Pilgrimage Experience Research Articles

Spiritual values and motives of secular pilgrims

AbstractThis study presents and tests an empirical model of the antecedents and outcomes associated with secular pilgrimage from a consumer perspective. Informed by the literature on spiritual journeys, religious and secular pilgrimage, consumer literature on personal values, emotions, customer satisfaction and recommendation behaviour, the study proposes that personal values of pilgrims positively affect their motives to partake in the spiritual journey of a secular pilgrimage. Pilgrimage motives positively affect pilgrim satisfaction directly, as well as indirectly through emotions associated with the spiritual pilgrimage experience. Pilgrim satisfaction is also positively affected by attributes of the pilgrimage site and results in an intention to recommend to family, friends and others. The model was tested on a paired sample of visitors attending the pilgrimage site of Gallipoli in Turkey for the annual commemoration of the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac) Day. The study results show statistical support for all hypothesized relationships in the theoretical model. Findings of this study contribute an improved understanding of the role of consumer values, motivations and emotions to undertake spiritual journeys to pilgrimage sites and their satisfaction with the spiritual experience of a secular pilgrimage and the resultant recommending behaviour.

Pilgrimage, consumption and rituals: Spiritual authenticity in a Shia Muslim pilgrimage

A critical dimension of pilgrimage is arguably pilgrims' experience, in particular the authenticity of their experience. The aim of the study is to understand how authenticity is evoked in a religious pilgrimage and the relationship between authenticity, rituals and consumption. The research contributes ethnographic insights from a lesser known, yet significant, Muslim pilgrimage called Ziyara-t-Arba'een. In so doing, pilgrimages are conceptualised as a quest for spiritual authenticity, a hybrid form of existential, ideological and objective authenticity. The findings section leads to a discussion of the ways in which spiritual authenticity is realised through rituals and the consumption of texts, material objects and space. The contribution of this paper is threefold: 1) it explores the different dimensions of authenticity in a pilgrimage experience; 2) it examines the role of material culture and ritual consumption in achieving forms of authenticity; and 3) it broadens the understanding of the pilgrimage as a context-bound and culturally specific phenomenon.

Replication or rivalry? The ‘Becketization’ of pilgrimage in English Cathedrals

ABSTRACTIn 1170 the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in his own Cathedral sent shockwaves through Europe, yet few could have foreseen the spectacular expansion of his cult throughout Christendom in the following decade. While many of the individual structural and performative aspects of his hagiolatry were hardly new, the ‘Becket model’ was to shape the nature of cult within and beyond English cathedrals for the remainder of the Middle Ages. Following the initial burst of pilgrim activity, the monks of Canterbury carefully curated the shape of, and access to, the cult within the Cathedral in order to confirm their role as sole custodians and to promote their political influence. This article provides new readings of the use of sacred space in the cathedrals of Canterbury, Durham, and York, and foregrounds the significance of Becket’s cult in understandings of both medieval and modern constructions of the English pilgrimage experience.

Holy selfies: Performing pilgrimage in the age of social media

In this article, we examine the selfie-taking and sharing practices of Muslim pilgrims in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. We introduce the concept of the “holy selfie” (a selfie taken during either theHajj or the Umrah pilgrimages) and report on a visual content analysis of a sample of 100 holy selfies publicly available on social networking platforms. We seek to reach an understanding of the work that holy selfies do in the context of the expressions of spiritual and religious identity of those producing them. Our findings suggest that the embodied experience of pilgrims at the holy sites finds an expressive release through holy selfies, with many pilgrims viewing selfie-taking as an important part of their journey. The selfies (and associated features) capture and document pilgrims’ experiences, contribute to their meaning-making, enable the sharing of memories with loved ones, and attract online followers. Our study provides a picture of how holy selfies blur the gender line (as many males as females take them), emerge despite the opposition of Saudi authorities, and serve as a means of engaging with a multiplicity of audiences. We seek to start a conceptual and methodological conversation about this emerging phenomenon of identity construction involving the use of new media along with the construction of affiliative identities among geographically dispersed communities of Muslim pilgrims. The taking of holy selfies can thus be read as a tactic used by 21st-century Muslims to create opportunities for self-representation and community building in a context of increasing Islamophobia.

