Maite Iraceburu Jiménez “The Hand of God” in News Pamphlets on Disasters of Natural Origin: Lexical and Discursive Strategies 1. Introduction The discussion in this chapter analyses the presence of God in Spanish news pamphlets on disasters of natural origin through the diferent lexico- discursive strategies used by the authors of these documents, who are often unknown. 1 Through the selection of an ad hoc corpus, I will show how divine intervention gave a reason for existence and protection (in the form of a hero) to the faithful in the face of serious disasters of natural origin, such as earthquakes, foods and fres. News of these fateful events spread throughout Europe via the forerunners of the press, news pamphlets, not only in order to publicise such misfortunes, but also to explain their ultimate cause (the sins of humankind) to the most avid readers and listeners. An analysis of the lexico-discursive strategies used in the texts that comprise the selected corpus will make clear how the authors of these documents seemed to follow their own form of discourse – the news pamphlet discursive tradition 2 – which undoubtedly streamlined the writing of these texts. They are clearly marked strongly by the Church, given the need to recount and publicise the disasters of the time from a strictly religious point of view. The use of diferent comparisons and appeals to God, as well as the reiteration of certain fxed expressions identifying a specifc type of 1. Nieves Pena Sueiro, “Estado de la cuestión sobre el estudio de las Relaciones de sucesos”, Pliegos de Biblioflia, 1 (2001), pp. 43-57. 2. Maite Iraceburu Jiménez, Estudio pragmadiscursivo de las relaciones de sucesos (siglo XVII), JANUS. Estudios sobre el Siglo de Oro, SIELAE, A Coruña, Universidade da Coruña, 2018. DOI 10.52056/9791254693025/03 Milena Viceconte, Gennaro Schiano and Domenico Cecere (edited by), Heroes in Dark Times. Saints and Off- cials Tackling Disaster (16 th -17 th Centuries). © 2023 Viella, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 ISBN 979-12-5469-302-5 (pdf), DOI 10.52056/9791254693025