Pilgrimages
ChastMastr
Shipmate
in All Saints
Has anyone ever gone on a pilgrimage to a special church or holy place?
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I once made an impromptu solo pilgrimage of sorts to Little Gidding which turned into a truly spine-tingling spiritual experience.
We have an annual pilgrimage to the shrine of St Bertram at Ilam in Derbyshire followed by a walk up to his holy well but I don't always go.
I've also been to venerate the relic of St Chad in Lichfield Cathedral and to his holy well.
I've visited various holy wells in Wales and they can be memorable as they are often in wild and scenic settings.
I've also been to the tomb of St Cuthbert in Durham Cathedral and to Lindisfarne twice. I've been to commemorations of St Frideswide in Christ Church, and to the shrine of St Birinus in Dorchester-on-Thames. I've also been to Ynys Enlli, Bardsey Island, the 'Island of 20,000 Saints.'
I once venerated the Kursk Root Icon when it was on a UK tour. That was before I was Orthodox.
I've also visited sites associated with John Wesley and would definitely class those as pilgrimages to some extent too.
I've also been on what we might call 'literary pilgrimages' and have said short prayers on battlefields - which tend not to be marked in any particular way here in the UK apart from a small monument of some kind.
So yes.
I'm off to Walsingham on an ecumenical pilgrimage next year. I've visited as a tourist before.
While I'm still capable I'd like to walk a pilgrimage route.
I never seem to be moved spiritually in places where I’m supposed to be - perhaps because we are not in control?
We were shown around the Cathedral Close afterwards which has the tree which inspired Dobson to have the Cheshire Cat perched in its branches. It was a glorious late summer afternoon and all was peaceful and quiet away from the Oxford bustle. 'History is now and in England.'
An Australian visitor muttered to himself, 'Oh England, England what is it about you?'
We have our 'thin places.'
I mustn't forget an Orthodox pilgrimage to Holywell in North Wales. That Orthodox-ed me out, though, I must admit. No word of a lie, mind.
That's an interesting place. It continued to be a place of covert pilgrimage after the Reformation.
It didn't 'do it' for me though. But St Cybi's holy well on the Lleyn Peninsula did, even as a fervent evangelical.
But Little Gidding. Hair stood up on the back of my neck.
It's a lovely place, no doubt (apart from the tat-filled Shrine Church
I will never forget the inspired lyrics of the processional hymn:
https://walsinghamanglican.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/National-Pilgrimage-at-Home-Hymn-Sheet.pdf
Even our late churchwarden B, who pretty well regarded Mary as his Co-Redemptrix, was heard to dismiss the Walsingham Hymn as *doggerel*.
It's not helped by the dirge-like tune...
St. Cuthbert and Bede and Holy Isle are where I have gone for pilgrimage in 1994, to ask for prayers as well, and I believe they were answered. ❤️🕯
I've been to lots of pilgrimage places in Europe which would not be widely known apart from Lourdes, but one which struck me more than I thought it would, was Loreto in Italy.
Perhaps it was the beauty of the evening when I visited. Perhaps it was the deep faith of the pilgrims praying there, a faith and trust which really touched me. Perhaps it was the thought that I just might be seeing some of the stones of the house in which Jesus was brought up.
Or perhaps it was the historical connections with the many Loreto type shrines all over Europe (of which Walsingham is one). When I say all over Europe I suppose I mean in Central Europe - Loreto in Prague is one of the most important but even in Scotland the Town Hall in Musselburgh is built of stones from the pre-Reformation Loretto shrine,the land of the former shrine being now an exclusive private school called Loretto.
Two things really moved me about the Holy Sepulchre. One was that despite the tat, all sorts of different people from different times, cultures etc have visited it, do visit it and will visit it, all for the same obvious reason. And the second is that one thing about it which is obvious, the one thing that everybody knows, namely that it is empty.
It felt to me almost as though there was an invisible body there, one which had once been briefly there but was no more. Later the same day when I told a stranger about my experience, she traced with her hand a sort of body shaped outline, and I knew that that was exactly what I meant, and that she'd felt the same.
https://youtu.be/o5VZKWcgw6c
My first was to Kirkheaton cricket ground in West Yorkshire to see the Hirst and Rhodes scorebox. Both great players for Yorkshire and England played for this village team.
My next was to the old cricket ground in Fartown. Huddersfield to see the memorial dedicated to the ‘Great Triumvirate’ of George Herbert Hirst, Wilfred Rhodes and Schofield Haigh.
My next was the Weatherspoons Pub in Leeds named in honour of Hedley Verity, a great Yorkshire and England cricketer who died in Italy in 1943
My next will be to Skipton to see the statue of Fred Trueman, the reason why I became a Yorkshire supporter
I watched it once and that was once too much. I found it completely over-rated.
@Telford, I'm sorry to hear that you are no longer mobile. 😔
I attended a funeral wake for an old boss, a Methodist lay preacher and the best boss I ever had (apart from myself when I was self-employed) at the old cricket club you mention in Huddersfield.
I'm not a cricket fan, although I appreciate the skill and ambience, but sensed the atmosphere.
A lad at school recognised Fred Trueman on a train once and approached him, only to be brusquely rebuffed.
Arrogant, rude, opinionated. He was a true Yorkshire gentleman.
I have read other people saying the same about Fred's attitude. Good job, I never met him.
Over the years I've been to various places of historical and spiritual interest, many of which have made me ponder and pray. These visits were not formally labelled as pilgrimage but obviously had elements of it.
