Pilgrimage

Chaucer said that April was when the thoughts of his contemporaries turned to pilgrimage …

Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote

The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote,

And bathed every veyne in swich licour,

Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

5

Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth

Inspired hath in every holt and heeth

The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne

Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,

And smale fowles maken melodye,

10

That slepen al the night with open yë,

(So priketh hem nature in hir corages):

Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages

(And palmers for to seken straunge strondes)

To ferne halwes, couthe in sondry londes;

15

And specially, from every shires ende

Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,

The holy blisful martir for to seke,

That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke.

Text from Project Gutenberg 

Well, as it is now April and we are in Eastertide maybe our thoughts should be turning towards going on pilgrimage. 

The Critic has an interesting article about British attitudes to pilgrimage as an experience and as a means of promoting tourism. It contrasts the rather lacklustre attitude of government here with that in Spain and Portugal. I suppose one obvious explanation is that pilgrimage as a societal norm lost out here due to the reformation, whereas in Catholic Europe it has remained a vital force. That said, as the article shows, the twentieth century revival of pilgrimage to Walsingham has been impressive and Christians other than Catholics do respond to the idea in away that would have not so long ago been unthinkable. In the nineteenth century Catholicsbegan to revive the tradition here of public pilgrimage, but the great Alfred Hope-Patten at Walsingham gave the idea a place in Anglo-Catholic practice which diffused to other parts of the established Church. Historic cathedrals in the Church of England such as St Albans, Hereford, Lincoln and Lichfield have shown themselves increasingly keen in recent years to promote their saints as the objects of devotion. The Church in Wales has also shown similar trends, and there has been the restoration of the abbey-cathedral complex at Iona. New works of art have been commissioned and pilgrims made welcome across much of Great Britain.

The article can be seen at The British pilgrimage problem

I came upon a newspaper article about this year’s Northern Cross walking pilgrimage to Lindisfarne on Good Friday to mark Lent and Easter, which also suggests a willingness to undertake pilgrimage in a tradition that is partly Catholic and partly Evangelical. The report can be read at Pilgrims mark Good Friday with annual trip to Holy Island

Having once stayed on Lindisfarne I can see the appeal is more than just that of it being an historic site - fascinating and stimulating as that is - it is also a prayerful place, where the great Northumbrian saints seem close by and the open sea and sky are conducive to thoughts about the eternal.