La persecuzione pentecostale durante il fascismo. Il caso dei cinque “tremolanti” sardi perseguitati dal regime

Abstract

This article deals with the topic of the emergence of the Pentecostal Movement in the United States of America, which then disseminated throughout Italy in the first decades of the 20th century, mainly as a consequence of the Italian emigrants that returned to their country of origin. Likewise, it also analyses the characteristics of the religious persecution that the movement suffered from the Fascists, also because of the position adopted by the Catholic Church with regard to the Pentecostals. An examinat ion is made on the Act on authorised cults and the Orders issued during the Twenty years of the Fascist government in order to limit the cult, until the Circolare Buffarini-Guidi, issued in 1935, which prevented the Pentecostal movement to provide any religious services because of being considered a threat to the social order, but also harmful to the physic al and psychological integrity of the race. Finally, this article performs a comprehensive analysis on the files of five Sardinian Pentecostals that were victims of religious persecution by the regime: documents that have been found in the Central State Archives of Rome, the State Archives of Cagliari and the State Archives of Matera.