At a district level clergy and laity
processed annually, often at
Pentecost, from daughter churches
to the mother or the bishop’s church,
many a parish outing may have its
origin in such pilgrimages. If you
wanted to go on a local pilgrimage,
there are usually nice walks in the
countryside to occupy you on a
summer’s day. But the longer the
pilgrim’s journey, the greater the
number of lesser shrines which
would be visited en route.
The most famous these days is still
the ‘Road of St James’, or rather the
many roads all over Europe which all
eventually end up in Santiago de
Compostella at the shrine of St
James. It is debatable if such roads
existed in Britain, but dedications to
St James seem to indicate pilgrims
ways, in England especially these
were at ports from which the pilgrims
embarked or also of hospitals which
cared for the pilgrims at ports, such
as in Norfolk, Suffolk and Sussex.
Modern pilgrims to Santiago have
different motivations to take the
journey. The magazine ‘The Oldie’,
(issue 324) included a photo of
modern day walkers on ‘the Camino
de Santiago’ in northern Spain as
well as a letter of a reader. This tells
us that at the end of the Camino you
were asked if you had undertaken
the pilgrimage for religious, spiritual
or recreational reasons and then
given a certificate in Latin to prove it.
The 100 km from Sarria is the
minimum distance required to qualify
as a pilgrimage, but the keen can do
anything up to 800 km. On foot, on
horseback or on bicycle, they follow
the yellow arrows and the scallop
shell markers on the ancient route to
Santiago where the bones of St
James are reputed to lie. All the
accommodation is on the way itself,
the Camino is big business in Spain.
Why this lady did it? “Ten old friends
travelled together, but did not always
walk together, some are religious,
some spiritual and there were
elements of recreation for us all with
plenty of good humour and
camaraderie. On your way you
accept the good and bad in your
fellows and more importantly, in
yourself.” (Helen Barclay)
Sometimes the destination of a
pilgrimage is no longer clear. Where
a medieval chapel or church is
accompanied by a well or holy
spring, many preserve a religious
site older than the church. Baptismal
or healing wells occurring near,
against or even under churches are
highly suggestive of Christian
adoption of ancient sacred spaces,
especially healing places. Some
have names associated with fortune
and oracle, or with holy trees, some
are also on hill tops, frequently
dedicated to St Michael. Such as the
Pilgrim church of Andechs in
Bavaria, where “from on high the
place full of grace beckons with an
inn and chapel” (as one humorous
rhyme tells you). On the windy pass
up you find the Stations of the Cross
to stop and pray, yet for the non
religious walker the inn- and brewery
of the monastery there- is most
important after the arduous ascent;
yet the chapel is full of votive
offerings which people left after
having received healing, like
crutches and the like.
A modern kind of pilgrimage is
taking place every year in Germany,
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