The many routes of the Camino de Santiago

Episode 16 Medieval Pilgrims and Travelers

The Middle Ages Around the World

Dr Joyce E Salisbury

Film Review

Christian Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage to holy places was extremely popular during the Middle Ages, especially to churches that preserved the remains (bones or items of clothing) of early Christian saints. Thanks to the published chronicles of literate pilgrims, travel itself came to be viewed as a valuable experience.

Pilgrimage to Jerusalem was the most population after the mother of emperor Constantine (306-337) began to identify Christian spaces in a previously pagan Roman city. This unleashed a flood of Egeria, female Spanish pilgrims whose 4th century letters to their families back home describe them retracing steps of important Old and New New Testament figures.

There was heavy traffic in the relics of saints martyred by the Romans, as numerous churches vied for their bones and scraps of clothing to draw pilgrims to their communities.

Pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago (St James) de Compostela in Galicia, Spain was the second most popular Christian pilgrimage. Many Camino pilgrims stopped off to visit the tomb of El Cid (who defended Christian northern Spain from the Muslim armies  – see Medieval Tales of Heroes and Lovers).

Buddhist Pilgrimage

In the 6th century Buddhists went on pilgrimage to Buddha’s place of birth in northern India. Due to the resurgence of Hinduism following the 13th century Muslim occupation, most Buddhist shrines moved further east to China and the Far East.

Kandy Sri Lanka hosts the Temple of the Sacred Tooth, reputed to house one of Buddha’s teeth and the Shedigan Pagoda in Myanmar strands of his hair. In China there are pilgrimages to Longmen grottoes to visit over 100,000 statues and images of Buddha.

Two 13th century Japanese Buddhist nuns, Abutsu and Nijo (who became nuns to escape political turmoil in the imperial court) wrote extensively of their pilgrimages. Abustsu was a poet and lady in waiting unti her husband died and she filed suit contesting his well. Her long lyric poem describes the 14 day pilgrimage for justice she made to the Kamikoto military court. After becoming one of the emperor’s concubines at age 14, Nijo and came into disfavor after she took lovers and bore children by them. Her writings, entitled Confessions of Lady Nijo, describe her 20 year pilgrimage.

Muslim Pilgrims

In Islam the required Hajj (once in a lifetime) is a pillar of the Muslim faith. Ibn Battuta, a 14th century Moroccan cadi (judge) was the most famous Muslim pilgrim. What started out as a Hajj to Mecca turned into a 25 year expedition, which he supported by working as a legal advisor. His recorded observations provide an excellent record of daily medieval life. He married a number of women along the way (under Islam he could only have four at a time, plus concubines) and married four more at the next location.

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