Culto dei santi e villaggi di nuova fondazione nella Sardegna barocca

Salice, Giampaolo

2015-01-01

---

Abstract

This paper explores the political use of the cult of the saints in 17th and 18th century Sardinia. The article analyses the role played by the processions in honour of St. Sophia of Parte Montis and St. Anthony of Santadi in preventing the project put in place by the Marquis of Quirra to repopulate the terralbese plain, through the establishment of new villages of foreign colonists. As the paper will attempt to show, the cult of those local saints was far more than a mere manifestation of “popular” devotion. It was an effective instrument available to the peasant elites of Parte Montis and Montangia, who used it in defence of their jurisdictional prerogatives and to legitimate their social and political rise.