Based on the study of a local pilgrimage in the midst of France, which appropriation was done by the Portuguese migrants of the area round 1960, this thesis questions the elaboration, expression and visibility, concerning their feeling as members of a community. These representations are built and expressed through both religious and ethnic, most often imbricated categories. This pilgrimage appears as a patrimonial moment, enhancing their attachment to Portugal and at the same time their claim for local roots. Or even autochthony, alongside those who, for various reasons, rather invest Christian identity. This thesis explores the complex construction of belongings, circumstances and ways in which they are expressed or, on the contrary fall silent, one hand from the analysis of the pilgrimage showing how participants perceive this annual event and mobilize alternately tradition, territory, religion or origin references, and secondly by highlighting the Church's role, and especially that of the diocese in the making of an otherness rooted in a particularly inclusive religious context.
