La poudre aux yeux des saints Contributions ethnologiques au dossier des peintures murales endommagées en Roumanie

In the specific case of the Orthodox churches of Romania, the author wishes to analyze the information concerning the popular ritual which consists in the voluntarily removal of the eyes (or of the mouth) of the saints painted on the church walls, from the perspective of the dynamic relations established between the official dogma and the religious practice, both having as reference the icon and the figure of the saint. The systematization and interpretation of the answers to the mythological questionnaires launched by Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu at the end of the 19th century combined with the ritual texts in the Romanian folklore open an ethnological perspective into a matter usually analyzed by religious art history specialists. Such practices concern the ritually formalized destruction of murals in churches in order to use the dislodged fragments of mortar or dust in magic.