Pilgrimage Center Research Articles

The sanctuary as a means of organizing urban space: a case study of selected sanctuaries in Poland

This paper attempts to show that a sanctuary can alter urban space. A sanctuary is a very special place because of its religious nature and attracts both pilgrims and tourists. The spatial structure of a sanctuary is determined largely by changes in the volume and nature of pilgrim ‘traffic’. Modern pilgrimage centres are becoming more open to visitors who wish to take part in the life of a sanctuary, even if this involves non-religious activities. The sanctuary's religious offering is supplemented with typical tourism attractions. The establishment of a sanctuary affects the development and spatial organization of a city in a variety of ways. Large sanctuaries favour the development of sanctuary service zones that cater for pilgrims. This is also true in Poland. There are, however, some large and midsize sanctuaries that have no additional facilities designed for pilgrims and this is almost always true of regional and national sanctuaries in Poland.

Making pilgrimage places of the gurus in Varanasi: countering Hindu narratives in local Sikh historiography

The Sikhs in Varanasi constitute a small minority situated within the boundaries of a Hindu-dominated culture. Most of the families now residing arrived in the years surrounding the partition in 1947 as migrants and traders from West Punjab, and only a few have a previous history in the city. In attempts to create meaningful representations of a shared past and visibility in the Hindu pilgrimage centre, the new-comers constructed their own collective history centring on the Sikh gurus' visits to and wonders in Varanasi. This article first examines how images of Varanasi and its inhabitants unfold in the historical writings of the Sikh gurus and the hagiographical literature (janam-sakhis) that aimed at proving the spiritual supremacy of the first guru, Guru Nanak. It continues to describe and analyse how the written history constructed by contemporary Sikhs in Varanasi manifests itself as a ‘counter-narrative’ in relation to a dominant discourse of the city as being a centre of Hindu pilgrimage and religious learning. The narrative structure of this modern history is set and framed by selected stereotypical images of Varanasi, but instead of verifying Hindu values and authority it creates an alternative paradigm that eventually confirms the spiritual superiority of the Sikh gurus and their teaching. Constructed as a counter-narrative, the local historiography provides contemporary Sikhs a possibility to make claims on the visibility, the identity and the right to occupy a space within the sacred geography of Varanasi and negotiate ‘an other’ representation of the collective self from within the dominant cultural discourse.

Prier devant les reliques des saints d’après les textes hagiographiques du Midi aquitain et gascon (XIe -XIIIe siècle)

Praying before relies of saints, according to hagiographie texts front Aquitaine and Gascony (XIth XIIIth centuries). The medieval Church excluded any idea of a direct link between the profane and the divine. Access to Christ, the dispenser of miracles and judge of salvation, takes place within a mediation space - the holy - which distinguishes the churches of the saints as being the « gates of Heaven » for those who are « friends of God ». Medieval hagiography, which records the words and deeds of the saints and praises the virtues of their relics (their ability to achieve miracles), makes it possible to observe the representations by clerics of the ways, through the intercessions of saints, by which prayers are submitted to Christ. Gascony of the 11th-13th centuries offers, from this point of view, a privileged observatory as a result of the strength of its hagiographical scriptoria, and of its inclusion in the networks of the great pilgrimage centres in the vicinity such as Rocamadour and Compostella. Hagiography, of which main function is its use for choir readings on the saint’s day, underlines the specific nature of clerical prayer : the lectio gives voice and body to a reliquary book of the words and deeds of the saint, in order to reveal his usefulness in the world. The clerical vocation of perpetual prayer is thus strongly developed. It relies upon powerful reciprocal ties which link the saint with his spiritual family. For the monk or canon, communal or personal prayer is exalted by the piety and obedience due to a saint who, in return, spares neither his companionship (comitas ) nor the beneficia that he can obtain from Christ. For the lay person, on the other hand, the rule of prayer demands a marked dissymmetry in the relationship (obedientia and humilitas ) ; praying to the saint requires ostentatious respect for the sacred. The word of the lay person thus counts for less than the totality of the corporeal and material conventions to which the application must conform (pilgrimage, sincerity of tears and sighs, listening to the office and pastoral manifestations, meditating broodingly in proximity to relics, offerings, payments to the saint, pacts sealed on the altar). Only the lay prayer of invocation, by which the faithful, in profane space, makes the relic of the nomen sancti their own, is the object of specific hagiographical treatment. L'invocatio indeed enables the churches to extend the range of effectiveness of their relics. It propagates above all the idea that the ubiquitousness of the actions of the saints can contribute to turning the whole of society to prayer, in order to heal itself from within of all the deviations which compromise the ideal of a society drawn together in one Church (heresies, private wars, insubordination of the militia, emancipation of both peasants and town dwellers).

