A Philosophy of Walking by Frederic Gros

Author:Frederic Gros
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Verso Books
Published: 2014-04-08T04:00:00+00:00

The first main routes for Christians led to Rome or Jerusalem. From the third century, Jerusalem became the ultimate pilgrimage for Christians, an immersion in the presence of Christ: treading the very soil on which he had walked (in loco ubi steterunt pedes eius, in the words of the Psalm), following the path of Calvary, touching the wood from the True Cross, gazing into the cave where he had spoken to his disciples. But widespread social and political unrest made the journey increasingly difficult, and soon Rome became a safer, more reliable destination.

The resting place of the leading apostles, Peter and Paul, Rome was the hub and centre of the established Catholic Church. Thus to perform the peregrinatio romana was a perfect act of submission, expressing profound loyalty to the Church in fulfilment of its historic mission. Then, after 1300, great jubilee years were decreed, during which going to Rome and following a specific route inside that city from sanctuary to sanctuary (St Peter’s, St John Lateran, St Paul Outside the Walls …) would earn a full remission of all the pilgrim’s sins. Rome was a place to testify, but also to seek salvation.

Compostela was the last of these major destinations. It is said of St James – one of Christ’s three favourites, and the first martyred apostle, decapitated by order of King Herod – that his own disciples loaded his remains onto a ship which was then wrecked on the shores of Galicia. The heavy marble casket was carried ashore, and there forgotten – until the famous moment when a hermit called Pelagius dreamed that angels had shown him the exact location of the tomb, whose direction was being indicated every night by a row of stars. A sanctuary was built over the rediscovered sepulchre, then a church, and finally a cathedral. Santiago de Compostela became one of the most famous sites of pilgrimage, soon taking its place beside Rome and Jerusalem.

The explanation for the very rapid development of this destination, after its late start, has much to do with reasons of convenience. Of course it is the tomb of a major saint, but one that was perhaps easier to reach (lower passes, more peaceable regions) than those of Peter and Paul – although the distance from northern Europe was much the same – and in any case nearer than Jerusalem.

Rome and Jerusalem are both cities of such mystical intensity that the road to get there can only be a long succession of uninteresting landmarks and mediations. The radiance of the place itself shrivels the singularity of the stages leading up to it. Especially when, there at last, a new progression is required. In Rome, the itinerary goes from the basilica of St Peter via St John Lateran and St Paul Outside the Walls to St Mary Major; from the Holy Cross of Jerusalem to St Lawrence Outside the Walls. There was a visit to the catacombs, long subterranean corridors lined with the coffins of early martyrs. So, after an unending linear road, the real path of devotion is paced out in the Eternal City.

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