Telling the Life of Saint Anthony in Lisbon. Actors, Performances and Effects of Contemporary Hagiographic Discourse ; Raconter saint Antoine à Lisbonne. Acteurs, performances et effets du discours hagiographique contemporain ; Contando Santo António em Lisboa. Atores, performances e efeitos do discurso hagiográfico contemporâneo

International audience ; This paper describes and analyses the current modalities of the narrations of the life of the Catholic saint Anthony of Padova, at his so called birthplace in Lisbon (Portugal). Through an ethnography of the visits led by various actors (Franciscan brotherhood, tourist guides, staff of Lisbon’s cultural service, head of the museum), we seek to describe the transformation of the universal saint Anthony of Padova into a Portuguese saint. If the biographical sequences of his birth and education in Portugal are classically central in the localisation, the narratives about popular devotions taking place in Lisbon and Portugal also participate in the process. As a consequence, both hagiographic motives and devotional particularities transmitted during the visits seem to erase the ecclesiastical, intellectual and universal figure of Anthony as a Doctor of the Church. Instead, they value the figure of the saint as an ordinary and familiar intercessor of the Portuguese people. On another hand, the diversity of the actors involved also allows us to investigate the overlap of religious, tourist and heritage aims the narrators carry through the different roles of the saint they wish to value (a Christian life model, an example of folk religion, or a symbol of national identity). The text more generally contributes to the understanding of tourism and heritage-making influences on religion, which definitively blur the conditions of today’s religious experience. ; Cet article examine les modalités plurielles de la narration contemporaine de la vie de saint Antoine de Padoue dans le sanctuaire qui est construit à l’emplacement supposé de sa naissance, à Lisbonne au Portugal. En décrivant d’abord la diversité des narrateurs (Franciscains en charge du sanctuaire, guides touristiques, employés des services culturels municipaux et conservateur de musée), on tente de montrer quelles sont les conditions concrètes de la fabrication d’une figure sainte locale, dont les images et le culte sont diffusés de ...