Santinhos (holy cards, or prayer cards) are small rectangular pieces of paper with a picture of a saint (or several saints) on one side and text on the other: the latter combines prayers and instructions for correct use of the card, details of the saint's life, advertising for the printing house that made the card, and so on. In this article I intend to explore various forms of interaction (religious and otherwise) involving this text-image composite, including those observed during my field research, and a discussion of the symbology frequently associated with the cards, based on an interpretation of both the texts and the images.
Catholicism; cult of the saints; materiality of devotion; religion and objects
