Nature and Culture in the Rituals of San Antonio

Abstract

In this paper I analyze the cult of San Antonio Abad, San Antón, as an example of the ritual fusion of nature and culture in the different communities commemorating this Saint. The festive practices of this «old Saint» are associated to preChristian rites related to fire and the protection of animals. The cult to this Saint was very pread out in Europe, and was even exported to the American colonies. It is a clear example of how popular practices appropriate Church initiatives within their own logic, bordering heterodoxy at times, while expressing mechanisms of resistance to change. Yet it is clear that this cult has survived because it has adapted. When industrialization came to the countryside, the animal blessing gave way to machine blessing. When stockbreeding is on the wane, the cult adjusts to new ecological sensibilities and the blessings go to pets. St. Antonio unifies nature and culture, rural and urban, remote cults with ecology.