Disassembling Sanctitude: Social and Political Interferences During Mother Pauline’s Sanctification Process

Abstract

The present article was produced as a partial requirement for obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Sociology and Politics at Fundação Escola de Sociologia e Política de São Paulo (FESPSP).  The paper focuses on analyzing the construction of Mother Pauline of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus’ sanctity by considering the impacts of social and political elements in dispute during her lifetime which could have interfered on the efficiency of her canonical process, concluded in 2002. By collecting and organizing documental and historical evidence, this research aims to comprehend Mother Pauline’s activities and connections as part of the Church’s actions during the romanization process of Catholicism in Brazil. Another purpose of this paper is to identify how social markers of difference – with an emphasis on the aspects of agency – could have been articulated during her canonization, whilst using these impressions to organize new models of dispute combining the interpretations of Pierre Bourdieu and Peter Berger on the distribution of symbolic and sacred capital, both in our material world and in the cosmic realm of deity. Considering religious topics as eminently social, the present research therefore seeks to explain that not only there is sociological interference over the canonical process, but also that these interferences are frequent, diverse and can even derive from the individual action of those being sanctified.