The worship of Dr Sousa Martins: Spiritual healing in Portugal

This article examines the worship of Dr José Tomás Sousa Martins, a 19th-century physician revered as a lay saint and healer in Portugal, attracting devotees from diverse backgrounds. Some devotees come in search of healing and leave votive offerings at his statue in front of the NOVA Medical School in Lisbon. Others view him as a spirit guide who manifests through mediums in Umbanda practices and the healing rituals of the Spiritualist Christian temples of the Vale do Amanhecer in Brazil. Dr Sousa Martins bridges the domains of spirituality and biomedicine. This article explores the materiality of devotional practices through the circulation of things and images and the intersection of therapeutic itineraries in shaping places of worship. It examines how healing is sought through devotion during health crises, emphasizing the importance of the senses and religious and diagnostic images in devotees’ healing narratives.