Encounters with the Levant: the late medieval illustrated Jerusalem Travelogue by Paul Walter von Guglingen

The late medieval illustrated Jerusalem travelogue by the Franciscan friar Paul Walther von Guglingen has heretofore received scant scholarly attention, perhaps owing to the unusual nature of some of its images. Guglingen charts decidedly Islamic spaces with his maps and plan, instead of the conventional sacred shrines of Christianity; these topographical features are interlaced with personal travelling experiences. Illustrations of flora and fauna encountered along the way are the result of careful observation, and meticulous recording. The author experiments with forms to visually represent his own lived experience. In all cases, text and image are closely intertwined and testify that non-religious aspects form a legitimate aspect of this pilgrimage account. Consideration of the illustrations in Guglingen’s Itinerarium, alongside, for example, those in the travelogue of his famous travel companion Bernhard von Breydenbach, allows us to illuminate more facets of the late medieval pilgrimage experience.

Does Suffering Lack Meaning? A Contemporary Christian Response

AbstractAnthropology's approach to answering the question of the role of suffering in our lives is limited to empirical data and at best describes an individual's capability to endure it and make sense of it. Levinas was at odds to find meaning in suffering once it had exceeded certain proportions. Various cultures demonstrate greater and lesser capacities for integrating corporate suffering when it has crossed a significant threshold (e.g. Israeli Holocaust survivors, Canadian‐Cambodian Khmer Rouge survivors, and their descendants). What is the role of ritual and productive suffering in revealing meaning in suffering? Some examples are drawn from the experiences of pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago de Compostella. Drawing from Dr. Eleonore Stump's exploration of second‐person narratives and relationships, a Christian philosophical‐theological response is provided.

The “indignant” pilgrim: Cultural narratives of crisis and renewal in the 15M movement in Spain

ABSTRACTOn Saturday July 23, 2011, Guillermo, a young student from Lleida (Catalonia, Spain), who had been camping out since the beginning of the 15M movement, arrived in Madrid after walking over 450 kilometers, in one of the six columns that had crossed the Iberian Peninsula during the previous weeks. The “Popular Indignant March” had been conceived as an original way of rounding off the occupations of hundreds of squares throughout Spain, their objective being Puerta del Sol in Madrid, the first square to be occupied. On the way, which was from the urban periphery toward the center, passing by the rural Spanish plateau, the population's claims and complaints were to be gathered and taken to the agora of the participatory democracy. The experience of having groups of people walking from different origins with a common destination evokes the classical anthropological experience of the religious pilgrimage. Spain's best example is the Camino de Santiago, which has attracted thousands of pilgrims from all over Europe since the Middle Ages. When we ask Guillermo about this parallelism, he denies any spiritual content, although his account of Camino de Sol is like the fulfillment of a civic promise, the ritualization of a festive and revindicative appropriation of the territory, the colonization of a terra incognita that they had taken over two months before, on 15M, when the hashtag #spanishrevolution became a trending topic within the social networks. The article relates this experience to the narratives of the 15M movement and to the situation of young people in Spain in times of crisis.

The sacred and the profane: Identifying pilgrim traveler value orientations using means-end theory

This study explores the values exhibited by travelers along the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in Spain. Drawing upon data that were collected en route, pilgrim value systems are identified and explored using the hard laddering method and applying means-end chain (MEC) theory. The researchers examine the hierarchical relationship between pilgrimage attributes, the benefits that pilgrims subsequently acquire and the fulfillment of personal values as ends. The strongest associations are found between attributes, consequences, and values with social bonds that are acquired by socializing with peer pilgrims, followed by the search for happiness through an appreciation of natural beauty and the pursuit of contemplation during the pilgrimage walk. These findings provide novel insights into the profane and sacred dimensions of the pilgrimage experience.

Canterbury Cathedral: Pilgrims and cathedrals as places of pilgrimage

The word ‘pilgrimage’ is frequently pressed into service in cathedral circles, and is used to carry a considerable freight of meaning. This article examines pilgrimage in this context with special reference to Canterbury Cathedral with its long and on-going experience of pilgrimage.

Exploring the Relationship between Emotions, Language and Space: Construals of Awe in Medieval English Language and Pilgrimage Experience

It is widely accepted that our existence, our experience of well-being and even the way we see the world around us are radically conditioned by the emotions that we feel and the way in which we exp...

Winter Wandering on Snow Shoes

The purpose of this article is to show the changes of understanding in participants’ mind maps, following the winter Outward Bound course in the Czech Republic. The two-week program includes walking on snow shoes in winter for 10 kilometers—more than 6 miles—every day, bivouacking in the open before sunset, collecting firewood, making preparations for food and sleep: all, of course, profane activities. Participants’ mind maps, however, show radical changes in their understanding of the Course (and probably changes in their understanding of life). Transcendence (a sign of spirituality) is made visible in some mind-maps. Such experience manifests some kind of pilgrimage experience, without of course a religious framework. Such a journey should therefore be classified as spiritual. Spirituality, which can be perceived not only as an aspect of religiosity, but as an individual’s way of existence, could be perceived as the central concept for such travelling. Authenticity and spirituality are basic terms for the right understanding of particular travellers’ modes of experience.

