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‘Devotio postmoderna’ Survey on a sample of devotees to St. Anthony of Padua

Summary: What does it mean to be a “devotee” in the context of postmodern religious pluralism? A random telephone survey interviwed 1,800 people out of the 600,000 subscribers to the “Messanger of St. Anthony”, a magazine published by the Shrine of St. Anthony in Padua, in order to analyze the different aspects of their lives: family, social, cultural, religious and moral. The results of the research confirmed the hypothesis that those who consider themselves devotees of St. Anthony, follow the postmodern dynamics of legitimization even for morals and religion, meaning that the individual, independently from the institutional teachings of the Catholic church, decides what he wants to believe in , how to behave and how to judge “deviant” actions. The intensity of said independence differs according to gender, education and age.