The role of the church in the сonstruction of Catalan nationalism at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries

In the second half of the nineteenth century, conservative political organisations and groups that included representatives of pro-nationalist clergymen made a significant contribution to the development of Catalan nationalism. The author examines the influence of the Catholic Church on the formation of nationalism in Catalonia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Applying the methods of historical and cultural analysis, the author explores the evolution of the religious aspect of Catalanism, its symbols and rituals. The relevance of the research is substantiated by the need to study the processes of national self-determination and the formation of national identity, especially in the context of the influence of political and religious factors on cultural identity. The novelty of the work lies in the study of the Church’s role in these processes taking the case of Catalan nationalism as an example. The main purpose of this study is to analyse the role of the Catholic Church in the Catalan national movement and in the formation of contemporary Catalan identity. A detailed analysis of a number of sources, including the writings of Catalan national movement leaders, media materials, religious texts, as well as several events that had sacred meaning for most Catalans, including the celebration of the millennium of the Montserrat Monastery, the coronation of the Virgin of Montserrat, the restoration of the Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll, and an examination of the process of creating the symbols of Catalan nationalism, allows one to conclude that Catholicism has made a significant contribution to the formation of Catalan identity.