According to its historical origin, the word “pilgrim” is based on a derivative from the Latin palma “palm tree” and means “carrier of a palm tree”, or, in other words, a traveler to the Holy Sepulcher, carrying a palm branch from his journey, in memory of those palm branches - fronds - with which he met Gentlemen, the people at the entrance to Jerusalem. In everyday folk speech, “pilgrimage” was often replaced by another, more understandable word – “paganism.”
A pilgrimage, as a modern researcher writes, “is a specially undertaken journey for a more complete and deeper contact with a shrine than in everyday life.” A certain spiritual and moral reason prompts a person to embark on a difficult and lengthy journey to meet a shrine and acquire grace. The traveler is drawn by the desire to get closer to the source of holiness, but approaching is impossible without performing the labor of the path, the road, the journey. Before the moment of achieving the goal comes, there will be a difficult test on the road. The road for a pilgrim is important not only, and even not so much, in terms of physical deprivation, just as church fasting primarily pursues not physiological, but spiritual goals. The pilgrim's path to the shrine is similar to the spiritual warfare of an ascetic. Like a spiritual warrior, the wanderer sets out on the journey, full of determination and trust in the Lord. Ahead of him is a meeting with a holy relic, a miraculous icon, and the relics of God's saint. But between the shrine and the spiritual wanderer lies the journey itself, full of labors and hardships, patience and sorrows, dangers and hardships. The path of a pilgrim geographically winds between cities and villages, but in the spiritual sense it represents an ascent up a mountain (in Slavic - mountain), upward, towards heaven - in overcoming one’s own weaknesses and worldly temptations, in acquiring humility, in testing and purifying faith.
The pilgrim's goal is a shrine, or, in other words, some object of spiritual worship. The general concept of “shrine” means everything that in Orthodoxy it is customary to give the honor of veneration: holy relics - particles of the Lord’s tunic, or the Life-giving Cross; items related to the veneration of the Mother of God; holy and miraculous icons; relics of holy saints; places related to the life and exploits of saints, their personal belongings; holy springs; monasteries; the graves of holy people revered by the Church... All various objects related to holiness and sanctified by this affiliation, possessing grace, located in many places in our country, became the purpose of pilgrimages. Thus, by the beginning of the 20th century, the entire territory of Russia turns out to be dotted with a network of pilgrimage routes. Believing people, pilgrims went on long journeys, passing many provinces, to worship ancient and new shrines; were drawn to one or another famous monastery; visited God's people, elders and devotees of piety...
Pilgrimage is wonderful.
Of all the possible routes, the pilgrimage to the Holy Land stands out first. There you begin to read the Gospel in a completely different way, being in places associated with the earthly life of the Savior, you are completely immersed in thoughts about how everything happened 2 thousand years ago.
When you come to some saint, for example, to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, you have your own personal contact, your own meeting with St. Sergius or with another saint whom you were visiting. And if you pray to him, if you trust your soul to him, then just as he once worked with his students or parishioners, so - we believe in this - he begins to study with you. And in a mysterious way he becomes partly your confessor, prays for you, intercedes for you before God. This saint’s prayer cannot pass without a trace and be fruitless for a person’s soul.
The bitterness of one day
Another important result of the pilgrimage is the unification of its participants. And if the pilgrimage is from the temple, then both adult parishioners and Sunday school students gather together.
If we talk about a trip to a monastery, it is impossible to feel its life in a day or two. To enter the life of the monastery, you need at least a week. Because the hurricane that I brought with me from the city must subside in my soul. I must calm down in order to enter this prayer rhythm - in their time, in their work, in their worship.
This will not happen in one day. And that’s why sometimes you feel bitterness: you leave the monastery and realize that you bowed to a saint, prayed at an ancient icon, looked at the beauty of the architecture, but did not receive real fruit - the kind that your soul needed.
Cultural euphoria
There are also some dangers in pilgrimage. Firstly, very often it brings the soul into a state of some euphoria, rapture. And not spiritual discoveries, but cultural ones.
If you find yourself on a pilgrimage, for example, to Italy, Greece or other European countries, then both nature and cultural reality: relationships between people, cleanliness, roads, the entire infrastructure - everything together acts in such a way that it seems to a person that his life will now be another. And then he comes back and realizes that he is just as irritated with his loved ones, screams, prays poorly, and everything like that.
