[Gocamino] Pilgrims progress into the digital age

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Pilgrims progress into the digital age

Collections of historical objects associated with pilgrimage can now be seen
on a new CD-ROM, write Elena Curti

Hidden in the library at Lambeth Palace is a book containing a
fifteenth-century pilgrims' map of the Holy Land. The map by Dutch woodblock
artist Erhard Reuwich is among the illustrations in the book Peregrinatio in
terram sanctam ("Pilgrimage to the Holy Land") published in Mainz in 1486.
it became one of the most popular travel books in Europe with its fold-out
maps tracing a pilgrim route from Venice to Jerusalem.

The map of the Holy Land shows sites from the Old and New Testaments as well
as mythical places such as where St George killed the dragon. Locations
where indulgences could be obtained were helpfully marked with a cross.
Double crosses indicated places that promised full remission of all sins.

Hitherto rarely seen by anyone other than scholars, the map now features on
a new inter-active CD-ROM, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage, together with hundreds
of other artefacts, such as a collection of pewter souvenir badges bought by
pilgrims and depicting relics or miraculous images.

The volume of material contained on Pilgrims and Pilgrimage is
extraordinary. The CD contains 450 images and contributions from 55
academics. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that it takes a while for
viewers to understand how to navigate their way through the material.

There are sections on pilgrimage from its earliest beginnings in ancient
Greece and Rome up to the present day. What is ostensibly a virtue could,
for the undisciplined viewer, become the potential for endless diversion,
with a multitude of highlighted terms and places giving cross-references and
definitions leading from one subject to another.

The CD is mainly the work of the Revd Dee Dyas, an Anglican priest who is
director of the Christianity and Culture Project, part of the Centre for
Medieval Studies at the University of York and St John's College,
Nottingham. Dyas has spent more than two years researching the CD and
travelling to pilgrim sites. As well as the obvious places, she visited
secular shrines in the United States such as Graceland, the home and last
resting place of Elvis Presley, and the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington.
These, says Dyas, are seen as secular places of pilgrimage and she describes
the stream of visitors to the war memorial bringing objects including boots
and clothing to leave there in memory of loved ones.
"They may be people who are not religious at all but they are attaching
spiritual significance to a particular place," Dyas says. Christianity,
according to Dyas, is unique in not having a focus on its own holy places at
the beginning, adding: "The notion of pilgrimage is not in the New Testament
or early Christianity. In fact Christians felt strongly that pilgrimage was
for the Jews and the pagans, not them. Instead they promoted the idea of
life as a pilgrimage. It was only with the conversion of Constantine and his
mother, and the importance of the saints, that the connection was made and
people responded with increasing enthusiasm. It was very difficult to
suppress once it started."
Doubts about pilgrimage continued among some of the Church Father, such as
St Jerome and St Gregory of Nyssa. "Both argued theologically it was very
suspect. If God is specially present somewhere does that mean that he is
less present elsewhere? This posed a great dilemma," says Dyas.
Pilgrimages, she believes, are best undertaken without partners and as part
of a group. "The group has been important, experiencing things with them,
getting to know people. Sometimes you are struggling with them living in
such close proximity but that is something you need to do," says Dyas. "The
special journey is like a microcosm of what life is like. It's an intense
version of everyday life. If there is a roadblock when you are trying to
visit Bethlehem it is part of everyday life. You are away and that gives you
space, it is taking time out. It is that God has the opportunity to speak to
you."

Pilgrims and Pilgrimage – Journey, Spirituality & Daily Life through the
Centuries is available from www.york.ac.uk/inst/cms/candc; by emailing
candc at stjohns-nottm.ac.uk; or by telephoning 01159255388. The price is £16.


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