Nossa Senhora Aparecid

Kicking, Stripping, and Re-Dressing a Saint in Black: Visions of Public Space in Brazil’s Recent Holy War

This article deals with a particular case of blasphemy that happened in 1995 when a Protestant televangelist insulted one of the most reverend religious symbols of Brazil — Nossa Senhora Aparecid. This was shown on TV as the televangelist’s protest against the presence of Catholicism in the public sphere of Brazil. The author uses this case in order to consider the cult of saints as a symbolic site where issues of nation, history, ideology, public space, and so on, come together.