Pilgrimage as costly signal: Religiously motivated cooperation in Chaco and Nasca

Religiously motivated cooperation in the form of pilgrimage is a neglected element in discussions of the dynamics of cooperative behavior among humans. In this paper, we invoke costly signaling theory to propose how pilgrimage centers emerge in some contexts. On one hand, as has been suggested by other scholars, monumental centers are costly signals of the authority and influence of competing centers’ leadership, which can include the leaders’ influence over supernatural forces. We argue that equally important is the pilgrimage itself, which serves as a costly signal of the pilgrims’ commitment to the religious system and the beliefs and values associated with it; this in turn facilitates cooperation and other prosocial behaviors among pilgrims who otherwise might be strangers. To explore the utility of this approach to pilgrimage, we compare Chaco Canyon in the US Southwest and Cahuachi in the Nasca region of Peru, two prestate sociocultural settings in which pilgrimage was an important component in maintaining cooperation, group cohesion, and identity. While specific patterns are distinct in each society, we argue that pilgrimage had a significant impact in the development of both prosocial behavior and religious leadership in Chaco and Nasca.

Jerusalem in Medieval Islamic Tradition

AbstractThe history of Islamic thought about Jerusalem has been hindered by a lack of comprehensive historical sources on the city in what is traditionally thought of as the Classical period of Islam, from the 6th to the mid‐13th centuries. As a result, scholars have relied on geographical works and texts in a genre known as ‘Religious Merits’ or faḍā’ il, as well as apocalyptic and prophetic tradition (ḥadīth) for insight into the role and importance of the city for early medieval Muslims. Jerusalem’s major Islamic monuments, including the Dome of the Rock and the Aqṣā Mosque, were early Muslim buildings whose meaning changed significantly over the course of the medieval period. The incorporation of towns and cities outside Mecca and Medina into a sacred landscape encompassing broad regions such as al‐Shām/Greater Syria was partly the by‐product of the effulgence of the faḍā’ il genre, a feature of the High Middle Ages. Like Damascus, Kufa and Baghdad, among others, Jerusalem became one of a constellation of pilgrimage centers in broader conceptions of the Islamic world’s actual and sacred territory.

El complejo megalítico de Monte Baranta en Cerdeña: ¿centro de peregrinaje en la Edad del Bronce Antiguo?

The imposing megalithic complex located on the Monte Baranta plateau, near the town of Olmedo in North-west Sardinia is one of the best preserved monuments of the pre-nuragic period, and pertains to the cultural horizon called Monte Claro (2500-2200 BC circa). The complex is particularly interesting in the context of late-Neolithic architecture since it was abandoned already during the Monte Claro phase, and only sporadic frequentation is documented afterwards. The site is usually interpreted as a fortified stronghold but this interpretation has many drawbacks. As a consequence, we have subjected the site to a new survey with the specific aim of gaining a better understanding of its function. Our survey, based on classical topographic observations combined with GPS measurements has led to a new reading of the megalithic complex: topographical and archaeo-astronomical data indeed clearly point to a radically new interpretation of this site as a sacred place, probably a pilgrimage centre.

The Medieval Pilgrimage Business

Although medieval pilgrimage has been the subject of extensive historical research, the economic and financial dimension has been somewhat neglected. This paper is an attempt to provide a synthesis of published and unpublished work on pilgrimage, focusing on the business management and promotional aspects of pilgrimage shrines. From the literature reviewed, it is clear that many ‘modern’ business practices were being widely used by pilgrimage centers throughout Europe in the middle ages. Examples can be found of active brand management and promotional techniques adopted by shrines operating within a highly competitive market for pilgrimage services.