Last year my father and I visited handel hendrix house in London. It was a jolly good day out but I guess could also be labelled a musical pilgrimage.
I personally have never felt attracted to any sort of pilgrimage but have in the course of my travels visited Lindisfarne which I found moving and disturbing at the same time. I am far more drawn to retreats. (That no doubt says something about me, my dislike of travelling and my low levels of fitness.)
I took a diversion once to stop at Nuncargate to tread in the footsteps of one of the storied names of English cricket, one so legendary that a Yorkshire man of my acquaintance paused and said "Holy ground!" when I told him.
I'll let you work out who.
Etymologically it suggests a journey to 'foreign' parts 'across the fields' or' beyond one's own territory' We know, however, that words can change their meanings slightly or greatly in the course of time.
Iona, both to stay at the Abbey but also the day pilgrimage while there
Linidisfarne, St Cuthbert's way and also along the Northumberland Coastal Path (actually that walk ended with the Franciscans in Alnmouth)
Walked the Cumberland Way to Whitby to visit St Hild.
Been by coach and train to visit St Cuthbert at Durham (must go again soon) and visited St Herberts Isle on Derwent Water
Visited Isle of Whithorn and walked to St Ninian's cave several times. Visited various sites associated with St Maiden, St Madrine (St Martin???) and other saints of the Mull of Galloway.
I have been to Lourdes, and Padua to visit St Anthony's shrine. Not claiming any virtue in that, if I must interrail with devout Catholics then it is hardly surprising if that is what I end up doing. Koln Cathedral I do not think counted. For me the highlights were Lourdes Lake, the Waldensian Valleys and St Gilgen's in Austria.
As to Walsingham, yes I have been, I even organise pilgrimages for St Obscures. Next one is going in May. This is by coach.
I would like to walk a Camino. I had planned to a couple of years ago but both my companion and I broke our arms.
This year maybe I will get to Lourdes again.
You may say I have an interest in pilgrimage.
Sure. I don’t get too exercised as to when a pilgrimage becomes tourism or when tourism becomes pilgrimage.
But then, I'm the both/and guy ... 😉
Perhaps I ought to Trade Mark that?
Or set up my own pilgrimage travel agency.
Gamaliel's Both/And Tours
Never knowingly over-egged
I'm sorry for your loss.
True, though my question in the OP was "Has anyone ever gone on a pilgrimage to a special church or holy place?"
And some of us come from traditions that tend to resist the idea that anywhere on Earth is holier than anywhere else, especially after the Incarnation. So intentional journeys anywhere can be journeys to holy places.
I didn’t view my visit to Memphis, and particularly to Graceland (Elvis Presley’s home) and the old Sun Studios, as a pilgrimage, but I realized in the midst of it that I had indeed wandered into a pilgrimage.
Are you sure we need so many fielders on the legside skip ?
Nailed it! Harold Larwood.
Ironically, it was Verity who had Bradman as a bunny in that series.
I have this book about the series and there is a squad photo with the Nawab of Pataudi resting his arm on Hedley's shoulder.
*Pilgrimages* can be to places (or about people) not officially regarded as religious, but nevertheless held in high esteem because of the contribution they have made in a particular field.
Indeed. A train of thought very well expressed...
Not a pilgrimage per se either, but I visited many churches and monasteries in Georgia on a visit there. It was the first "Orthodox" country I'd visited and it had special significance.
Two monasteries in Lebanon: one up a cliff, one in a valley -- each beautiful in their own way.
My usual pilgrimage is to the "bush" (a sparsely-inhabited region, for me mostly associated with bushwalking (hiking)). I find nature amazing in many respects, particularly when pondering God's Creation. We have a prayer to the Holy Spirit which opens most (all?) of our services, part of which a priest once suggested I should ponder as I bushwalk which has proven beneficial:
Similarly, a bit back, I visited Southern Cemetery, Manchester to see the grave of my great-grandma (whom I never knew.) For some reason, I have a special respect for her. Maybe because she lost her husband quite young and had to bring up a large family on her own, no mean task in those days if you were to avoid the workhouse, as she did.
It's a bit odd - he died in 1940, while he was still in basic training for the Royal Engineers (fell out of the back of a lorry onto his head, rather unheroically), so although my gran was invited to the opening of the war memorial after the war, his name is missing from it, and his grave is also not with the other war graves, but elsewhere in the cemetery, near the rest of his family.
I like to drop into village churches when I'm out walking anyway, so this was a more organised version of the same. We enjoyed the experience.
I would like to walk from Shrewsbury to Holywell as a pilgrimage, but that's probably a week's walking. One to work up to.
There is also this pilgrimage
from Holywell to Bardsey, which looks fun. Were I younger, I should be tempted. A bit beyond me now, alas.
Not a walk, but I this morning stumbled across the Marian shrine at the Anglican parish of Yankalilla (South Australia), seeing a sign as I drove through said town.
1,500km or so from my current home (and not much closer to where I grew up*) but from what I read it is rather famous -- I do not recall ever hearing of it. The image appeared to a parishioner on the wall behind the altar in 1994. As the church did not open til 10 (the website said 9!; I waited by visiting a nearby waterfall** -- if those you travel with aren't interested they can drop you off and explore!) I grabbed the breakfast of champions, a sausage roll and cappuccino!
Nice to stop and pray. Interesting to ponder signs in our times.
* I mean no disrespect here, but I doubt the Sydney Anglican and "Southern Baptist"-style churches of my youth would have approved...
** it is summer, and dry, so not quite the Psalmist's "Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls"...