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What is a Pilgrimage?


This is a question that I have sometimes wondered about: on the surface it seems like a very simple question but truthfully it is not simple.
Pilgrimage as a word comes from the Latin word peregrinus which means ‘one who is in spiritual exile’ that is looking for a spiritual homeland (and definitions of pilgrimage are a journey to a sacred place or shrine) but since mediaeval times the pilgrimage to Santiago has been more than this – the journey to Santiago was undertaken to visit the shrine of Saint James but also for other reasons:



  • for the forgiveness of sins or as a penance for crimes (notably the murder of a Priest or of your Father could lead to being sent on Pilgrimage as penance)
  • as an escape from their life (in the mediaeval period life was very ordered and travel for the average person was not allowed but Pilgrimage was permitted)
  • as a job (when people wished to make a pilgrimage but could not make the time or for ill health could not make the journey then there were people who would walk for you and did this as a job)
    Thus pilgrimage gains a wider definition and we must also consider that there are pilgrimages made to non religious destinations such as a pilgrimage to Graceland or to a football stadium for a fan, these too are considered to be a pilgrimage so should pilgrimage be considered to be a journey to a destination of special significance to those that undertake it (so Frodo going to Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring would not be a Pilgrimage but a journey but if Sauroman, as a devoted supporter of Sauron, were to go to Mount Doom to see where the Ring was made could be).
    This idea is supported throughout history with Thomas Aquinas in the late 13th century writing that going on a pilgrimage to show love to a Saint or to pray for healing or forgiveness was soon joined by other reasons.
    So then pilgrimage is, as written by Sally Welch in ‘Making a Pilgrimage’ (Lion, 2009), ‘..a journey of purpose,’ which is what I have found among Pilgrims going to Santiago: maybe they are there as an experience of faith or to get fit, to see the country or just to walk.
    What do you think? What makes a pilgrimage a pilgrimage for you?

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