ABSTRACT
Towards the middle of the third decade of the nineteenth century popular religion in France reached a major crossroad. After having steadily drifted towards a Christocentric cult of the cross for more than a dozen years, it suddenly stopped dead in its tracks and then moved off in a new direction. Over the course of the Restoration years the missionaries had a tremendous impact on French consciousness. The Philomena cult presents the social historian with a unique and rare combination. Unlike other Christian heroes and heroines, Philomena was a completely new personality set in the context of a centuries-old Christian tradition. The most ready explanation for the change in popular religious tastes is that society felt oppressed by the cross cult because of its ambiguous politico-religious symbolism. The cult of the virgins either lacked political overtones from the very beginning (Philomena) or sloughed them soon enough (Mary).
