Abstract

The present study on the religious experience of the Peruvian community in Rome belongs to the area of studies on immigration, multiculturalism, and religion in Italy. In this article, I analyze the devotion of the Peruvian community in Rome to “the Lord of Miracles”. This pious tradition, which venerates the image of Christ crucified—painted by an Angolan slave—began in 1651 in Lima, during the Viceroyalty of Peru. Today, the sacred image is venerated in countries all over the world that host Peruvian immigrant communities that have set up branches of the Confraternity of the Lord of Miracles. I examine, in particular, the cult of el Señor de los Milagros in Rome in terms of Peruvian popular religiosity and national identity experienced within a transnational context. This essay serves two purposes: The first is to analyze the significance that this religious experience acquires in a foreign environment while maintaining links with its country of origin and its cultural traditions in a multilocal environment. The second aim is to examine the integration of the Peruvian community into Italian society, beginning with religious practice, in this case Roman Catholicism. This kind of religiosity seems not only to favor the encounter between the two cultures but also to render Italian Roman Catholicism multicultural.

Highlights

  • The present study regarding the religious experience of the Peruvian community in Rome is part of a series of studies on immigration, multiculturalism, and religion in Italy

  • At the end of the second decade of the third millennium, the religious feast celebrated by the Peruvian community living in Rome is a living expression of its devotion to its national patron, el Señor de los Milagros [the Lord of Miracles] in a transnational context

  • The devotion of the Confraternity of the Lord of Miracles and of the entire Peruvian community in Rome is characterized by a religious sentiment, the highlight of which is the feast of the patron held in October

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Summary

Introduction

The present study regarding the religious experience of the Peruvian community in Rome is part of a series of studies on immigration, multiculturalism, and religion in Italy. Much has been written in recent years about globalization and its implications for the fields of economy, politics, and demography, among others Studies regarding this topic have highlighted the dimensions of the “challenge” that immigration represents, both with respect to the different actors. In the midst of the numerous issues regarding international migration at the center of today’s social science research, in this essay, I will focus on a specific aspect that is, the issue of culture and religion among immigrants. This is an area of study that is in vogue at the moment due to the growing interest it has aroused in the fields of the sociology of migration and of religion

Transformations of Italian Society
The Presence of the Peruvian Community in Rome
The Historical Origins
The Cult in Rome
The Peruvian Community and Its Integration into the City of Rome
The Religiosity and Living of the Peruvian Tradition Abroad
Findings
Conclusions
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