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It is the perfect combination of the Old and the New, the Past and the Future, the Physically Beautiful and Spiritually Uplifting. It is the center of the three monotheist religious traditions; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which are all inextricably linked to one another.
- Women, Pilgrimages, and The Crusades
- Penance
- Preparations
- Departure
- Dangers
- Arrival
- The Sites
- Chapel of The Innocents
- Christian Communities in The Holy Land
- For More Information
Because of the difficulties and dangers of the journey, pilgrims tended to be men, but many women made the journey with the same enthusiasm as men did. Much of what historians know about pilgrimages comes from women who wrote about the journeys, such as Etheria of Aquitaine (a region in France), who made the pilgrimage in the fourth century. Many w...
The chief purpose of a pilgrimage was to do penance, or repent for sins. According to church teaching, sinners could achieve salvation in heaven by showing that they were sorry for their sins, confessing them to a priest, and then offering penance to acknowledge that their sins were offenses against God. Frequently, penance consisted of prayer or g...
A pilgrimage to the Holy Land took months. Typically, European pilgrims would start as soon as they could in the spring and hope that they could make it to the Holy Land, visit the sites, and return before winter, though problems such as illness frequently caused delays. Accordingly, a pilgrim had to make many arrangements before departure. One was...
After the ceremony of taking the vow, a pilgrim would typically depart on foot. A noble would often be followed by dozens, if not hundreds, of well-wishers and family members for the first mile or two. After proceeding for a few miles on foot, pilgrims with means would then gather their horses; pack animals; and, in some cases, wagons and continue ...
A trip to the Holy Land was dangerous, more so the farther a pilgrim traveled away from home. In Europe the roads were still fairly good. People usually welcomed pilgrims to their towns (many of which also contained sacred sites that pilgrims wanted to visit), for the pilgrim trade was a source of income for them as well. Sometimes these towns were...
Upon arriving in Ramleh, usually one day's journey from the last stop in Jerusalem, pilgrims were issued instructions. They were always to show Christian charity, patience, and tact. They were to avoid any behavior that could be considered aggressive or offensive. They were not to enter a mosque (a place of worship for Muslims), and they were to st...
The next morning most pilgrims headed directly for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the most sacred site in the city. To get there, they may have walked down the Via Dolorosa, or Street of Sadness. This was the route that Christ had taken when he carried his cross to his Crucifixion. All along the way, shopkeepers and street merchants, hawking the...
A site that pilgrims could visit in Bethlehem was the Chapel of the Innocents. The chapel, which contains numerous bones, memorializes the Slaughter of the Innocents—the killing of children in and around Bethlehem by the Judean king Herod. When Herod learned of the birth of Christ and the prophecies that he was the Messiah, or the savior of the Jew...
In Bethlehem pilgrims visited the Church of the Nativity, built on the spot—a cave—where Christ had been born. At the Church of the Nativity, they would have seen the tomb of Saint Paula of Bethlehem, buried under the church at her death in 404. In 385 Paula (also known as Paulina and Pauline the Widow) traveled with her daughter, Eustochium, on a ...
Books
Erdmann, Carl. The Origin of the Idea of Crusade. Translated by Marshall W. Baldwin and Walter Goffart. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UniversityPress, 1977. Fossier, Robert, ed. The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Middle Ages. 3 vols. New York: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1986–1997. Labarge, Margaret Wade. Medieval Travellers: The Rich and Restless. New York: Norton, 1983. Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades. New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1995. Sumption, J...
Periodicals
Bull, Marcus. "The Pilgrimage Origins of the First Crusade." HistoryToday47, no. 3 (March 1997): 10–15.
Web Sites
Bréhier, Louis. "Crusades." The New Catholic Encyclopedia.http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04543c.htm(accessed on August 11, 2004). The Christian Crusades.http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/crusades.stm (accessed on August 11, 2004).
Pilgrimage may mean embarking on a journey of prayer; accompanying the poor, the oppressed, and refugees in their times of trial; visiting local holy sites; and countless other acts of faith. A pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a special time of spiritual journey for Christians.
Apr 2, 2018 · Pilgrimages to the Holy Land, however, are important not just for pilgrims coming from afar. They are crucial for the survival of the Christian community in the Holy Land and for the pilgrimage sites themselves.
Places that Christian pilgrims might visit include: The Garden of Gethsemane - this is believed to be where Jesus prayed before he was arrested by the Romans and put to death.
It is a practical, easy-to-read Catholic guide that celebrates the landscape where Christ lived, where present-day pilgrims can experience first-hand glimpses of the Holy Land that can still instruct and delight after more than 2000 years. Unfortunately, the funding source for the publication of the book is no longer available. We are kindly ...
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land is an ancient tradition that every Christian around the world should experience at some point in their life. The sacred journey encompasses places like Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Jerusalem- places which hold immense historical and spiritual importance to Christianity.
