In Holy Week, the time when Christians engage in prayers that focus on Christ’s journey to the Cross, it seems apt to reflect on the revival of pilgrimages, one of the most surprising recent developments in Western Christianity. As church attendance has plummeted, more people are travelling the old medieval pilgrim routes across Europe or visiting shrines old and new.
The number of those walking or cycling the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain has quadrupled over the past 20 years. A series of apparitions of the Virgin at Medjugorje in the Balkans since 1981 has created a major new pilgrim destination alongside established Marian shrines such as Czestochowa in Poland, Fatima in Portugal and Lourdes in France which draw ever larger crowds of the faithful.
New long-distance pilgrim trails have also been established, such as St Cuthbert’s Way through the Scottish and English Border country from Melrose to Lindisfarne, and the Pilgrim Way from Oslo to Trondheim in Norway, which is based on a medieval pilgrim route to the shrine of Norway’s patron saint, Olav. Both routes opened in 1997.
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(London) Times: Churches may be in crisis, but pilgrimages are booming
In Holy Week, the time when Christians engage in prayers that focus on Christ’s journey to the Cross, it seems apt to reflect on the revival of pilgrimages, one of the most surprising recent developments in Western Christianity. As church attendance has plummeted, more people are travelling the old medieval pilgrim routes across Europe or visiting shrines old and new.
The number of those walking or cycling the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain has quadrupled over the past 20 years. A series of apparitions of the Virgin at Medjugorje in the Balkans since 1981 has created a major new pilgrim destination alongside established Marian shrines such as Czestochowa in Poland, Fatima in Portugal and Lourdes in France which draw ever larger crowds of the faithful.
New long-distance pilgrim trails have also been established, such as St Cuthbert’s Way through the Scottish and English Border country from Melrose to Lindisfarne, and the Pilgrim Way from Oslo to Trondheim in Norway, which is based on a medieval pilgrim route to the shrine of Norway’s patron saint, Olav. Both routes opened in 1997.
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