The mobilisation of relics during the Spanish Civil War. Historicism and sacralisation in the Franco regime

Abstract

The religious justification of the Spanish Civil War in terms of a crusade has been profusely investigated from the institutional sphere: pastoral letters, homilies and explicit support from the Catholic hierarchy. However, the mobilisation of relics and the proliferation of a diverse typology of miracles, apparitions and supernatural events played a decisive role in the sacred legitimisation of the rebel troops and contributed to consolidate, in the experience of the combatants and in the rearguard, the idea of the conflict as an apocalyptic war between good and evil. Likewise, the appearance and cult of relics reinforced the sacro-popular legitimacy of the rebel army and the new Francoist state, as was the paradigmatic case of the uncorrupted hand of Saint Teresa of Jesus. In this article we will also develop the role played by the relics as continents of the past in the construction of the narrative of the historical continuity of the dictatorship and its link with tradition, elements staged in the rituals of the “Victory”.