Let start with a saying from Pope benedict XVI who was pope from 2015 till his retirement in 2013 The Pope summarized a Christians pilgrimage with the following words: “To go on pilgrimage is not simply to visit a place. To go on pilgrimage really means to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shone with particular splendour and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness among those who believe. Above all, Christians go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, to the places associated with the Lord’s passion, death, and resurrection.They go to Rome, the city of the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, and also to Compostela, which, associated with the memory of Saint James, has welcomed pilgrims from throughout the world who desire to strengthen their spirit with the Apostle’s witness of faith and love”.
In medieval times the main purpose for a pilgrimage was to do penance or repent for sins. According to the church, sinners could achieve salvation in heaven by showing that they were sorry for their sins. Making confession to the priest and then offering him penance to acknowledge that their sins were offenses against God. There were many ways to do penance one of them was to go on pilgrimage.
Preparations and starting a pilgrimage.
The dangerous and long journey was part of the penance.
Not every European Christian could afford himself to make the long, dangerous, and expensive journey to the Holy Land. Making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land was a privilege for a few. The typical pilgrim was mostly from a higher class like clerics and merchants. Also, members of the nobility like a count, a baron, a knight, or a landowning vassal had the money to go on pilgrimage. Wealthy people sometimes preferred to pay others to go on a pilgrimage for them. For instance, in 1352 a London merchant paid a man £20 to go on a pilgrimage to Mount Sinai. Before starting to walk to the holy land the pilgrim had to prepare his journey carefully. They first had to confess their sins to a priest. Without approval of the priest the pilgrim could not get any spiritual benefit from his journey. He had to take a public vow before the priest. This vow marked the official start of his pilgrimage. The priest gave him a list of places he had to visit. He would bless the pilgrim and offering him a mass. When the pilgrim managed to return, the priest would declare that the vow had been fulfilled and that the pilgrim was pardoned of all his sins. A pilgrim age to the Holy land took month. They would start in spring and hoped to reach the holy places and to return home before the winter. The Pilgrim had to give up his home, his land, his loved ones and his breadwinning. He had to make a last will because he was unsure if he would make it back home. When he could afford it, he would bring 1 or more servants with him and even family members who also want to make the journey. Many women made the journey with the same enthusiasm as men did. Much of what historians know about pilgrimages comes from the women who wrote about their journeys. Two good examples were Egeria and (Saint) Sylvia of Aquitaine, who did the pilgrimage in the fourth century. Both women document their journey for a circle of woman who stayed at home. Wealthy pilgrims used horses and pack animals and in some case wagons. The poorer pilgrims had to walk all the way to the Holy Land and back. A pilgrim from France had to travel ca 2400 km at a rate of ca. 40 km per day. When everything went well, what mostly not happened, it took him 2 months. Pilgrims preferred to travel in groups because this was safer. Bigger groups were often joined and guided by a monk. The monk also was able to give spirituals assistance during the journey. There is documented that one group, led by Duke Richard II of Normandy consisted of 700 pilgrims. Before the Crusades most pilgrims travelled over land through the Kingdom of Hungary and the Balkan to Constantinople. They travelled across Anatolia, over the Taurus mountains to Antioch. Antioch was a Syrian seaport on the Northeastern Mediterranean Sea. From there they walked south along the coast to Acre, Jaffa and finally to Jerusalem.
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