Therefore, pilgrimage is good, but it is still external. My inner Christian work, which I must do on myself throughout my life, no one will do for me.
St. Sergius can help me, reveal something, point out something. It happens that you come and at the relics of a saint you understand something, you solve some spiritual question of your own. But still, the skill in prayer, in abstinence, in overcoming passions is something that can only be acquired through one’s own labor. “The Kingdom of Heaven is in need...” (Matthew 11:12).
Did you bother?
A pilgrimage can give a person the feeling that he has done some work, deserved something, and become different. There are people who go on pilgrimages endlessly and console themselves with this as a special achievement. This may well conceal deception and error.
I remember how in old pre-perestroika Moscow, where there were only about twenty functioning churches, there was a whole type of people who were called: “Lyuba in the parishes” or “Manya in the parishes.” They attended bishop's services, patronal feasts, or simply took turns going to different churches. Everywhere they confessed and received communion. At the same time, they did not have one parish and a confessor who could really help them, who would know their spiritual life.
Often this was a fairly conscious approach: I cry and repent everywhere, I’ve been going to parishes for 30 years, but I don’t have a confessor, so no one will tell me the truth, everyone only speaks general words. This means that I don’t need to change anything in myself... And of course, if you come to one priest ten times and say the same thing ten times, the priest will react: “No, brother, wait. We have to deal with this somehow, it’s not possible..."
The same can happen with pilgrimage.
No hack work
Although, it must be said, in any external activity and in any Christian practice there are dangers.
Everyone probably played with magnets in childhood. I remember this game: when you take two magnets, bring them towards each other with identical poles, and they repel each other. Thus, they cannot be connected in any way. In the same way, in every possible way, our fallen man tries to escape from the real in-depth Christian cultivation of his soul.
This happens to me, this happens to everyone I know. Unfortunately, it is our fallen nature that acts this way - it strives to replace internal work with external work. Such external things can be reading large rules, working in a temple, pilgrimage - anything.
And God needs us to stand before Him every day, at least for a while, but without hackwork, for real.
P.S. I remember that at the seminary I was very surprised to read a whole letter from St. Gregory of Nyssa, a short work, on why he was against pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Exactly for the same reason...
Portal "Orthodoxy and Peace" andindependent service "Sreda" conduct a series of discussions about parish life. Every week - a new topic! We will ask all the pressing questions to different priests. If you want to talk about the pain points of Orthodoxy, your experience or vision of problems, write to the editor at [email protected].
Date of publication or update 04.11.2017
Briefly about the pilgrimage.
A pilgrimage is an introduction to the thousand-year-old tradition of the spiritual life of the Church, most fully embodied in the history of numerous monasteries of Holy Rus'. If a pilgrimage is made with a repentant feeling, with a desire for spiritual renewal, then staying in a holy monastery allows a worldly person to taste, at least in a small measure, the blessed fruits of a “different” (hence “monasticism”) life, dedicated to God, for the sake of which monasteries were created.
Pilgrimage is a walk or journey to holy places with clearly defined spiritual goals.
Among the traditional aspirations of our ancestors when making a pilgrimage are the following: performing a religious rite in a special place or participating in one (prayer, communion, confession, unction), offering prayers in a holy place;
worship of a holy place, temple, relics, miraculous icons; pilgrimage in hopes of religious enlightenment, spiritual improvement, spiritual uplift;
pilgrimage in hopes of receiving grace, spiritual and physical healing, receiving advice (for example, in Optina Pustyn they went to the elders for advice);
pilgrimage to fulfill a vow or atone for sins;
pilgrimage in hopes of obtaining offspring for the sake of marriage;
a pilgrimage to strengthen the spirit before making important decisions, before marriage, travel, before the battle for the Faith and the Fatherland.
When making a pilgrimage (as opposed to a tourist trip), it is necessary to have the opportunity to pray, defend the Liturgy, and receive communion at the shrine without haste and fuss. Pilgrims often say that prayer at the shrine gives a feeling of special spiritual unity of those praying, a feeling of grace, spiritual joy. The prayer experience gained by pilgrims in communion with the shrines they visit is an element of spiritual growth.
Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy Alexey Ilyich Osipov says: “The purpose of the pilgrimage is to come into contact with the reality that took place centuries and even millennia ago, to find better conditions for prayer.”
“If you just went to explore a new monastery, then this is not a pilgrimage, even if they are religious people. After all, pilgrimage is often associated with preparation for confession, for communion, and attending divine services.
The same journey can become both a pilgrimage and tourism. A person drives just like that, and lo and behold, his soul is touched! Or you can even go to the Holy Land and not think about prayer. But if a person travels in order to live like a Christian for at least a few days, then this is already a pilgrimage. This is asceticism - from the Greek “askeo”, that is, “I exercise.” After all, probably any person will tell you that the most difficult thing is to pray.”
Pilgrimage is initially a religious feat, a feat of asceticism. A man left his reliable world - home, family, village. He became “on the road” - defenseless. This was the case in a world where the law often ended at the outskirts or at the city gates, and on the road the law of force often operated. The pilgrims walked to Jerusalem, knowing that they could die, because passing through Muslim countries without knowing the language is dangerous. In Western Europe in the Middle Ages, a criminal could have his harsh sentence replaced by a pilgrimage, in which a person had to overcome dangers, realize the sinfulness of his actions and beg for forgiveness. In the era of the wars for the Holy Sepulcher, this was a severe test.
In its spiritual essence, pilgrimage is in some way akin to monasticism. Both here and here a person left home and his usual life, with a soul-saving goal in mind. The pilgrim “walks in the footsteps” of the Savior and the Mother of God - this stereotypical expression was widely used in pilgrimage and hagiographic texts. The pilgrim, like the monk, had to pass between the temptations that awaited him, each of which was capable of destroying the spiritual benefits of the pilgrimage.
Pilgrimage is work, it is fact of a person's biography. But between the shrine and the wanderer lies a difficult road test, full of labors and hardships, patience and sorrows, dangers and hardships. Here is the overcoming of one’s own weaknesses and worldly temptations, the acquisition of humility, the test of humility, and sometimes the test and purification of faith.
In what form to undertake the pilgrimage, each person decides for himself. There are people who prefer to travel to holy places on their own. The spiritual benefits of pilgrimage largely depend on the circumstances of the life of the pilgrim himself, on his state of mind, marital status, physical strength and other factors. For some it is good to live and work for two or three weeks in one monastery, while for others, on the contrary, it is useful to go on such a journey with the whole family, moving from place to place in two or three days.
Many mature people come with children. More and more young people are among the pilgrims, including members of Orthodox youth associations.
If you decide to live in a monastery for a week or two and receive the blessing of the abbot, in this case you need to make efforts to ensure that your personal life merges with monastic life. We must try to attend all services and perform obediences. Such a stay in the monastery allows you to enter into a rhythm, which even psychologically has a beneficial effect on a worldly person, allows you to calm down and try to comprehend your life without fuss and everyday worries. After all, the monastery has a special atmosphere, a special spiritual atmosphere, which you won’t really feel in two or three days.
The extent and depth of people's churching is different, and their understanding of the meaning and significance of pilgrimage is also different.
Among the visitors there are often those who have recently crossed the threshold of the temple. Sometimes you meet people who are completely unchurched, driven more by curiosity. If a person makes a trip just for the sake of curiosity, it is no longer a pilgrimage.
But, accepting people, including tourists, monastics are obedient - they open up the world of faith for many people. Sometimes it is tourists, and not pilgrims, who turn out to be the most grateful listeners and truly experience the shock of meeting the world of Faith, which they approached with such apprehension. But, of course, most modern people need to be taught a reverent attitude towards the shrine and delicate behavior on the territory of the monastery. Therefore, we still need to be reminded of the difference between pilgrimage and tourism.
Compared to a tourist trip, a pilgrimage trip does not have an entertainment section of the program, although health-improving and educational recreation as such is allowed.