The Medieval Pilgrimage Business

Although medieval pilgrimage has been the subject of extensive historical research, the economic and financial dimension has been somewhat neglected. This paper is an attempt to provide a synthesis of published and unpublished work on pilgrimage, focusing on the business management and promotional aspects of pilgrimage shrines. From the literature reviewed, it is clear that many ‘modern’ business practices were being widely used by pilgrimage centers throughout Europe in the middle ages. Examples can be found of active brand management and promotional techniques adopted by shrines operating within a highly competitive market for pilgrimage services.

Lieux saints et politiques de l’identité : construire la « Mecque » et la « Jérusalem » bulgares

The paper studies the interrelationship between identity policies and the constructing of the two most significant cult complexes in the Rhodope Mountains – Enihan Baba’s tyurbe and Krustova Gora. The two holy places are located in a contact area of different ethno-confessional groups – Christian Bulgarians, Muslim Bulgarians, who are the major population in the researched area, and Turks. This borderline state favours the symbolic expression of different religious identities, and that is precisely what the two places under study are, being meaningfully called respectively “the Rhodopean Mecca” and “the Bulgarian Jerusalem”. Enihan Baba is the most revered saint of the Muslim Bulgarians. His tyurbe is situated on the 2,000-metre high Svoboda Peak. The visits to Enihan’s tyurbe and the organized kurbans are turning into a major form of religious expression of both the local Muslim Bulgarians and the ones who have migrated from the region. The second holy place (Krustova Gora) is a Christian pilgrim centre in a region inhabited by a Muslim population. In the 30s of the 20th c. the clairvoyant Yordan Stoychev identified Krustova Gora as the place where a fragment of the Holy Cross had been buried and initiated the “renewal” of the holy place with the placing of an iron cross at the peak. In the communist period, Krustova Gora functioned as a regional pilgrimage centre, and it was only after the political change in Bulgaria in 1989 that it became a national pilgrimage centre. The new architectural design of the two holy places at the beginning of the 21st c., which has consumed a lot of capital, demonstrates their being thought of as symbolic representations of religious belonging, on a national level as well. Their transformations in the 20th and the beginning of the 21st c. are closely connected with the ruling policies of the Bulgarian state to integrate the Muslim Bulgarians into the Bulgarian nation. The different strategies of the Muslim Bulgarians to adapt to the changing social environment leads to various tendencies in their identity (one part of the Bulgarian Muslims claim a Turkish identity, many choose the self-denomination “Pomaks”, still others consider themselves “Bulgarians”, giving a preference to their Bulgarian ethnic and language identity over the religious one).

Choquequirao, Topa Inca's Machu Picchu: a royal estate and ceremonial center

AbstractWe provide a history and description of the Inca archaeological complex of Choquequirao, located high on a narrow ridge above the Apurimac River in a remote region of the Vilcabamba of Peru. We suggest that Choquequirao was built as a royal estate during the late 15th century by the Inca ruler, Topa Inca Yupanki, modeled after Machu Picchu. It was built in part by workers imported from Cachapoyas in Northern Peru. The site has alignments with the June and December solstices suggesting a strong solar focus and year-round ceremonial activities. A large truncated hill served as a ceremonial platform or ushnu. The platform was accessed through a double-jamb entranceway, indicating that passage was probably limited to those of high status. We suspect Choquequirao functioned as a ceremonial center. It shares with Machu Picchu the remoteness, ‘other worldliness’, and liminality that are found in many pilgrimage centers of the world. Though Choquequirao, high above the Apurimac River, has a location that is equally as dramatic as Machu Picchu, it lacks the formable geological material required to create imperial-style monumental structures and shaped stone huacas. Choquequirao was occupied during the early colonial years by the Neo-Inca, and was abandoned sometime after the death of the last Inca in 1572. It is a fascinating puzzle that Spanish travelers of the time apparently never reached or described this major Inca complex, which was the most impressive in the Vilcabamba. Somehow, the Inca managed to keep it secret although relatives and others journeyed back and forth to colonial Cusco.

