Pilgrimage is a journey of personal discovery
HERE’S another Easter passing by and I still haven’t fulfilled an ambition to walk the Camino pilgrimage, those 780km across Spain to Santiago de Compostela.
This year, I’m blaming it on the restrictions imposed by Covid, rather than admit that the notion of setting off on such an April trek is probably beyond my capability.
Yet, it’s fascinating that in an increasingly secular world, the challenge of a pilgrimage is not only still practiced, but — until the wretched virus intervened — had been growing steadily.
Perhaps because pilgrimage is about going on a journey, both inside and outside of yourself. It can be about spirituality — 43% of pilgrims who walk the Camino have a faith motive, according to Peter Stanford’s new book Pilgrimage, but that means 57% do not.
A pilgrimage can be about “intersecting” with the companionship of others. It can be “walking with a purpose”.
It can be exploring history — the idea that people have been doing this for a thousand years lends pilgrimage a meaningful sense of heritage.
It can be seeking healing, either for an illness, or disability, or for recovering from some great loss — the actor Martin Sheen walked the Camino after the death of his adult son and the film he made about the Camino, The Way, in 2010, greatly boosted knowledge and interest in Compostela.
(In the late 1970s, only a handful of pilgrims embarked on the walk; by 2018, numbers had reached a record 325,378.)
The Camino has its own logo —thecockleshellofstjames— found, even from ancient times, along the pilgrims’ pathway.
There are pilgrimages everywhere. Rome — always among the top 10 of world pilgrim sites — would normally be welcoming millions right now.
Some still walk there, like Brian Mooney, who, in 2010 and aged 60, walked from St Paul’s Cathedral in London — via the pathways of France and Italy — to get to Rome in 76 days. York, amazingly, attracts a quarter of a million pilgrims a year, even if not many walk to it.
Britain has a surprising 600 sites of ancient pilgrimage, including a very successful North Wales Pilgrims Way, marking coastal monasteries of Celtic Christianity.
Internationally, Jerusalem, Mecca, the Buddha trail in India and Kumbh Mela, also in India, attract many millions.
Pilgrimage and tourism have been closely intertwined, a point which has been evident ever since Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, in which the joys of travel weren’t restricted to the sacred. I see nothing wrong with the marketisation of pilgrimage sites — trade can help to enhance and embellish the experience.
One of the most stunning journeys — a mini-pilgrimage — I ever made was to Mont St Michel in Brittany. It is absolutely transcendental when you reach the top, where Mass is celebrated in the chapel: yet the pathway was full of little shops and boutiques selling souvenirs both sacred and secular, which I thought cheerful.
Pilgrimage is such a universal experience — and popular aspiration — that I feel sure it will return once the tourist industry gets back to some kind of normal.
Ireland is studded with sites for pilgrimage, so many of which echo back to the great monastic period, when the Irish monks laid the basis of European civilisation.
More could be made of the heritage value of pilgrim locations, like Clonmacnoise in Co Offaly, founded by St Ciaran in 544, or Clonfert in Co Galway, where the Church of Ireland cathedral dates from 1180, but the monastic traditions go back to St Brendan in the 6th century.
Before lockdown halted activity, there was a steady stream of pilgrims to Clonfert, says Bryn Coldrick, a heritage consultant in Co Offaly.
The nearby Catholic church has a 14th-century statue, “Our Lady of Clonfert”, which every May was attracting many hundreds of pilgrims. Those coming on a pilgrim visit would also be drawn to the rich deposit of history and archaeology in the area all around.
Knock, Lough Derg and Croagh Patrick have traditionally attracted pilgrims focused on a religious experience, but holy places have increasingly seen visitors with a broader agenda.
According to Peter Stanford, Lourdes has been experiencing an increase in visitors who are not necessarily Catholic, but are drawn to the mystique.
Lourdes, in recent years, had also been attracting more visitors from Asia.
It should be mentioned that Aer Lingus was a true pioneer in enabling pilgrimages to Lourdes, having been the first airline to establish special flights back in 1954, with its inaugural aircraft, the St Colmcille (the price was £29 and eight shillings return — at a time when a good wage would be a fiver a week).
It became a terrifically successful route and, by 1972, the Irish airline was Lourdes’ best customer — flying in some 50,000 people a year. Aer Lingus was also the first airline to make specialprovisionforthesick and disabled.
Pilgrimage is about “stepping outside the ordinary” and the experience of the sacred, but it can also be a boost for trade, for development and for the appreciation of history and culture.
Next year in Jerusalem, maybe?
‘Lourdes has been getting more visitors from Asia’