One of the important aspects of pilgrimage trips is their spiritual and educational component. When visiting holy places, people learn about the history and spiritual traditions of monasteries and churches, the peculiarities of worship, saints and devotees of piety, whose life and work were connected with the shrines included in the pilgrimage route. Pilgrims have the opportunity to talk with the inhabitants of the monasteries, some find confessors for themselves.
Pilgrimage plays an important educational role. Monasteries and churches in Rus' have always been not only places of spiritual activity, but also cultural centers. Books, icons, works of applied art, and folk crafts have been accumulated here for centuries.
Monastery and temple buildings were the main architectural monuments of their era - especially before the 18th century. Therefore, a pilgrimage trip provides an excellent opportunity to get acquainted with the history, architecture, iconography, and craft traditions of Russia.
If you have little experience in pilgrimage trips, you may need advice on various issues.
There are a few important points to make.
It is good to coordinate the trip with the parish priest, taking his blessing for this good cause.
He can answer questions that arise in connection with the pilgrimage of new Christians. You can also turn for help to the pilgrimage center of the Ryazan diocese.
You should not include a large number of visited places on your trip, so as not to organize “high-speed races” with the goal of “visiting all the icons and shrines” instead of a reverent pilgrimage. During your trip, plan your time so that you can leisurely pray at shrines, attend divine services, and reflect on your experience.
Of course, we need to find time to prepare for the pilgrimage. Such preparation is a purely individual matter. Some pilgrims fast for a week before the pilgrimage, giving up meat and dairy foods, vanity and idle talk during the pilgrimage. Many people consider it necessary to stop using cigarettes, alcohol, and cosmetics. In most cases, people realize that pilgrimage is associated with prayerful efforts. For some participants in pilgrimage trips, they are valuable for the opportunity to communicate with like-minded people, like-minded people, which is missing in everyday life, reading and discussing spiritual literature, communication with brethren, and a feeling of unity in faith.
If your goal is to receive spiritual reinforcement, to feel grace, to mysteriously come into contact with it, then for this need a prayerful attitude. Wherein it is very important that the inner mood of the person with whom he comes to the shrine is sincere.
The revival of Russian pilgrimage was facilitated by the example His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II, who repeatedly visited the Holy Land and many holy places of both domestic and universal Orthodoxy. Were of great importance pilgrimage trips V.V. Putin when he was President of the Russian Federation. He was the first in history, as the head of the Russian state, to visit Jerusalem and Holy Mount Athos.
Pilgrimage trips help to understand the depths of Orthodoxy and its history, contribute to churching and deepening of faith, and educate a person in the Christian tradition. But what is especially important is that traveling to Orthodox shrines contributes to the unity of the Orthodox people, connecting us all with strong spiritual ties with our glorious ancestors, who kept the Faith and the Russian State in purity.
) for performing sacrifices and prayers.
Modern pilgrimage in Russia[ | ]
Currently, the pilgrimage of believers to holy places is beginning to revive in Russia. Active monasteries and churches play a big role in this by organizing such events. Pilgrimage services have emerged, specializing in organizing pilgrimage trips around the world. Some travel companies are also actively involved in this process.
According to the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem, Orthodox Christians from Russia, Ukraine and Moldova who come to this city on pilgrimage make up about half of the spiritual pilgrims from all over the world.
Outside of Russia, Russian pilgrims, in addition to Palestine, visit the Greek Athos, the Italian city of Bari, where the relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker rest, the Montenegrin capital Cetinje, where the right hand of John the Baptist and other Christian shrines are located.
Despite the apparent external similarity of pilgrimage with excursion tourism, their internal essence is very different: while excursion tourism aims to visit interesting places, pilgrimage involves preliminary spiritual work, “cleansing the soul,” before visiting a shrine. However, pilgrimage is often replaced by excursion tourism, when people are simply taken to “excursion sites” without prior internal, spiritual preparation. Therefore, back in the spring of 2003, the Interreligious Council of Russia submitted a proposal to the State Duma of the Russian Federation to distinguish between the concepts of “pilgrimage” and “tourism” at the legal level.
The meaning of pilgrimage[ | ]
To encourage pilgrimages, numerous guidebooks (itineraries) were compiled, many of which, like descriptions of the pilgrimages themselves, subsequently became important historical sources. Descriptions of “walks” to the Holy Land, compiled by some pilgrims, played a huge role in the spread of legends and apocryphal literature in Rus'.
