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The idea of journeying is built into the psyche of Christians. You may remember how Chaucer writes about the pilgrims on their way to Canterbury.

In one sense, we have been on this pilgrimage since the Book of Genesis, when Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden.

Christianity is one of the three abrahamic faiths. Abraham leads his people into the desert and so begins one of the greatest journeys of humanity which we can trace through the Old Testament and find its completion in Jesus Christ.

Christian pilgrimages were first made to sites connected with the birth, life, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Surviving descriptions of Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land date from the 4th century, when pilgrimage was encouraged by church fathers like Saint Jerome.

The major Christian pilgrimages are to:

Jerusalem. Site of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

Rome on roads such as the Via Francigena. Site of the deaths of Saint Peter, Saint Paul and other early martyrs. Location of sacred relics of various saints, relics of the Passion, important churches and headquarters of the Catholic Church.

Constantinople (today Istanbul, Turkey). Former capital of the Byzantine Empire and the see of one of the five ancient Patriarchates and spiritual see of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Hagia Sophia, former cathedral and burial place of many Ecumenical Patriarchs.

Lourdes, France. Apparition of the Virgin Mary. The second most visited Christian pilgrimage site after Rome.

Santiago de Compostela in Spain on the Way of St James (Spanish: El Camino de Santiago). This famous medieval pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James is still popular today.

In this country we have many pilgrimage sites and events. These include Canterbury and Walsingham where a national pilgrimage takes place each year.












The Canterbury Tales Prologue: translation from middle english to modern english:

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote	When April with its sweet-smelling showers
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,	Has pierced the drought of March to the root,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour	And bathed every vein (of the plants) in such liquid
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;	By which power the flower is created;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth	When the West Wind also with its sweet breath,
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth	In every wood and field has breathed life into
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne	The tender new leaves, and the young sun
Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,	Has run half its course in Aries,
And smale foweles maken melodye,	And small fowls make melody,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye	Those that sleep all the night with open eyes
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages),	(So Nature incites them in their hearts),
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,	Then folk long to go on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,	And professional pilgrims to seek foreign shores,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;	To distant shrines, known in various lands;
And specially from every shires ende	And specially from every shire's end
Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,	Of England to Canterbury they travel,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,	To seek the holy blessed martyr,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.	Who helped them when they were sick.
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