Virtual Pilgrimages and Passion Parks
In the late-medieval period, pilgrimage was
part of the religious life. Pilgrims travelled mainly to Jerusalem, Rome or
Santiago de Compostela. This was a long and hazardous journey, one which not
everyone could make, for different reasons. Many of those people were religious
man or women, monks and nuns, who lived in a monastery and pledged an oath of Stabilitas
loci, they were bound to their monastery. They invented and revised existing
strategies for virtual traveling to the holy places, which would later be
called virtual pilgrimage. Another form of pilgrimage is the pilgrimage to a passion
park. These parks were exact copies of a holy place and pilgrims could travel
through them in order to suffer alongside Christ. This page will explain these
virtual pilgrimages and passion parks further and I will attempt to answer my
main question: how do virtual pilgrimage and passion parks fit in the religious
life of the late Middle Ages?
In the late Middle Ages, the Passion of Christ was a central point of religious attention. This made Jerusalem the most popular holy place to visit. In the fifteenth century, the book Imitatione Christi, The imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. In this book, a manual for the Modern Devotion movement, Kempis calls to the people to “pick up their cross, and follow Christ”. This resulted in an increasing popularity of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
People who could not undertake a pilgrimage turned to virtual pilgrimage. The virtual pilgrimage is a journey which happens in the mind. Religious man and women travel to Jerusalem or another holy place in their minds by meditating and prayers. The prayers and meditation exercises they must say and perform come from a manual, which is constructed from an original pilgrims account. Once they arrive at their chosen destination, they can stay there for a few days, after which they return home. All this happens through prayer and meditation. The prayer and meditation is very intense, in this way, the virtual pilgrims relive the passion of Christ as though they were standing next to him. When the virtual pilgrimage is completed, the traveller receives indulgences. In this way, virtual pilgrimage is equal to real pilgrimage.
The second form of virtual pilgrimage is the passion park. This phenomena is centred around Western Europe and remains of these parks can be found in Germany and Northern Italy. Passion parks consist of a group of buildings, each of which is an exact replica of an building in the original holy place. All the buildings in an passion park are mentioned in the bible, and together, they form the Passion tale. For example; on sites in Germany and Northern Italy, replicas of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre can be found. These buildings were constructed through measurements taken by pilgrims in Jerusalem and who had taken their account back home with them. The buildings were not the only replicas in the passion parks, the distances between the buildings were also the exact same as the distances Christ had walked. To make the experience even more vivid, groups of statues were places alongside the road, such as the Pietà. These passion parks were visited by different sorts of groups, but mostly laymen. At each building or statue, prayers had to be said in order to receive indulgences.
Both of these forms of pilgrimage could not have existed without networks. The virtual pilgrimage and the passion parks both needed an original pilgrim accounts. The virtual pilgrimage needed it in order to write a manual for prayer and meditation, and the passion parks needed it to get the exact measurements of the holy places. In order for these pilgrim accounts to even get to Europe, trading- and pilgrim networks have been used. In this way, virtual pilgrimage and passion parks interact well with real pilgrimage. Without the real pilgrimage, many devout Europeans couldn’t have had the experience which they now have gotten.
To conclude; both these two ways of pilgrimage are centred around the passion of Christ. The people who undertook an virtual pilgrimage were focussed on the suffering of Christ, maybe even more than the actual pilgrims. The virtual pilgrimage and passion parks fit well in the religious life of the late Middle Ages, especially when looked at the importance of the Passion of Christ.
People who could not undertake a pilgrimage turned to virtual pilgrimage. The virtual pilgrimage is a journey which happens in the mind. Religious man and women travel to Jerusalem or another holy place in their minds by meditating and prayers. The prayers and meditation exercises they must say and perform come from a manual, which is constructed from an original pilgrims account. Once they arrive at their chosen destination, they can stay there for a few days, after which they return home. All this happens through prayer and meditation. The prayer and meditation is very intense, in this way, the virtual pilgrims relive the passion of Christ as though they were standing next to him. When the virtual pilgrimage is completed, the traveller receives indulgences. In this way, virtual pilgrimage is equal to real pilgrimage.
