Chapter 07: Early Christian Pilgrimage
“Solvitur ambulando. It is solved by walking.”
As Chapters 5 and 6 briefly touched on, pilgrimage as both metaphor and practice are documented in the Biblical texts from Genesis through Revelation.
After the ascension of Jesus and the gathering, and then scattering of the first followers, in order for the Christian movement to survive it became necessary to record and write down all the first and second hand accounts of the remarkable life, death and resurrection of the Saviour of the World, as well as the significant events and emergent theology of the early church.
With the conversion of Emperor Constantine in 313, also came his commitment to preserving religious places, symbols and artifacts deemed sacred to his new found Christian faith. His mother, Helena, is credited with overseeing this massive undertaking, having herself travelled to the Holy Land in 326.
Pilgrimage was encouraged by church fathers and established by Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great. Pilgrimages also began to be made to Rome and other sites associated with the Apostles, Saints and Christian martyrs, as well as to places where there have been apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Pilgrimage to Rome became a common destination for pilgrims from throughout Western Christianity in the medieval period, and important sites were listed in travel-guides such as the 12th-century Mirabilia Urbis Romae.(1)
One of the earliest surviving pilgrimage maps The Itinerarium Burdigalense ("Bordeaux Itinerary") (circa 333-334)
The first pilgrimages were made to sites connected with the ministry of Jesus. Aside from the early example of Origen, who "in search of the traces of Jesus, the disciples and the prophets", already found local folk prompt to show him the actual location of the Gadarene swine in the mid-3rd century, surviving descriptions of Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land and Jerusalem date from the 4th century. The Itinerarium Burdigalense ("Bordeaux Itinerary"), the oldest surviving Christian itinerarium, was written by the anonymous "Pilgrim of Bordeaux" recounting the stages of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the years 333 and 334. (2)
To have a full picture of the evolution of early Christian pilgrimage is beyond the scope of this project. There is so many fascinating stories connected to the development of the actual pathways to the sacred places, the evolution of the guiding principles created passed down from pilgrim to pilgrim and the particularities and protocols of pilgrimage imagined by religious leaders, spiritual seekers, political and government rulers as pilgrimages evolved over the centuries.
Suffice to say, the longing for a one of a kind, deep spiritual encounter with the Divine was the underlying motivation for Christian believers willing to assume the posture of pilgrim, “a stranger in a strange land” as Italian painter and writer Dante Aligheiri wrote in the 1290s. (3) It was an often perilous journey, with no guarantee of safety or even return. Through crusades and persecution, oppression and political and geographical borders shifting, a pilgrimage required money, stamina, courage, patience and reliance on the kindness and compassion of others to feed and shelter the sojourner as they made their towards their destination.
For some it cost them their sanity and civility, for others, it cost them their lives.
Was the reward worth the cost? Only the pilgrim can answer that question.
The list of Christian Pilgrimage Sites is extensive. A google search, dozens of National Geographic documentaries and thousands of articles, first hand accounts, ancient journals and biographies can provide one with fascinating stories of places, people and sacred experiences by Christian seekers over thousands of years.
The next chapter will introduce you to one such pilgrim from the 14th century, Margery Kempe - mother to 14, mystic, entrepreneur, wailer, writer and sacred traveler…rule-breaking heroine or mentally unstable heretic?