Faxian’s Biography and His Contributions to Asian Buddhist Culture: Latest Textual Analysis

<p class="1Body">To provide more updated and accurate information on Faxian, an eminent monk of ancient China’s Jin Dynasty (266–421 CE), the present study conducts a literature survey to analyze his native region. It is found that Faxian was actually born in modern Linfen City in Shanxi Province, not Xiangyuan County as previously described. In his childhood, he became a novice monk and was compassionate toward the poor. To search out and collect Buddhist scriptures, Faxian undertook a westward pilgrimage to India from 399 to 412 CE. During this hard and dangerous pilgrimage, Faxian burst into tears three times. Finally, he succeeded in bringing a trove of Buddhist scriptures back to China from India. For the rest of his life, along with Buddhabhadra, he was engaged in translating Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. These translated scriptures were highly beneficial for Chinese Buddhism, especially the precepts (sila-vinaya) and Mahāyāna works. Faxian himself is demonstrated to have been a Mahāyāna Buddhist follower. His pilgrimage experience was recorded in his work “Record of Buddhist Kingdoms”, which provides important information about ancient Asian kingdoms. Faxian’s story promoted Asian tourism relevant to Buddhist culture. As a pioneer in the 4<sup>th</sup> century, Faxian started a new era of westbound pilgrimage to ancient India, including the similar pilgrimages of Xuanzang and Yijing in the 7<sup>th</sup> century. Even today, Faxian continues to strengthen friendship among Asian countries.</p>

Pilgrimage Experience and Consumption of Travel to the City of Makkah for Hajj Ritual

In modern society which, by definition is increasingly secular and culturally motivated, the Hajj is considered the culmination of each Muslim's religious duty and aspiration. It is stated in the Holy Qur'an, that every physically and financially able Muslim should make the Hajj to the Holy City of Makkah once in his or her lifetime. This paper explores what people do during their pilgrimage, providing a brief description of the principle rites and experiences and their meaning to an individual participants travelling from the USA. The paper will draw upon previously published literature as well as an analysis of findings from a quantitative study in which steps within the pilgrimage process were explored. These findings include participants’ descriptions of the significance and value of the experience which individual pilgrims face during travel to the holy city of Makkah. The results from the quantitative study indicated that the main motivations to attend the annual pilgrimage of Hajj were to fulfil religious obligation, spiritual enhancement and to follow teachings of the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad

Walking the Spiritual Ways – West of Ireland experience of modern pilgrimage

Walking the Spiritual Ways – West of Ireland experience of modern pilgrimage

‘He is among us, get it into your head, he is alive and always here’: saintly presence at the pilgrimage centre of Padre Pio and the importance of ‘being there’

The paper will focus upon the issue of saintly presence and the ways in which this is felt, experienced and enacted at the pilgrimage centre of Padre Pio. This issue will be examined in relation to the material and spatial structures of the pilgrimage centre and in particular the Sanctuary of Santa Maria delle Grazie, at the crypt of which the tomb of Padre Pio was until recently emplaced. In examining the issue of saintly presence in relation to the sanctuary's materiality, the paper will also explore the relationship of two of the dimensions Eade and Sallnow ([1991] 2000, ‘Introduction’, in Contesting the Sacred: The Anthropology of Christian Pilgrimage., 2nd ed., edited by John Eade and Michael J. Sallnow, 1–29, Urbana: University of Illinois) propose for the examination of pilgrimage, namely person and place. Drawing on ethnographic data gathered during fieldwork (2004–2005), it will argue that the feeling of saintly presence is mainly generated by the knowledge people have of Padre Pio having lived and being buried there. This knowledge shapes their pilgrimage experience.

England and Rome in the Early Middle Ages: Pilgrimage, Art, and Politics ed. by Francesca Tinti (review)

