AHI 412 CHRISTIAN PILGRIMAGE MID AGES

Pilgrimage provided Christians throughout medieval Europe, western Asia and northern Africa with the extraordinary opportunity to detach themselves from their home communities, experience the exotic thrill (and often considerable danger) of long-distance travel, and worship in a "temporary community" at a holy site. Attention will focus on the pilgrimage shrines themselves, their locations in the larger urban or rural landscape, the rites and practices typically associated with pilgrims, and the relationships that link shrine/saint, pilgrims, and the organizers of the sacred cult observed at the pilgrimage center.