Religious motives were often a cover for trade and aggressive goals. For example, pilgrimage played a significant role in the preparation of the Crusades. And among the pilgrims in Jerusalem in the Middle Ages one could also meet nobles seeking knighthood at the Holy Sepulcher; and political and military agents of kings; and adventurers who sought occult knowledge in the East full of wonders; and scientific researchers; and, finally, merchants who visited Palestine for trading purposes.
Is Orthodox pilgrimage a kind of tourism for believers or something more? How not to turn a trip into an excursion? And is it even necessary to travel to holy places if God is the same everywhere? In this article you will find advice for pilgrims, as well as interesting facts from the history of the pilgrimage.
Who is a pilgrim?
An Orthodox pilgrimage is not an “excursion for believers,” but a visit to Christian shrines for the purpose of prayerful worship, repentance and work. The word “pilgrim” itself comes from “palm”. But what kind of palm tree are we talking about?
You should turn to the Gospel story about the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. Local residents and people from the outskirts of the city greeted Him as the king of the Jews and therefore laid palm branches.
With the spread of Christianity, more and more people came to Jerusalem to pray and worship shrines. The seven days before Easter were of particular importance for believers. On the Feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, people came with palm branches - in memory of the solemn meeting of Christ with the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Believers very often brought these branches from the Holy Land. Therefore, Christians who visited Jerusalem began to be called pilgrims.
But the worship of holy places itself, as a special phenomenon in the life of a believer, arose long before Christianity. Moreover: what we call pilgrimage has been and is being done by representatives of different religions. But such travel reached its greatest development in the era of Christianity. But first things first.
From Jewish traditions to Orthodox pilgrimage
According to Old Testament history, pious Jews went to the Tabernacle with the Ark of the Covenant for prayer and sacrifices. Later it was replaced by the Jerusalem Temple.
It was customary for Jews to visit Jerusalem on Passover. We see this in the example of the Virgin Mary and Joseph the Betrothed, who, together with 12-year-old Jesus, went on a “pilgrimage.”
Representatives of other religions also go to worship shrines. For example, an important part of Muslim life is considered hajj— visit to Mecca and Medina. Hindus, Buddhists, and Shintos have their own analogues.
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land
Christian and, accordingly, Orthodox pilgrimage reached its greatest flourishing. The first route was the Holy Land, directly connected with the life of Christ.
During Holy Week, many pilgrims from different countries passed Way of the Cross of the Savior. It stretches from the place where Pilate sentenced Jesus to death to his crucifixion on Calvary and burial.
A marble chapel, the so-called cuvuklia, was built over the tomb of the Savior. It is in this edicule that the Greek patriarch prays on Holy Saturday. Through his prayers and the expectations of many gathered believers, a fire called the Holy Fire descends from heaven. Miracle of convergence Holy Fire- another reason for pilgrimages to Jerusalem.
It is not known exactly when such grace was first revealed, but the first descriptions of the miracle of fire descending from heaven date back to the 9th century. Even in our time, many pilgrims, regardless of religion, on the eve of Orthodox Easter head to Jerusalem, to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
But let's get back to history. Among the popular destinations of Orthodox pilgrimage were Constantinople and Athos, among Catholics - Rome, Loreto, and the Way of St. James.
Pilgrimages on the lands of Rus'
In Rus', after the adoption of Christianity, the practice of worshiping shrines also spread. But not everyone could afford to visit the Holy Land. This required a long time and a lot of money.
In a few centuries, internal pilgrimages will become popular. Our great-great-grandmothers knew nothing about pilgrimage: they walked.
To pray and venerate the shrines, believers came to Kiev Pechersk Lavra(the caves today contain the relics of over 120 saints), Pochaev(to the foot of the Mother of God and the relics of St. Job), in Trinity-Sergius Monastery(place of spiritual exploits of Sergius of Radonezh). Added over time Diveevo(here are the relics of Seraphim of Sarov). It was also customary to visit lesser-known monasteries and temples (their list today looks impressive).
