Muslim Pilgrims at the House of Mary in Ephesus. Considerations on ‘Open Sanctuaries’ in the Mediterranean

Manoël Pénicaud (1)

1 IDEMEC - Institut d'ethnologie méditerranéenne, européenne et comparative

At the end of the 19th century, French Catholic missionaries discovered in Ephesus (Turkey) a site considered to be where the Assumption of the Virgin Mary took place. After the proclamation of this dogma by the Vatican in 1950, this holy place knew a remarkable development, spontaneously attracting thousands of Muslims with special devotion to the mother of the prophet Jesus. Nowadays the phenomenon is even more substantial. Muslims are more numerous than Christians. Many Muslim women visit the shrine every day for help in giving birth. The Catholic Capuchin friars who administer the site adopt a posture of ‘interreligious hospitality,’ being both hosts and hosted by the majority Muslim population in Turkey. This chapter is a contribution to the Pilgrimage Studies and the shared sacred sites in the Mediterranean. How this sanctuary has been open to followers of different faiths? And how space is negotiated between them and also with tourists? This monograph shows specific and general considerations about this long-term phenomenon of trans-border circulation.

Mots clés: Interreligious Hospitality; Christian-Muslim interactions; House of Mary; Virgin Mary; religious crossings; shared holy place; interreligiosity; Louis Massignon; Pilgrimage

Domaines: Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie; Religions; Histoire

Manoël Pénicaud. Muslim Pilgrims at the House of Mary in Ephesus. Considerations on ‘Open Sanctuaries’ in the Mediterranean. Mario Mignone. The Idea of the Mediterranean, Forum Italicum Publishing, pp.166-183, 2017, 978-1-893127-41-8. ⟨hal-01795623⟩