Madonna of the Reef in Perast and the Fašinada Custom: Relational and Representational Perspectives on a Maritime Pilgrimage

Abstract

This article is about the Fašinada custom. The Fašinada refers to the transporting of stones by boat from the coast to a small island named Madonna of the Reef in Perast, Montenegro. This custom both commemorates the finding of a miraculous painting of the Madonna on a reef in the sea, and it furthers the island’s construction by piling stones on that reef. I consider issues of both representation and relationality linked to this site. These two aspects constantly intermingle, and one cannot be understood without the other. In the first part of the article, I draw more on a political economy perspective on human intentionality and consider the material results of social relations. I describe and explain the complex background to the Madonna of the Reef pilgrimage, the different practices linked to this island and her saint, the transformations that Perast in general and maritime pilgrimages in particular have undergone over time, and then, I describe the multivocality of the contemporary Perast community. In the second half of this article, I consider relational and dwelling perspectives on the co-option and construction of the Madonna of the Reef, and how nature has affected social relations. In doing so, I consider “nonhuman agency” as one of the main reasons why the custom of the Fašinada has transcended its religious context and become a space for interreligious encounters.