Spaces of Suffering: Religious Transit in São Paulo’s Devotion to Souls

Abstract

AbstractThis article examines the devotion to souls in São Paulo—a practice that involves lighting candles for and petitioning the souls of the anonymous, suffering dead—by focusing on the particularity of place. To that end, it employs the notion of religious transit (trânsito religioso), used by Brazilian scholars to talk about religious change and movement. But whereas most literature on the subject has focused on switching affiliation, this article explores how affect shapes devotees’ religious transit through urban space. It argues that, in the context of the devotion, mutual suffering underpins a relationship of mutual aid, drawing together the living and departed at places of trauma and death.