Senhora aparecida

In Senhora Aparecida’s village, some fifty kilometres from Porto, the atmosphere in which preparations for the annual feast are this year taking place, is more strained than usual : the new priest, fresh from the seminary, intends to stop the traditional procession of the “buried” ones, who are fulfilling their vow to have themselves carried to the chapel in an open coffin, by way of thanks to the Virgin for answering their prayers. Superstition against theological reasoning, loyalty to the given word, taken literally or interpreted by the spirit… A conflict gradually develops. It is all the more inevitable because the village’s identity and its inhabitants’ pride are at stake, this being the only village in Portugal to have kept up a once widespread tradition.