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Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9678-7335

Abstract

Places valorised by saints have attracted pilgrimage for a long time as devotion to saints is a way to achieve both material wellbeing and spiritual growth. Yet, the cult following of modern-day saints in contemporary societies has become a topic for exploration only in recent years (Di Giovine, 2010; Shinde & Pinkney; 2013, Srinivas, 2008). A few excellent hagiographies discuss the material and non-material world created around charismatic modern-day saints with global followership (Waghorne, 2004; Weiss, 2005; Shepherd, 1986). Given the immense popularity of modern-day saints many questions arise- what kind of pilgrimage landscape is created around them? Are they created like those traditionally found in established religious faiths or do they herald new directions while producing newer spaces for pilgrimage practice? This central question is explored in this paper using a cross-culture comparative analysis of sites of two saints that are similar despite belonging to two different religious-cultural contexts: St. Pio of San Giovanni Rotondo in Italy (1887-1968) and Sai Baba of Shirdi in India (c.1880- 1918). There are several commonalities between these two modern-day saints: both were believed to be ‘living saints’ with healing powers; both became popular in a short span of time; both have wide networks of transnational following. The places where the saints found their calling, began to attract visitors, and from small unassuming villages transformed into popular pilgrim towns with a contemporary orientation. These places have a mix of attraction - tomb of the saint, mega shrine to accommodate large congregations, charitable hospital to serve the needy, museums, thus making them more multipurpose places. Moreover, devotion to the saint being the main reason, the paraphernalia of traditional religious rituals and religious functionaries is absent. Instead, lodging and boarding is provided by non-religious (and yet dedicated to the saint) actors and as such tends to be more in the form of hotels, restaurants, and other tour services. Given the rapid pace of development of tourism, there are several critiques about the intense commodification of souvenirs, contestations about heritage, and all things related to such saints (Di Giovine, 2012a; Shinde, 2022). Thus, this paper offers insights about the processes involved in the development of pilgrimage sites dedicated to modern-day saints that are becoming integral to contemporary religiosity.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21427/94xe-yh36

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