Religious Imageries of Pilgrims from Przeworsk: Making Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation at Jodłówka

My paper provides an account of the religious imageries (T. Csordas) and practices of Catholic devotees from the Basilica of the Holy Spirit with whom I made pilgrimage on foot to the Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation at Jodłówka in August 2017. My account positions those imaginaries and practices within a broader contextual spectrum in order to move beyond events or conversations which were directly connected with the pilgrimage. To gain a better understanding of the religious needs of the pilgrims I spent time with some of them afterwards. Among other things, I attended masses involving healing services and charismatic prayer meetings. This way I was able to observe the important of sensory-based practices related to a belief in the "porous self" (Ch. Taylor). The devotees express that belief by, on the one hand, viewing themselves as being vulnerable to evil powers, and, on the other hand, by believing that they can remedy this danger by opening up to the influence of the Holy Spirit and by using water or exorcised oil blessed during a healing service. My paper demonstrates the various ways in which belief in the porous self becomes objectivised, and its importance within the religious imageries of that group of devotees.