Reviewed by: England and Rome in the Early Middle Ages: Pilgrimage, Art, and Politics ed. by Francesca Tinti Greg Waite Tinti, Francesca, ed., England and Rome in the Early Middle Ages: Pilgrimage, Art, and Politics (Studies in the Early Middle Ages, 40), Turnhout, Brepols, 2014; hardback; pp. x, 381; 7 b/w illustrations, 2 maps, 3 tables; R.R.P. €90.00; ISBN 9782503541693. All roads lead to Rome, and indeed Nicholas Howe, in his Writing the Map of Anglo-Saxon England (Yale University Press, 2008), argued for Rome as ‘capital of Anglo-Saxon England’. The connections between Rome and England have long been the subject of research, but, as this book demonstrates, the field is ripe for ongoing investigation, both to incorporate new archaeological findings and to revisit and refine our readings of the documentary evidence. Francesca Tinti’s Introduction provides a brief survey of work in the field since Wilhelm Levison’s England and the Continent in the Eighth Century (Clarendon Press, 1946). As Tinti concludes from her summation of the eleven chapters that follow, Rome was a site of authority and pilgrimage for the Anglo-Saxons from the time of the Conversion through to the eleventh century, and the number of visitors who came from England was sustained and substantial. Some essays overlap and usefully interlock, but the breadth of topics and disciplinary approaches is impressive, and the essays strike a very good balance between providing a historical and bibliographical survey of their topics along with presentation of new research findings, and suggestions for further lines of enquiry. David Pelteret opens with a study of the various routes to Rome. Heading his chapter ‘Not All Roads Lead to Rome’, he explores the points beyond those to which Anglo-Saxons sometimes travelled, particularly Gargano on the Adriatic coast. This pilgrimage site is further considered in the essay by Lucia Sinisi, who examines the cult of the Archangel Michael originating there, which spread to England. The next two essays focus on the experiences of pilgrims to Rome. Riccardo Santangeli Valenzani examines the xenodochia or hostels for visitors, the rise of the scholae peregrinorum, and in particular the famous schola Saxonum, under papal strategies to strengthen ties with the populations of northern Europe. Alan Thacker discusses the monuments and cult sites of Rome, both intramural and extramural, and the role of the papacy in the process of renovation and provision of access for pilgrims in the seventh century, as well as the influx of elite English pilgrims in the latter half of the century. Luisa Izzi focuses on the visits of the English to the catacombs, the evidence they left behind in the forms of inscriptions and graffiti, and the influences on art, architecture, and liturgy they carried back to England. Veronica Ortenberg West-Harling looks at two of the most influential sites that the English visited, and from which they took back artistic and liturgical innovations: the chapel of John VII in the Vatican basilica, and the chapel of St Laurence in the Lateran palace. The former was perhaps the site most likely [End Page 278] to have inspired English iconographical traditions such, as the robed Christ of the crucifixion. Rory Naismith provides an important catalogue and analysis of Anglo-Saxon coin finds in Rome, along with an examination of the influence of Roman coinage in England, particularly the archiepiscopal coinage of Canterbury, beginning with a silver penny of Wulfred from the early ninth century. The political dimension of the book comes to the fore in the next two essays. Marios Costambeys provides a finely nuanced essay on the uneasiness of Alcuin and other advisors to Charlemagne over the reign and policies of Pope Leo III, the question of authority in Rome, and in particular the causa sancti Pauli, the project to renovate or build a Frankish monastery adjacent to the papal basilica of St Paul. Thomas Noble examines the rise and fall of the archbishopric of Lichfield, established informally the year after the 786 papal mission to England instigated by Hadrian, and though legitimated in due course, suppressed by Leo III in 802. Tinti herself writes on the archiepiscopal pallium, and the complex ideological and political circumstances of...

Sacrilisation of secular pilgrimages as archetypal transformational journeys: advancing theory through emic and etic interpretations

This paper advances pilgrimage tourism theory, particularly religious/secular and sacred/profane dimensions. Documenting the case of the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, this study examines relationships to Jungian archetypal journeys. Case analysis of the Pilgrimage employs emic and etic interpretation. Results suggest that the experience has sacred dimensions when pilgrimage activities align with participants’ core values. The study identifies spiritual dimensions of secular pilgrimage as expressions of an archetypal journey, and points to opportunities to communicate the pilgrimage experience’s authenticity, virtually, through digital communications. A further contribution is demonstrating the usefulness of emic and etic interpretations in identifying motivations to participate in secular pilgrimage.