Nazareth in the War for Palestine: The Arab City that Survived the 1948 Nakba

Nazareth is the largest Palestinian Arab city inside Israel and one of the holiest Christian cities on earth. In the New Testament the town is described as the childhood home of Jesus and as such is a centre of Christian shrines and pilgrimage, with many shrines commemorating biblical events. Although according to the 1947 UN Partition plan the city was part of the Palestinian Arab state, it was conquered in 1948 by the Israeli army and annexed to the Israeli state. On 16 July, three days after the mass expulsion of the Palestinian cities of Lydda and Ramle by the Israeli army, Nazareth surrendered to Jewish forces and its inhabitants were allowed to remain in situ. In 1948 the Zionist attitude towards the Palestinian Christian communities in Galilee was generally less aggressive than the attitude towards the local Palestinian Muslims. This article addresses the question: how and why did Nazareth survive the 1948 Nakba and mass expulsion of Palestinians from the Galilee? While exploring this Christian dimension, the article focuses on the key roles played by the Muslim Mayor Yusuf al-Fahum, Israeli Prime Minister and Defence Minister Ben-Gurion and army commanders involved in deciding the fate of the city.

From vision to cult site

Visions of the Virgin Mary stand at the origin of many cult sites. At times they have led to impressive pilgrimage centres such as Lourdes in France, Fatima in Portugal, or Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but elsewhere they were remembered only in local chapels or by small groups of devotees. This raises the question as to what conditions are necessary for a vision to lead to a sacralisation of space. Historians and social scientists have usually focussed on the famous cult sites when researching the various processes that influenced the physicalization and development of a sacred site, while neglecting to pay attention to lesser known visions and sites. In this article the apparition of the Virgin Mary to Sister Marie Alphonsine in 1874-1875 in Bethlehem and Jerusalem will be analysed. Its effects will be compared to those of the visions in Lourdes, Fatima or Medjugorje, in order to understand better the conditions under which cult sites might flourish.

At the Other End of the Sun’s Path: A New Interpretation of Machu Picchu

The Inca citadel of Machu Picchu is usually interpreted as a “royal estate” of the Inca ruler Pachacuti. This idea is challenged here by a critical reappraisal of existing sources and a re-analysis of existing evidence. It is shown that such evidence actually point at a quite different interpretation suggested, on one hand, by several clues coming from the urban layout (the interior arrangement of the town, the ancient access ways, the position with respect to the landscape and the cycles of the celestial bodies in Inca times), and, on the other hand, by a comparison with known information about the Inca pilgrimage center on the Island of the Sun of Lake Titicaca. Altogether, these clues lead us to propose that Machu Picchu was intentionally planned and built as a pilgrimage center connected with the Inca “cosmovision”.

Jasnogórskie piśmiennictwo dewocyjne w XVII-XVIII wieku. Recepcja modlitewnika Ksawerego Augustyna Rottera Ucieczka grzeszników albo nabożny zasmuconych rekurs do dzielney cudami Częstochowskiey Matki

Jasna Góra devotional writings are inextricably linked with Jasna Góra Monastery as a the center of pilgrimage and the cult of the miraculous picture of Our Lady of Częstochowa. As early as the seventeenth century Jasna Góra had formed, besides its religious and pastoral significance, a thriving center for impressive written culture influencing the population through devotional utilitarian literature produced in the monastery. The very nature of these books was dictated primarily by particular needs of Jasna Góra as a hub for pilgrimage. Jasna Góra drew crowds of pilgrims, venerating the painting of Our Lady, not only from the territories of the Polish Commonwealth but also from Silesia, Moravia and Hungary. The Pauline Fathers (of the Order of St. Paul the First Hermit) were very much involved in this mass pilgrimage movement. They reached for and appealed to pilgrims through printed word in the form of prayer books that also propagated literary images of saints. The life of Jasna Góra as a holy place, the biggest pilgrimage center in Poland, was reflected in the writings produced here in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries.

Qui est mon prochain? La construction du lien social dans les activités des Hospitalités de Lourdes

This article examines two important aspects of the hospital movement which assisted the pilgrimages of the sick at Lourdes, the Hospitalités of Notre-Dame du Salut at Lourdes, and the diocesan Hospitalités. It looks at their rôle in the reorganisation of diocesan communities, and in the creation of an image of the church of France as a union of its dioceses with the universal church; it also examines their search for a solution to an ethical problem, namely that of dealing with the lives of other people and the meaning of the concept of being ‘available’. What was their response to this problem, which derived from their situation of being a centre of pilgrimage where unknown people meet each other and where these unknown people have to find the appropriate relations for dealing with other people with whom they had hitherto no relations. This process is an interesting problem for study in a contemporary ethical perspective, in which there is much talk of the loss of natural bonds between people.

