Guy Lesoeurs

Alma Sister : The Cult and Pilgrimage of Princess Diana

at the Alma Bridge

Diana, worshipped by crowds in her lifetime, having died accidentally and young under Place de l’Alma, in Paris, still lives within collective memory, to the extent of truly turning into a myth and a cult. Distracted from it original purpose, The Flame of Liberty, memorial of the French-American friendship built in 1989, has become, in August 1997, Diana’s monument and location of her cult for pilgrims coming from different cultural horizons. This transcultural phenomenon, still vivid 4 years after her death, is revealed through rites, prayers and attitudes of religious devotion, graffiti and ex-voto. The charismatic and emblematic figure of the Princess has become an angel and a saint in the pilgrims’ representations as well as a member of everyone’s family, a sister of our soul, Alma Sister.