%0 Journal Article
%T Benzedeiras: Lights and Shadows of the Religious Healing Practice in Brazilian Folk Catholicism
%A Siuda-Ambroziak, Renata
%J Studia Religiologica
%V 2019
%R 10.4467/20844077SR.19.014.11373
%N Volume 52, Issue 3
%P 191-204
%K religious healing, popular Catholicism, benzedeiras, Brazil
%@ 0137-2432
%D 2019
%U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/studia-religiologica/article/benzedeiras-lights-and-shadows-of-the-religious-healing-practice-in-brazilian-folk-catholicism
%X 
	This article presents field research-based reflections on the socio-cultural contexts of religious healing practices in Brazilian folk Catholicism performed by traditional local blessing-givers (bendezeiras). Recognizing both illness and healing as socio-cultural processes and religion as an important key to understanding Brazilian culture and society, I concentrate on depicting important characteristics of the benzedeiras’ practice, concentrating on “lights” (positive aspects) and “shadows” – adverse factors limiting the possibilities of intergenerational transmission in spite of the continuing popularity and symbolic effectiveness of benzedeiras’ religious healing in Brazil.