The Christian sense of pilgrimage has a long history, though it is never explicitly explained in detail as a religious practice in the scriptures. Pilgrimage seems to mark its recorded beginnings as part of the Catholic tradition in the fourth century, when Christians wanted to travel to the places that were part of Jesus’ life, or to the graves of the martyrs and Saints Peter and Paul in Rome. As mentioned previously, pilgrimage is not a uniquely Christian practice, but its longevity and significance has added depth to one’s discipleship. A few pilgrimage trails, most notably Europe’s medieval Camino de Santiago, have been reconstituted in recent decades and become popular with Christians and non-Christians alike.
Pilgrimage is both a social and an interior process, and occurs both in individual or small group contexts, such as hiking the Camino de Santiago, and in organized group contexts, as with the tour groups that travel to Rome, Lourdes and Fatima. As was true in the Middle Ages, many people who travel on pilgrimages carry symbols like a scallop shell or a special scarf that mark them as pilgrims. These listed pilgrimages marks some of the more well-known and established routes of Christian history.
Pilgrimages to Jerusalem and the Holy Land
To a Christian, Jerusalem during the Middle Ages (500–1500) was a place of hope and desire. As a place of desire, Christians wanted to visit and experience the tactile as a way of deepening one’s relationship with Jesus by walking in the streets and churches that marked important locations in his life. As a place of hope, Jerusalem and other sites in the Holy Land set the heart on fire, because these sites were the origins of their faith. To be close to these places meant to be close to Jesus. This idea remains as true for Christians today, as it did hundreds of years ago.
The goal of any Christian living at that time was to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. At the time of the Crusades, the tradition of making such a trip to a sacred place already had a long history, dating back to the 300s and even earlier. The journey was difficult, long and treacherous: modes of transport, communication and provisions were very different to the comforts and ease of today’s tools of travel. Months of hard work, through culturally and linguistically diverse lands add personal and spiritual significance and hardship to the pilgrimage. The reward: Christians wanted to see the buildings that the Roman emperor Constantine had erected to house the holy sites during his reign in the fourth century. The flow of pilgrims slowed with the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in the seventh century. Also, continuing political turmoil in Europe up through the ninth century made pilgrimages to the Holy Land the privilege of a select few.
By the twelfth century, travel to the Holy Land from Christian Europe was virtually impossible. The desire, however, remains as constant and palpable as ever, and people have continued their attempts to journey to Jerusalem and the Holy Land until the present day.
The Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela
One of the oldest pilgrimage routes in the world runs through Northern Spain, terminating at the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. This is the burial site of St. James, whose remains were transported from Jerusalem to Spain by boat. For the average European in the twelfth Century, a pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Jerusalem was out of the question—travel to the Middle East was too far, too dangerous and too expensive. Santiago de Compostela in Spain offered a much more convenient option. Pilgrimages to the area haven’t ceased since medieval times, and the route has enjoyed revived popularity since the 1980s. The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela now stands on this site.
Traveling pilgrims can expect barebones accommodations along the Camino de Santiago, or Way of St. James. Monasteries provide hostels for travellers and ask for small monetary donations in return. Pilgrims should be aware that a special Credencial, or religious passport, is required to stay at a monastic hostel.
The pious of the Middle Ages wanted to pay homage to holy relics, and pilgrimage churches sprang up along the route to Spain. Pilgrims commonly walked barefoot and wore a scalloped shell, the symbol of Saint James (the shell’s grooves symbolize the many roads of the pilgrimage). Along each part of the journey rests historical sites, churches and traditions that makes this pilgrimage one of the culturally and spiritually richest experiences, for Christians and non-Christians.
In France alone there were four main routes toward Spain. Le Puy, Arles, Paris and Vézelay are the cities on these roads and each contains a church that was an important pilgrimage site in its own right. Check out videos on the world’s largest thurible that swings throughout the Cathedral on special days and upon request (that request being a substantial donation!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xndYdKR5tY0
Via Francigena: The Pilgrimage to Rome
From Breena Kerr (http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20181203-a-1000-year-old-road-lost-to-time):
In 990AD, the Archbishop of Canterbury named Sigeric the Serious had a more practical reason to walk to Rome. Having risen into his prestigious office, he needed to visit the Vatican to be ordained and collect his official garments. At the time he made the journey, there were many different paths to Rome. But Sigeric, who’d left from Canterbury, wrote down his route home through Italy, Switzerland, France and into the UK, cataloguing the towns he stayed in on his journey. The route he took now makes up the official Via Francigena. The only part that cannot be completed on foot is the English Channel, which medieval pilgrims crossed by boat (and modern pilgrims on the Dover-to-Calais ferry).
As the Renaissance blossomed in Europe, the Via Francigena began to decline in popularity. Trading routes multiplied and shifted to pass through Florence, one of Italy’s most significant intellectual, artistic and mercantile cities at the time. As the Romans expanded their dominion, they built roads to connect the conquered cities back to heart of the empire.
The Via Francigena became, for the most part, forgotten, although sections remained in use as local roads and footpaths. Things remained that way until 1985. That year, a Tuscan anthropologist, writer and adventurer named Giovanni Caselli was looking for new topics to write travel books about. As an enthusiastic hiker who had also walked the old Silk Road through China, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, Caselli decided to walk the Via Francigena after learning about Sigeric’s route.
“I would go into a town and ask the local people, ‘What’s the oldest route from here to there’,” he said. “And it worked, because the local memory of these paths still exists.” Caselli walked all the way from Canterbury to Rome, crossing the British countryside, the English Channel (by ferry), French Champagne country, the Swiss Alps and the rolling hills of Tuscany.
After Caselli published his book about the Via Francigena in 1990, the route started gaining attention. In 1994, the Via Francigena became one of the Council of Europe’s designated Cultural Routes. Then in 2006, the organisations that oversee the Via Francigena decided on the official route that pilgrims walk today. Many pilgrims see it as an alternative or follow-up to Spain’s better known – and much busier – Camino de Santiago.
Marian Shrines: Places of Miracles
Tied to the history of Christian pilgrimages resides Mary. All over the world, pilgrimages to places with stories, devotions and encounters with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, exist on almost every continent (a Marian shrine at Antarctica is yet to be established: maybe Mary doesn’t like the cold?). Ranging from the well-known places of Lourdes and Fatima, to smaller shrines in most obscures locations in Yankalilla, South Australia, Penrose Park, New South Wales and Canungra, Queensland, the journeying to these Marian places is another benchmark of Christianity pilgrimages.
There are some many more places of pilgrimage to list, both here in Australia and overseas. Hopefully we will be able to visit them one day! What are some of your favourites?
And as a preview for next week, we will look at important Marist places of pilgrimages and the places where Marcellin went on pilgrimage too!