasant.
Data as of January 1993
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