Why have I gone on a pilgrimage?

The motivation that lies behind the project and which was driving the author towards its favourable realisation has multitudinous elements, the first being a desire to engage with a social phenomenon growing in popularity and importance in recent times. Pilgrimage has been widely recognized and practised for centuries as a predominantly religious activity. Islam, the second-largest religion in the world, recognises it as one of its Five Pillars which are the basic acts considered obligatory for all believers. The history of Christian pilgrimages dates back to the 4th century when they were encouraged by the Fathers of the Church. However, recently pilgrimages have become a phenomenon not only directly related with religion. On the one hand, they have gained in popularity amongst people with a more secular worldview, such as the aforementioned writer Gideon Lewis-Kraus. On the other hand, they have become intertwined with other initiatives, for example, through the Green Pilgrimage Network organised jointly by the Alliance of Religions and Conversation (ARC) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Both are international organisations concerned with the issues of conservation, protection and restoration of natural environment of our planet. According to the statistics collected by ARC, which the organisation itself considers to be underestimated, more than 200 million people make a pilgrimage every single year. All of these developments suggest that a pilgrimage is a worldwide phenomenon worthy of study with secular, spiritual and religious contexts in mind. As a result, through this project I intended to contribute to such a study by investigating what a pilgrimage came to mean at the beginning of the 21st century. Also, this would increase the visibility and involvement on the part of the University of Warwick (of which the Lord Rootes Memorial Fund is a part) with issues of social significance.

The motivation has been additionally complemented by a strong personal interest in and enthusiasm about pilgrimages and hiking trips. Two of the three pilgrimages intended as a part of the project, the Pyrenees and the Camino de Santiago, have been my dreams for a long time and this ensured the commitment and dedication needed for the preparation and implementation of the project. In fact, this has been consistent with and beneficial for the investigation of the meaning of a pilgrimage. It encouraged me to attempt to gain a wide perspective on the phenomenon in question by visiting, and taking advantage of their geographical proximity, three different pilgrimages 'destinations', that is, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in Lourdes in France, the unusual pilgrimage in the form of a four-day hike in the Pyrenees and the Camino de Santiago that I have walked from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela. Finally, the expedition has also been a personal and cultural development quest as it had made it possible for me to experience a culture of France, the north of Spain and the Pyrenees giving me an opportunity for a personal inner pilgrimage before I was about to start my professional career following the Masters course at the University of Warwick.