National, transnational or cosmopolitan heroine? The Virgin Mary's apparitions in contemporary Europe

Abstract

This article analyses the pilgrimage which took place in August 2007 between two Marian apparitions' sites, both of which had been strongly involved in processes of national identity production. The instrumentalizations of the Virgin Mary within national ideologies have been frequently analysed. However, her cult also triggers the development of transnational networks. Hence it is important to ask about the kind of attitudes and identities that are developed through participation in these networks. Can the notion of cosmopolitan sociability be helpful here?

Keywords:

• Transnationalism
• cosmopolitanism
• religion
• Virgin Mary
• pilgrimage
• nation

Notes

1. This description is based on the words of the visionaries, their parents and Istoriya ( 2006 ).

2. The Greek Catholic Church was banned in the Soviet Union.

3. Atanazji Cijpes is a former head of an important Basilian monastery in Transcarpathia. Basilian monks support the pro-Ukrainian option (see, e.g., Romanik 2003).

4. Incidentally, the film was so popular that the Russian Academy of Science issued an official statement declaring the film ‘false science’ (lzhenauka) (Krugliakov 2006).

5. mphost.org.uk/mpweb/index.htm (accessed on 17 March 2009).

6. For an overview, see Khagram and Levitt (2008, p. 13).