Where Do University Students Locate the Sacred?

In the contemporary university context, marked by spiritual pluralism and a growing crisis of meaning, there remains limited understanding of how young people sacralize particular realities and how these processes shape their spiritual development and pursuit of personal fulfillment. Against this backdrop, the study aimed to analyze the realities that university students regard as sacred or absolute, the mechanisms involved in their sacralization, and the ways in which these realities influence decision-making, behavior, sense of moral obligation, and spiritual development. The study employed a qualitative approach with an exploratory, descriptive phenomenological-hermeneutic design, based on semi-structured interviews with sixteen advanced-cycle students at a Peruvian university from diverse academic programs, all self-identified as nontheistic and unaffiliated with any religion. Data were analyzed through thematic and categorical coding. Findings indicate that participants primarily sacralize family, personal values, significant life experiences, emotional well-being, and personal identity, which function as ethic-affective cores and internal normative reference points. In addition, five mechanisms of sacralization were identified: family and educational influence, transformative biographical experiences, intense emotional experiences, generational contrast, and subjective reflection on meaning. The study concludes that the sacralization of contemporary realities configures an autonomous, subjective, and largely noninstitutional spirituality, exerting a significant influence on identity formation, the processing of suffering, and the structuring of young people’s ethical frameworks.