Religious Beliefs and Spirituality in Portugal

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Portugal is deeply dominated by Roman Catholic believers. Around 84% of the population conceived itself Roman Catholic and about one-third of the population go to mass and take the sacraments regularly. Almost all Portuguese liked to baptized, married in the church, and have the last rites.

Numerous Portuguese festivals, holidays and traditions have spirituals source or intension. Thou state and church are officially separated there’s still a potential in terms of practice. The most notable of Portuguese religious results is the imagined shadows of the Virgin Mary to three children in 1917 in the small town of Fátima in the province of Santarém. Other views of Portuguese folk religious belief were not sanctioned by the official church, including magic, witchcraft, and sorcery.

The Provinces of Lusitania and the Gallaecia were first Christianized as part of the Roman Empire’s expansion. In 5th century, Christianity was coagulated when the Visigoths, a Germanic clan already Christianized, arrived into the Iberian Peninsula. Braga had a significant role in the Christianization of the entire Iberian Peninsula. The bishop who convinced the Suevi from Arianism to Catholicism is Saint Martin of Braga; Various Ecumenical Councils were deemed during this period, a sign of the spiritual grandness of the city. Christianity was almost eliminated in southern Portugal under Moorish rule, but in north it rendered the cultural and spiritual strength.