Being a Pilgrim is a stunning book. The authors/photographers Kathleen Ashley and Marilyn Deegan bring medieval pilgrimage to life through more than 250 large, full-color photographs. Sometimes, the buildings and objects photographed are so well made, so enduring, that is easy to forget they the photos were taken in the twenty-first century rather than the thirteenth. At other times, however, one notices signs that show just how old these objects and structures truly are—the wear on stone, faded black letters, a few remaining specks of polychrome paint. Although the volume’s main draw is its photographs, the authors’ accompanying text provides valuable historical context for the images in language suitable for casual readers. Through text and images, the authors draw the reader/viewer along several popular medieval pilgrimage routes that lead to Saint James’s relics in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The authors traveled these routes themselves, intermittently over the course of two years. Along the way, the authors meet fellow pilgrims also traveling to the city, men and women who—like their medieval predecessors—are drawn to that holy place despite immense changes in lifestyle, technology, and culture.
The book is not organized chronologically or geographically, but by theme. The introductory chapter provides a broad overview of the medieval pilgrimage experience and situates Saint James’s shrine in its historical, legendary, and iconographic contexts. Although the saint was allegedly buried in Compostela in the first century, the site did not gain religious significance until the ninth century, when the saint’s remains were miraculously rediscovered. By the twelfth century, Santiago was the third most important pilgrimage destination, behind Jerusalem and Rome. The famous pilgrimage site left its mark across Western Europe, in art, architecture, music, and literature. In its heyday, pilgrims flocked to churches along the route, pressing in so tightly that, in the words of a twelfth-century abbot, “no one, because of their very congestion, could [do] anything but stand like a marble statue, stay benumbed or, as a last resort, scream” (37). Although the number of pilgrimages to Santiago declined considerably after the eighteenth century, the city has recently seen a surge in pilgrims and tourists—no doubt assisted in part by UNESCO’s designation of the city as a World Heritage Site in 1993.
Subsequent chapters take the reader along popular pilgrimage routes to Santiago, stopping along the way to tour other shrines, visit that famous town, or stop at the hostel for a hot meal and a warm bed. In chapter 2, the authors overview the more popular routes, describing significant sites and landscapes medieval travelers would have encountered. Chapter 3 explores the physical, legal, and spiritual preparations undertaken before beginning a pilgrimage. The authors define pilgrimage as a system with its own motives (both spiritual and secular), processes, and rituals. In chapter 4, the authors describe those social institutions that assisted pilgrims (lay and secular patrons, confraternities), and the structures they built (hospices, bridges, churches). Chapter 5 gives some useful background information about saint’s relics and popular relic locations pilgrims stopped at on their way to Santiago. Chapter 6 overviews the towns pilgrims passed through and the sites they might see in them—the stained glass windows of Saint-Etienne cathedral in Bourges; twenty-seven whole bodies of apostles, saints, and martyrs at Saint-Sernin in Toulouse; strange Moorish people and customs in Iberian cities; bullfighting in Burgos. At these examples suggest, pilgrimage provided opportunities for people not only to renew their faith, but also to broaden their knowledge of the world.
Chapter 7 takes up legends, folklore, and miracles associated with sites along the pilgrimage route, preserved in both written accounts and material culture. Pilgrimage provided a context for legend telling, as pilgrims during the travels encountered the actual sites of miracles or the bones of the miracle-worker. The most famous legend associated with the Saint James pilgrimage is the miracle of the Hanged Innocent, in which an evil innkeeper falsely accuses a youth of theft in order to steal his goods. The innocent victim is hanged, but his family still completes its pilgrimage. On the return trip some days later, the family finds their son still alive in his noose, his body supported by Saint James. The family rushes to tell the local judge, who proclaims that the youth is no more alive than the chickens on his plate. Miraculously, the aforesaid chickens come alive and begin to crow. This legend is reproduced in imagery and architecture along the pilgrimage route, particularly in Santo Domingo, which has laid claim to the legend. For example, the Santo Domingo de la Calzada church has commemorated the miracle since the fifteenth century with an ornate chicken coop built into its wall, where live chickens are housed to this day.
The penultimate chapter examines the music, both popular and liturgical, associated with pilgrimage. This chapter includes numerous photos of musical performances preserved in material culture along the route. The book concludes with a chapter on Santiago itself and the rituals associated with pilgrimage’s end. This final chapter most strongly reinforces a theme present throughout the entire book—pilgrimage is not an historical object but a living process that has changed and adapted over the centuries. A pair of sneakers wrapped around a cross in Roncesvalles; a scallop shell and refuge sign hung on a wall in a Pyrenean border town; offerings of sticks, flowers, and shells at Saint Giles’s shrine in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer—images that demonstrate the continuation and adaptation of pilgrimage practices. Sometimes, the authors were unable to take photos of the sites described by medieval pilgrims because the sites no longer exist, destroyed by war or simply disinterest. Some photos show buildings that have been built and rebuilt, ruined and later renovated. Cathedrals are especially susceptible to change, as they strove to make their buildings bigger and better for visiting pilgrims. Some buildings retain the same function they held in the Middle Ages, but others have not. For example, many of the hostels that freely served medieval pilgrims of all classes are now luxury hotels, serving only the wealthy. Numerous such examples demonstrate how the pilgrimage changed, yet continues to live on today, in some ways not so different than it did centuries ago. Pilgrims to Santiago still embrace a statue of Saint James, still gawk at the performers outside the cathedral, still solemnly approach the saint’s relics, still celebrate the completion of their journey with music and dancing.
Being a Pilgrim is a beautiful, well-conceived volume that provides a concise introduction to medieval pilgrimage. The authors pay attention to folk culture throughout, noting how pilgrimage is a meeting not only of foreign cultures, but also official and unofficial cultures. The authors weave together appealing photos and lively text to clearly demonstrate the importance of the Santiago pilgrimage to medieval life, as well as its continued vitality into the present day. Although of limited use to the specialist, it is an easy, engaging read appropriate for both the coffee table and the undergraduate classroom.
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[Review length: 1153 words • Review posted on May 12, 2011]