Even in secular literature of the 19th century one can find evidence of how during Lent believers went to Kyiv or Pochaev to venerate the holy relics, pray to the Lord and the Mother of God, confess, take communion and return back with prayer.
Why are Orthodox pilgrimages not religious tourism?
Some people believe that traveling to holy places is a cultural and religious time. Allegedly, secular people go on vacation to the sea or to the mountains, and Christians go on pilgrimages. There they get acquainted with outstanding shrines, architectural monuments, and learn a lot of new things from guides... But this is nothing more than religious tourism.
But a pilgrim is not a happy traveler with a camera in his hands and a backpack on his back.
About the benefits of walking pilgrimages
Orthodox pilgrimage is prayer and spiritual work. Of course, modern conditions have spoiled believers. You no longer have to spend decades getting to the Holy Land or dedicate 40 days of Lent to walking to Kyiv or Pochaev, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra or Diveevo.
When you’ve been walking for weeks with the specific purpose of asking God for forgiveness and venerating shrines, you especially hope for the Lord’s help. You feel how much you need God, how He protects you. And the Lord, accordingly, through people sends you food and shelter.
When people went to worship shrines on foot and without strangers, they had enough time to be alone with God.
Escape from the hustle and bustle
Today, conditions have changed, walking pilgrimages have practically replaced pilgrimage trips, but ideally the main emphasis has been preserved: a prayerful attitude and spiritual work.
You are not going to take pictures of the sights and listen to the guide. You are going to take a break from the bustle of the world, think about the main thing, thank the Lord and ask Him for something important, as people often say, to gain grace. To do this, you waste your time, partially refuse to communicate with loved ones, and spare no money to pay for the pilgrimage trip.
Someone will ask: is it really necessary to get ready for the journey, if you can receive communion on the spot, and God will hear our prayer in any corner of the world - be it in Jerusalem or in the Arctic?..
Yes, God is the same everywhere, the Eucharist is no different in any Orthodox church. But our condition is different. Thanks to the Orthodox pilgrimage, we have the opportunity to escape from the hustle and bustle for at least a short time and focus on prayer. Moreover, your social circle plays an important role. As modern psychologists often like to say, we are 90% made up of our environment.
So, pilgrimage trips are a great chance to expand the circle of Christian communication. Experienced pilgrims also point out that the composition of the group plays an important role. If truly believing people have gathered, then even in a short time you will fully experience the meaning of Christian life - the atmosphere of love, spiritual joy, attentiveness, goodwill, prayer and the Eucharist.
- Prepare for your trip. Collect the things you really need, find out more about the shrines you are going to. Do all this with a prayerful attitude.
- If possible, go to confession and receive communion before your pilgrimage. If possible and desired, take a blessing from your confessor and discuss with him the issues that concern you.
- Write notes in advance so that when visiting churches and monasteries, use the time for prayer and worship, and not hang around the candle box.
- Leave worldly burdens behind. Do not take it with you on the bus, train or plane. This is exactly what distracts you from prayer in the first place.
- Turn off your phone. Your closest relatives already know where you are. Don’t think about what problems await you at home, what your boss will say, and in general how an honest Christian can survive in this sinful world.
- If you are traveling with friends, then try not to waste precious time on empty talk or, even worse, judgment. Try to maintain purity of heart.
- Usually, on the bus, pilgrims pray together, sing psalms, or watch useful videos about the shrines they visit. Get ready to spend some useful time.
- Focus on the purpose of your specific pilgrimage.
- When visiting temples and monasteries, pay attention to divine services and the Sacraments. On long pilgrimages, believers are blessed to receive communion frequently. Try to use this moment, and not constantly be distracted by candles, notes, leaflets.
- Try to keep the grace you receive in your heart longer. Your life should change after visiting holy places so that it doesn’t turn out like this: in the monastery you behaved righteously and piously, but at home you returned to all your previous sins.
- Change yourself first, and not your family or other participants in the pilgrimage. Your actions will be a hundred times more eloquent than words.
- Do not turn Orthodox pilgrimage into religious tourism. Yes, we are far from our ancestors, who traveled hundreds of kilometers to worship shrines. But we are able to invest at least a few mites of spiritual achievement and prayer into our trip.
The history and importance of the pilgrimage is also described in this video:
