Museology of religion: temporary exhibitions in the Museum of the Shrine of Fatima

Abstract The cycle of temporary exhibitions organized by the Museum of the Sanctuary of Fátima, within the commemorative program of the Apparitions of the Virgin Mary’s centenary, between 2010 and 2020, allows to identify a set of features inherent to the museology of the religious phenomenon. The catechetical function of these exhibitions, which is justified by the museum's ecclesiastical tutelage, is formalized through the interpretation of the sanctuary and of the religious events that took place there, while the accuracy of the information is guaranteed, confirming the exhibition as a non-formal education and communication device. From the direct observation of the exhibitions that are the object of this study, we analyze the narrative typologies, the visual identity, and the museographic models, crossing the results with the concepts of decontextualization and resignification of objects’ (musealia), and with the museology of the idea, retrieved through the performed literature review of museum studies. The analysis of these exhibitions validates the museological discourse where denotative and connotative components are combined in order to enhance different readings and perceptions. Museography, described as a meta-work of the exhibition discourse about a religious theme, is open, as it creates different registers of information and interpretation of the concepts, according to a heterogeneous audience, with different sensibilities, beliefs, interests, and previous knowledges, even as this public is essentially collected among the pilgrims of the sanctuary, while proving its efficiency to communicate the Message of Fatima.