The sanctuary of Shaykh ʿAdī at Lalish: Centre of pilgrimage of the Yezidis

AbstractThe sanctuary of Shaykh ʿAdī, the only monumental complex of the Yezidis, lies at Lalish, 35 kilometres north of Mosul, in Iraqi Kurdistan. It is dedicated to its founder, Shaykh ʿAdī (d. 1162). Although it has been suggested that it was converted from a Christian monastery, Arabic sources and architectural analysis indicate that it may originally have been thezāwiyawhere Shaykh ʿAdī and his disciples retired to meditate. After his death, the sanctuary grew up around his tomb and became a centre of pilgrimage. It is a large complex containing buildings of different sizes and functions. It was not conceived as a centrally planned structure and its different parts were added progressively as and when circumstances dictated. The dominant architectural style is derived from that which characterizes the twelfth–thirteenth-century Shiite buildings of Mosul, and was continued by the Yezidis until the present day.

Demography of Calamus brandisii Becc. Ex Becc. & Hook.f., an endangered rattan species at Agasthyamalai and its conservation

Calamus brandisii Becc. ex Becc. & Hook. f. is an endangered Rattan species of the Agasthyamalai region in Kerala. This species is extracted in large scale for the furniture as well as the handicraft industries and the population is decreasing very rapidly. Hence conservation strategies and management practices should be developed to protect this species and for its sustainable use. Demographic studies were carried out to find out which life stage of the population is adversely affected. Results show that there is an annual decrease of 61 per cent in the population. Sensitivity and elasticity analyses reveal that sub adult stage is more important in the conservation point of view. The adult survival rate is very low. The number of flowering plants and the number of fruits produced by each plant are very low which affects the seedling generation. The germination percentage of seeds under natural condition also is very low. Seedlings contribute only 4.65 per cent of the population. Since Agasthyamalai is a famous pilgrimage center, human interference also may be a major factor acting adversely in the population. Hence, in the conservation strategies for this species importance should be given to seedlings, sub adult and adult plants. It is better to collect the fruits at maturity, germinate and transplant them in a protected area since natural regeneration is scanty. In situ and ex situ conservations are equally important for this endangered species.

Mesurer le rayonnement d’un centre de pèlerinage : l’exemple de Notre-Dame de Trsat en Croatie habsbourgeoise (1650-1750)

In the modern era, the Dinaric Alps are marked by a strong attachment to Catholicism. In this bilingual region where Hapsburg Croatia meets the Italian-speaking insular Venetian possessions of the Adriatic, Trsat stands out as a centre of pilgrimage whose importance remains to be measured.Areading of the religious fact is suggested by the collections of miracles published by the clergy. Apart from their conventional form, the testimonies attest to certain types of behaviour on the part of the faithful. The protective and propitiatory virtues of the Marian cult respond to the expectations of a population living in a society on the organised military frontier facing the Ottoman Empire. But in the pre-Enlightenment period, the privileged forms of devotion reveal the evolution of a sensitivity inspired by the post-Tridentine Church. In the framework of Baroque solemnities, the missionary work prepared for the accomplishment of conversion.

Nitra – centrum mariánskeho pútnického turizmu

Nitra – centrum mariánskeho pútnického turizmu

The De-territorialization of Ritual Spheres in Contemporary Taiwan

This article considers the transformations over time of ritual networks centered on the town of Beigang, Taiwan in dialogue with earlier treatments of ritual and social organization. The case of this pilgrimage center supports observations on contemporary Taiwanese ritual and belief spheres, but it also complicates the understanding that contemporary trans-local political and economic processes have strengthened pan-island belief spheres at the expense of local communal ritual organization. Ritual networks in contemporary Taiwan are increasingly de-territorialized, but in Beigang they remain linked to locality, even as worshippers and natives become de-territorialized as individuals in their relationship to Beigang Mazu. Thus, I argue, if a trans-local cult is strong enough, the deity's perceived powers serves to bolster the local ritual community, as well as to bring outsiders into the fold and keep sojourners linked to it.