This essay examines the renewed interest of Italian historiography in popular devotions, with particular attention to their political uses in the contemporary era. Building on studies that have highlighted the “power of devotions” and their instrumentalization within a broader project of Christian reconquest of society, the article investigates a dimension that has thus far received limited scholarly attention: the relationship between devotional practices and the world of labour in postwar Italy. Through an analysis of the Church’s social doctrine and the promotion of figures such as Saint Joseph the Worker, the Virgin Worker, and Jesus the Divine Worker, the study highlights the process by which labour was resemanticized as expiation and as a means of restoring social order, in an anti-socialist and anti-conflictual key. Focusing on the first republican decade, the essay integrates the existing historiography with previously unpublished sources from the Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, paying particular attention to internal debates within the Vatican hierarchy and to the adoption of devotional liturgy and iconography as instruments of social control within working-class environments.
Las devociones obreras en la Italia de los años cincuenta
Federico Creatini
2026-01-01
Abstract
This essay examines the renewed interest of Italian historiography in popular devotions, with particular attention to their political uses in the contemporary era. Building on studies that have highlighted the “power of devotions” and their instrumentalization within a broader project of Christian reconquest of society, the article investigates a dimension that has thus far received limited scholarly attention: the relationship between devotional practices and the world of labour in postwar Italy. Through an analysis of the Church’s social doctrine and the promotion of figures such as Saint Joseph the Worker, the Virgin Worker, and Jesus the Divine Worker, the study highlights the process by which labour was resemanticized as expiation and as a means of restoring social order, in an anti-socialist and anti-conflictual key. Focusing on the first republican decade, the essay integrates the existing historiography with previously unpublished sources from the Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, paying particular attention to internal debates within the Vatican hierarchy and to the adoption of devotional liturgy and iconography as instruments of social control within working-class environments.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
