NEOMEDI EVALISM AND THE HAGIOGRAPHY OF VALDEMIRO SANTIAGO: NEOPENTECOSTAL SANCTIFICATION

IN 1998 VALDEMIRO Santiago de Oliveira founded the Igreja Mundial do Poder de Deus or Worldwide Church of God’s Power (hereafter wcgp) and has been its leader ever since. The goal of this study is to foreground the “medieval” elements found in his religious discourse. I aim to show how his book O grande livramento¹ (hereafter referred to as The Great Deliverance) uses discursive features commonly found in medieval hagiographies to promote the sacralization of his image and, consequently, develops his own hagiography. The issue goes beyond the use of the Middle Ages as a pretext to discuss topics from