Volunteers: Their Role in the Management of the Visitor and Pilgrimage Experience

Volunteers: Their Role in the Management of the Visitor and Pilgrimage Experience

Friedlicher Kreuzzug und fromme Pilger: Liturgiehistorische Studien zur Heilig-Land-Wallfahrt im Spiegel deutschsprachiger Pilgerberichte des späten 19. Jahrhunderts by Stefan Böntert (review)

Reviewed by: Friedlicher Kreuzzug und fromme Pilger: Liturgiehistorische Studien zur Heilig-Land-Wallfahrt im Spiegel deutschsprachiger Pilgerberichte des späten 19. Jahrhunderts by Stefan Böntert Martin Menke Friedlicher Kreuzzug und fromme Pilger: Liturgiehistorische Studien zur Heilig-Land-Wallfahrt im Spiegel deutschsprachiger Pilgerberichte des späten 19. Jahrhunderts. By Stefan Böntert. [Institute for Liturgical and Ritual Studies: Liturgia Condenda, 27.] (Leuven: Peeters. 2013. Pp. xx, 514. €60,00 paperback. ISBN 978-90-429-2666-0.) Friedlicher Kreuzzug und fromme Pilger is the published version of Stefan Böntert’s Habilitationsschrift, accepted in 2009 by the Department of Liturgical Studies in the School of Catholic Theology of Erfurt University. Böntert investigates the revived interest in German pilgrimages to the Holy Land in the second half of the nineteenth century. He describes the shift from an age in which pilgrims largely traveled individually or in small groups to one in which groups of pilgrims traveled together under the leadership of a priest or group of priests. As Böntert shows, this resulted in significant changes in travel patterns and liturgical practices. As the Church sought to counter the threats of a rapidly industrializing German society, pilgrimages became a means of drawing the faithful closer to their priests and to the Church’s necessary role in achieving salvation. The laity, however, embraced parts of the new liturgical framework but also retained individual ritual and customary [End Page 622] gestures and often considered the formal liturgical events less important in the pilgrim’s encounter with the sites of Christ’s life. As in most German academic qualifying works, the theoretical-methodological discussion takes up a good share of the work—in this case, about a quarter. Böntert argues that, in recent times, the definition of liturgy has expanded beyond the Mass. In the body of the work, he describes the expansion of liturgical practices such as processions, Eucharistic benediction, and common prayer of the rosary, as within the scope of what constitutes liturgy. In addition to liturgical events, the nineteenth-century laity often engaged in forms of prayer and worship based on custom. Böntert uses memorial books, private letters, and diaries as the primary evidence for his study. He shows that individual pilgrims traveled to the Holy Land by way of Rome, Athens, or Alexandria. More important, before passing through the gates of Jerusalem, they would stop and pray to prepare themselves for what they were about to experience. Within the city, they immediately headed for the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, even before reaching their lodgings. As railroads and steamships made it easier to travel, the practice of pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which had largely ceased after the Ottoman conquest, resumed and expanded. In contrast to the individual pilgrims, the pilgrims traveling in groups assembled for a formal procession from the train station to their lodgings and only then to the holy sites. Although it might be unfair to criticize this study for what it is not, a greater engagement of the historical context would have been most welcome. Although Böntert mentions increased numbers of pilgrimages from other European countries, comparisons between Catholic pilgrimages from different countries might have been illuminating. Also, Böntert’s discussion of Catholic-Protestant differences in action and mentality could have explored further the role of pilgrimages in the Kulturkampf raging in Germany. Finally, Böntert teases the reader with brief discussions of the largely poor relations between pilgrims and the Holy Land’s Muslims and Jews. These discussions themselves merit a monograph of their own. This work, in fact, bears within it suggestions for many more detailed studies based on a broader range of sources—for example, to analyze the cultural engagement of pilgrims with each other and with pilgrims whose Catholicism was marked by different regional and national cultural practices, as well as to examine for the first time the experience of pilgrims as a minority. Most important, Böntert has shown the need for further study on the ways in which the laity’s acceptance of the importance of the clergy in providing liturgical leadership stood in tension with the laity’s independence in determining which liturgical practices to...

Pilgrimage, devotional practices and the consumption of sacred places in ancient Egypt and contemporary Syria

Pilgrimages are often messy affairs, not only leaving all sorts of material detritus behind, but also in many cases severely damaging or even destroying the sites that are visited as part of journeys to a sacred place. As such, this immensely popular religious tradition constitutes a social practice that is deeply tied to the landscapes and places that are considered to be holy and thus principally worthy of preservation (at least by many definitions of heritage), but which also in many cases ultimately consumes them over time, sometimes in very direct ways that immediately affect their physical state. This paper explores the contemporary and historical dimensions of this paradox, and considers the wider implications of seemingly destructive uses of sacred space by investigating the social and religious significance of so-called ‘pilgrims’ gouges’ observable at numerous pilgrimage sites in the Eastern Mediterranean. It, thereby, sheds light on the connections between the religious experience of pilgrimage and the material consumption of sacred places by juxtaposing cases from contemporary Islamic Syria and ancient Egypt, providing a long-term perspective on the use and consumption of sacred places. Lastly, it discusses the potential ramifications of the gouges for current approaches to heritage management and conservation.