Religious stories form an essential part of oral and popular culture. In Catalonia they developed their own narrative forms and were transmitted through songs and legends, expressing a deeply local sense of devotion rooted in the immediate physical landscape of each parish, valley, river and road. Tales of local Madonnas and saints speak of an intimate bond with the community. The relationship between literature and oral narrative is also a constant feature of religious legends: written exempla found in manuals and spread through the streets by itinerant preachers, later adapted by blind ballad singers; hagiographies, miracles and lives of martyrs written centuries ago from material drawn from popular tradition, subsequently returned to the people, who reshaped it and made it their own.

This section, however, is not limited to the Christian religious legends of Catalonia. We will travel from East Asia, with narratives of yokai and kami belonging to the Japanese Shinto tradition, to the legends of totemic spirits among Native American peoples. We will journey across the world, encountering different beliefs and sensibilities and exploring the connections that emerge through popular beliefs transmitted orally from generation to generation.