Pilgrimage Tours Abroad in the 21st Century

Spiritual Travel is Becoming as Popular as in Centuries Past

By Alison Gardner
Senior Travel Editor

A Sacred Earth Journeys exploration of Mayan history and spirituality begins with the early unfamiliar Comalcalco Pyramid site on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Photo credit: Sacred Earth Journeys.

The word “pilgrim” immediately conjures up images of travel, but it goes far beyond that. Since the word first appeared in the western vocabulary of 14th century Europe, it has been associated with a sense of purpose, a commitment not just to wander through life but to pay attention, to focus, a wake-up call that may lead to positive change. Most of all, it has meant sacrifice, not just of time and money to reach the pilgrimage destination, but hardship to the human body and mental wellbeing. Reaching the destination was seldom easy, requiring weeks, months, even years away from family, community, livelihood …. no jetting across oceans or continents in a matter of hours nor driving comfortably to a pre-booked pilgrim hotel, reservation secured by credit card!

In medieval times, many people committed to pilgrimages because they were ill, or because they had a family member who was ill. Religious orders, even kings and queens, established hospitals along the most popular pilgrimage routes to care for sick or injured pilgrims many of whom never made it to their goal. Even today, illness, mental distress and disability remain important motivations for pilgrimage, though sometimes the pilgrimage comes after a trauma, or even as a challenge to it.

Nearing the end of my own pilgrimage along Spain’s Camino de Santiago (The Way of Saint James), I met a 66-year-old Canadian businessman hefting a large backpack who told me he had experienced a massive heart attack just six months earlier. It came very close to killing him. In his hospital bed, he had resolved to lose some 100 pounds (he was still over 200), get fitter than he had been for decades, and walk the 470 miles or 750 kilometers from the French/Spanish border to the pilgrimage destination of Santiago de Compostela. For more than a month, he had walked through many elevations and weather systems, slept in hostels, and thought a lot about his life priorities. Though he was Greek Orthodox rather than Catholic, he was ecstatic to walk into this beautiful medieval city next day and wrap his arms around the cathedral’s statue of Saint James in the symbolic giving of thanks for a completed journey. A good pilgrimage easily crosses sectarian lines, as I discovered when I gave Saint James a solid Baptist hug myself after a humble 100 kilometers, the minimum required to receive my certificate as a Camino pilgrim.

Along the route, a pilgrim collects authorized stamps in a Camino passport to prove a walk of at least 100 kilometers. Photo credit: Alison Gardner.

Pilgrimage Travel Today

In the 21st century, the world seems to feel just as strongly about pilgrimage travel as it ever has, but have the motivations changed as much as the style? Wikipedia defines pilgrimage as follows: “In religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long journey or search of great moral significance.” The Free Dictionary mentions “exalted purpose” which also sounds appropriate. Even with deep economic recessions and readily-accessible medical care in most western nations to cure our ailments, pilgrimage travel holds steady among the already-faithful and those who search for meaning and new directions in their lives. When so many world-class tour companies run Religious Tours, it’s got to be a growing market, not a stagnant or declining one!

Partly because the rigors and dangers of pilgrimage travel have been drastically reduced and partly because older people have the time, money, good health and compelling urge to explore the world, men and women age 50 and better make up the vast majority of pilgrim travelers, whether doing so independently or in groups of varying sizes.

With tour operators now putting on their creative one-week to three-week thinking caps, sometimes the goal becomes a well-blended collection of pilgrimage experiences and sightseeing rather than a single destination with a single focus. In fact, it raises the question whether the pilgrimage must have a destination, or is it to be about the journey in equal measure? For example, the British company, Pilgrim Adventure, has been offering inexpensive ecumenical Christian journeys in small informal groups through historic Celtic Britain and Ireland since 1987. Daily hikes of up to five miles, island-hopping and worshipping in out-of-the-way places are all part of a memorable and insightful holiday.

A Pilgrim Adventure tour in Britain may include a simple communion service on the beach. Photo Credit: Pilgrim Adventure.

Virtually every major religion has its revered places and spiritual festivals, many with deep historical roots and a compelling contemporary vibrancy. For example, almost all of Saudi Arabia’s very considerable tourism is made up of Moslem pilgrims visiting Mecca, the holiest site in Islam. For some travelers interested in pilgrimage as a concept, exploring the faith or spiritual directions of others is no threat to their own; in fact they may well view such explorations as complementary, even inclusionary to their own. Those with no external faith-label at all still make good candidates for pilgrimage travel, possibly looking for the catalyst to self-discovery and life direction using spiritual tools they have never considered.

Sacred Earth Journeys roams the world in search of spiritually significant experiences for the large repeat clientele. Pilgrimage tours to Egypt, India, Mexico and Peru are perennial favorites while other popular destinations have been Japan, Bhutan, England and Ireland. “On tour we normally visit different sacred sites relating to the spiritual meaning and teachings of a particular civilization,” says Helen, “such as the Mayans of Mexico or the Inca of Peru. Connecting to the natural setting, imbued with powerful energies, also allows each individual to experience the traditions and wisdom of the ancients first hand.”

I had never been a pilgrimage person, religious or spiritual, until I lived for two years in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, 45 minutes from Medjugorje, visited annually by one million of the Catholic faithful and the curious since 1980. Despite the numbers, particularly in the summer months, the still-small town with no high-rise hotels or fast-food outlets is a cheerful, unhurried, accommodating experience where fellow pilgrims strike up conversations with strangers and spontaneously share a restaurant table or a countryside hike.

Then in 2007, I fell in love with the mountain top pilgrim site of La Salette in the French Alps, lesser-known than Medjugorje with no crowds at all for the very good reason that only a few hundred people can stay in the efficiently-run retreat center, booked well in advance. No town, no shops at the end of a hairpin turn road …. just layer upon layer of mountain ranges, the tinkling bells of sheep, and dozens of ridge-top hiking trails straight out of the opening scenes of The Sound of Music.

La Salette in the French Alps above Grenoble provides the perfect natural backdrop for a pilgrim retreat. Photo credit: Alison Gardner

Going out on a pilgrimage limb, I am predicting a brand new reason to visit Hawaii’s island of Moloka’i. In October 2009, Father Damien, the first non-Hawaiian to serve the infamous Kalaupapa leper colony (1873 to 1889) will be elevated to sainthood 120 years after his own death at 49 years from contracting leprosy. His is a remarkable story of persistence and selflessness, and the Kalaupapa Peninsula today is a surprisingly inspirational setting despite its grim history. Still physically-challenging to access by mule or on foot (though an unchallenging plane flight has recently been introduced), here is just the sort of pilgrimage destination where reflecting on “exalted purpose” and “moral significance” comes very naturally.

Father Damien Grave: The gravesite of Father Damien on Hawaii’s island of Moloka’i may become a new pilgrimage destination. Photo Credit: Ray Mains.