For centuries, the Lenten processions of the Azores were an exclusively male practice. Until they ceased to be so.

Maria Manuel Quintela (CRIA Iscte / IN2PAST) is the author of ‘Biografia de uma Romaria Quaresmal de Mulheres no Nordeste (São Miguel)’, in volume 66 (2026) of Trabalhos de Antropologia e Etnologia, in the special issue Expressões da Religiosidade Popular nos Açores".

The article offers an initial, exploratory anthropological approach to the “Women’s Processions” in São Miguel, understanding them as an experience and practice of “popular” religiosity. It traces the history of these pilgrimages, the context in which they emerged, the motivations behind them, their distribution across the island and the possible processes by which they spread throughout the archipelago. Along the way, it opens up space to discuss the relationship between ‘popular’ religious practices and ‘official’ or ‘clerical’ forms, linking this phenomenon to contemporary debates on religion and women, temporalities and gender, pilgrimages and Marian devotion.

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