Pilgrimage essays

Pilgrimage essays As early as the 4th century A.D. pilgrimage started developing. This first started occur after Emperor Constantine legalizes Christianity. As Christianity was already legally spreading it gained many followers who wanted to gain purification in their souls and salvation by going to holly places such as Jerusalem. Pilgrimage is in a way a journey to a Spiritual transformation expressed in an act of homage to the deity and its early representatives involving travel to a holy site. Most of the places where people would go to a pilgrimage such as Canterbury (St. Theodores bones) in England or Santiago de Compostela (St. James bones) in Spain are connected with relics. This is a physical object with sacred meaning. What was so sacred? It was an example of the contact of the mental world with the transcendent. It was an example of reincarnation of Christ. Physical healing was a major reason for people to go to a pilgrimage. The Pilgrimage changed its form with the centuries. At the 11-13th centuries the Crusades were called pilgrimage. The world crusade wasnt used. During the 12-16th centuries pilgrimage was sort of remission of penance. It was to clear one from ones mistakes. The fact that one has already prepared and is on his way to a pilgrimage meant that he is already forgiven for his deeds. Pilgrimage helped not just for spiritual transformation but also for economic growth for the land that was visited by the pilgrims. Also, pilgrimage helped for better geographical understanding of foreign countries and even for the creation of maps. It was very useful for people from one side of the world to understand the culture, the art, music and architecture of people from the other side of the world. It was very important that during pilgrimage people would do some trade even sometimes souvenirs. ...