Christian Pilgrimage
Take a look at some historical facts about Christian pilgrimage and how it all begun!
The Latin work for pilgrim, "peregrinus", had the current meaning of traveler to the holy lands, for devotional purposes. This has started from the Old and New Testament and especially from the Letter to Diognet (2nd century) according to which the Christian believer belongs to his celestial homeland.
As far as practicing pilgrimage before the arrival of Christ, we know that ancient Egyptians used to practice it in large groups, for example, going to the place called Bubasti, if we are to take into account what Herodot has to say about this. From ancient times up to these days, Indians used to travel to the sacred river Ganges, while the Japanese had among their favorite pilgrimage places Amaterasu’s temple. In the classical pagan world, pilgrimage had not only a devotional purpose but also objectives such as accomplishing pre-established aims like: obtaining answers from oracles or miraculous healings. In Greece, heroes’ temples and tombs were the most frequent pilgrimage targets. During the Roman period, pilgrims went for sanctuaries belonging to deities such as Zeus and Diana.
As far as the primary Christian pilgrimage is concerned, as compared to other cultural and devotional forms, it is founded initially on the Hebrew and Biblical traditions and is enriched later on with some more motivations, developing according to the necessities, being highly related to the Christian specificity and to the way in which this typicality has been implanted within various social realities. Consequently, there are many diverse motifs to be found within the act of pilgrimage. These motifs may be either of spiritual, cultural, social or psychological nature and they can help maintain this long-lasting phenomenon, in a constant revolution and to the degree of interpreting needs and the inner impulse of those who practice pilgrimage. Rooted in the Old and New Testaments, the merely visiting Jerusalem and other holy places, done both by Jews and Christians, represents the cultural and historical fundament of the Christian pilgrimage which, as it is generally known, basically had as first developing zone the oriental zones, especially Jerusalem.
A crucial moment in the history of Christian pilgrimage undoubtedly is the edict in Milan (313), by which Christian worship freedom is recognized and which changed the Church’s status in the epoch’s society. After having been called "augusta" and after building Constantinople, Saint Helen mother of Emperor Constantine has started her journey to the holy lands between the months January-March 326. In her desire to see the places mentioned by the New Testament, she discovered that on Mount Golgotha, underneath the ruins of the Capitolium built by Emperor Adrian and destroyed by Constantine after his victory over Licinius, there was our Savior’s Cross. Indeed, the diggings revealed the fact that there actually lay the Messiah’s cross.
Emperor Constantine has ordered the building of a new church, which shall be later on Martyrdom’s Church. While working in those areas, in the western part there was found also our Savior’s tomb where later on there would be raised Resurrection Church (Anastasia). Emperor Constantine has continued building up new edifices for Christians, apart from those previously mentioned, which represent a single complex: a church on the Mount of Olive-trees, one in Bethlehem, above the place where Christ was born, and a few years later, another church was raised at the Mamvri oak-tree, the place where Abraham received the visit of the three God sent messengers.
According to an expert called Giorgio Otranto, the birth and the diffusion of Christian pilgrimage is primarily due to the change in the historical conditions rather than a new mentality. He argues that changing one’s mentality requires a longer period of time to assimilate a determined conception, while Christian pilgrimage develops immediately after the peace obtained by the Church, as a response to the necessity fed by Biblical readings to visit the places where Jesus Christ lived and performed his saving actions.
In his writing entitled Demonstratio evangelica, composed between 314 and 320, Eusebius stated with enthusiasm that all the Christians came to Christ from all parts of the world, to the Holy City, not only to admire the beauty of the Temple and to take part in the religious services, but also to pray on the Mount of Olives, where Christ often stopped and prayed and from where, according to Acts (chapter in the New Testament), Christ has also ascended to heaven.
As far as practicing pilgrimage before the arrival of Christ, we know that ancient Egyptians used to practice it in large groups, for example, going to the place called Bubasti, if we are to take into account what Herodot has to say about this. From ancient times up to these days, Indians used to travel to the sacred river Ganges, while the Japanese had among their favorite pilgrimage places Amaterasu’s temple. In the classical pagan world, pilgrimage had not only a devotional purpose but also objectives such as accomplishing pre-established aims like: obtaining answers from oracles or miraculous healings. In Greece, heroes’ temples and tombs were the most frequent pilgrimage targets. During the Roman period, pilgrims went for sanctuaries belonging to deities such as Zeus and Diana.
As far as the primary Christian pilgrimage is concerned, as compared to other cultural and devotional forms, it is founded initially on the Hebrew and Biblical traditions and is enriched later on with some more motivations, developing according to the necessities, being highly related to the Christian specificity and to the way in which this typicality has been implanted within various social realities. Consequently, there are many diverse motifs to be found within the act of pilgrimage. These motifs may be either of spiritual, cultural, social or psychological nature and they can help maintain this long-lasting phenomenon, in a constant revolution and to the degree of interpreting needs and the inner impulse of those who practice pilgrimage. Rooted in the Old and New Testaments, the merely visiting Jerusalem and other holy places, done both by Jews and Christians, represents the cultural and historical fundament of the Christian pilgrimage which, as it is generally known, basically had as first developing zone the oriental zones, especially Jerusalem.
A crucial moment in the history of Christian pilgrimage undoubtedly is the edict in Milan (313), by which Christian worship freedom is recognized and which changed the Church’s status in the epoch’s society. After having been called "augusta" and after building Constantinople, Saint Helen mother of Emperor Constantine has started her journey to the holy lands between the months January-March 326. In her desire to see the places mentioned by the New Testament, she discovered that on Mount Golgotha, underneath the ruins of the Capitolium built by Emperor Adrian and destroyed by Constantine after his victory over Licinius, there was our Savior’s Cross. Indeed, the diggings revealed the fact that there actually lay the Messiah’s cross.
Emperor Constantine has ordered the building of a new church, which shall be later on Martyrdom’s Church. While working in those areas, in the western part there was found also our Savior’s tomb where later on there would be raised Resurrection Church (Anastasia). Emperor Constantine has continued building up new edifices for Christians, apart from those previously mentioned, which represent a single complex: a church on the Mount of Olive-trees, one in Bethlehem, above the place where Christ was born, and a few years later, another church was raised at the Mamvri oak-tree, the place where Abraham received the visit of the three God sent messengers.
According to an expert called Giorgio Otranto, the birth and the diffusion of Christian pilgrimage is primarily due to the change in the historical conditions rather than a new mentality. He argues that changing one’s mentality requires a longer period of time to assimilate a determined conception, while Christian pilgrimage develops immediately after the peace obtained by the Church, as a response to the necessity fed by Biblical readings to visit the places where Jesus Christ lived and performed his saving actions.
In his writing entitled Demonstratio evangelica, composed between 314 and 320, Eusebius stated with enthusiasm that all the Christians came to Christ from all parts of the world, to the Holy City, not only to admire the beauty of the Temple and to take part in the religious services, but also to pray on the Mount of Olives, where Christ often stopped and prayed and from where, according to Acts (chapter in the New Testament), Christ has also ascended to heaven.
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