The second form of virtual pilgrimage is the passion park. This phenomena is centred around Western Europe and remains of these parks can be found in Germany and Northern Italy. Passion parks consist of a group of buildings, each of which is an exact replica of an building in the original holy place. All the buildings in an passion park are mentioned in the bible, and together, they form the Passion tale. For example; on sites in Germany and Northern Italy, replicas of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre can be found. These buildings were constructed through measurements taken by pilgrims in Jerusalem and who had taken their account back home with them. The buildings were not the only replicas in the passion parks, the distances between the buildings were also the exact same as the distances Christ had walked. To make the experience even more vivid, groups of statues were places alongside the road, such as the Pietà. These passion parks were visited by different sorts of groups, but mostly laymen. At each building or statue, prayers had to be said in order to receive indulgences.
Both of these forms of pilgrimage could not have existed without networks. The virtual pilgrimage and the passion parks both needed an original pilgrim accounts. The virtual pilgrimage needed it in order to write a manual for prayer and meditation, and the passion parks needed it to get the exact measurements of the holy places. In order for these pilgrim accounts to even get to Europe, trading- and pilgrim networks have been used. In this way, virtual pilgrimage and passion parks interact well with real pilgrimage. Without the real pilgrimage, many devout Europeans couldn’t have had the experience which they now have gotten.
To conclude; both these two ways of pilgrimage are centred around the passion of Christ. The people who undertook an virtual pilgrimage were focussed on the suffering of Christ, maybe even more than the actual pilgrims. The virtual pilgrimage and passion parks fit well in the religious life of the late Middle Ages, especially when looked at the importance of the Passion of Christ.
Sources
Kempis. Thomas à, In de navolging van Christus, naar de Brusselse autograaf, vertaald door Gerard Wijdeveld en ingeleid door Paul van Geest. Kampen: Ten Have, 2001.
Kühnel, B., “Virtual Pilgrimages to real places: The Holy Landscapes.” In Imagining Jerusalem in the Medieval West, edited by Lucy Donkin and Hanna Vorholt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Rudy, Katherine M., Virtual Pilgrimages in the Convent: Imagining Jerusalem in the Late Middle Ages. Turnhout:Brepols, 2011.
Willemsz, A., Bedevaart naar Jeruzalem in 1525. Edited by C.J. Gonnet. Haarlem: Küppers, 1884.
Articles
Miedema, Nine R. “Pelgrimsreizen in de geest van de Middeleeuwen.” Transparant, 13.3 (augustus 2002): 16-19.
Images
Görlitz, Jerusalem Complex, Engraving of 1719, Anonymous, Umständliche Beschreibung des Heiligen Grabes zu Görlitz. Nebst einer in Kupfer gestochenen Vorstellung, Görlitz, 1823.
A.J.
Kühnel, B., “Virtual Pilgrimages to real places: The Holy Landscapes.” In Imagining Jerusalem in the Medieval West, edited by Lucy Donkin and Hanna Vorholt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Rudy, Katherine M., Virtual Pilgrimages in the Convent: Imagining Jerusalem in the Late Middle Ages. Turnhout:Brepols, 2011.
Willemsz, A., Bedevaart naar Jeruzalem in 1525. Edited by C.J. Gonnet. Haarlem: Küppers, 1884.
Articles
Miedema, Nine R. “Pelgrimsreizen in de geest van de Middeleeuwen.” Transparant, 13.3 (augustus 2002): 16-19.
Images
Görlitz, Jerusalem Complex, Engraving of 1719, Anonymous, Umständliche Beschreibung des Heiligen Grabes zu Görlitz. Nebst einer in Kupfer gestochenen Vorstellung, Görlitz, 1823.
A.J.