The modern pilgrim

Modern pilgrims are often young people in jeans, as we see here at the popular Spanish shrine Santiago de Compostela. Photo: Centro Ricerche Socio-religiose, Padova, Italy.

Norwegians are among the most ardent pilgrims in the world.

By Noralv Pedersen

Norway ranks as number 11 in the list of nations whose people visit the popular Spanish shrine of Santiago de Compostela. This puts Norway just after large predominantly Catholic countries such as Italy, France and Spain. – This is surprising, considering the deeply rooted Protestantism and how few inhabitants there are in Norway, says Gustav Erik Gullikstad Karlsaune, lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at NTNU. He explains this huge interest in pilgrimages by the Norwegian search for ways to express piety that is not catered for in the state Protestant church.
– There are few rituals left in the Protestant church. The word and the text dominate services. However, over the last few decades, forms of ritual have been on the increase. The lighting of candles when our King Olav died was an expression of this tendency. In addition, Norwegians have long had a tradition of hiking and a pilgrimage is a way of combining hiking with a journey to a shrine, says Karlsaune.

Reflection
– We find pilgrims in all the major religions. The tradition of the human wandering to a shrine is as old as humanity, says Karlsaune, who has been interested in pilgrims for almost thirty years and is enthusiastic about a wider cultural and not just religious understanding of this phenomenon.
– Three out of four visitors to Santiago de Compostela are below the age of thirty, and every third pilgrim is a student. The stereotypical pilgrim – Jacob with a hat, a cloak and a staff – is just one of a number of different sorts of people who go on pilgrimages. The modern pilgrim is likely to be a youth wearing jeans, says Karlsaune. Research reveals that only a minority of pilgrims attends church services on a regular basis, but that they still adhere to some kind of religious faith.
– Motives for going on a pilgrimage may vary. Some go for the adventure. The journey to the shrine can also be seen as an image of life itself. A pilgrimage forces the busy, modern individual to break away from the trivialities of everyday life and question what the most important things in life really are, says Karlsaune.

More than penance and healing
The modern pilgrim is also interested in history. Research carried out at Nidarosdomen – Trondheim’s cathedral – has confirmed that visitors do not believe in the Holy King Olav being a saint, he is just an important historical figure.
– People who visit Nidarosdomen tend to define themselves as tourists, but even so, many report that they undergo a religious experience when they encounter the majestic cathedral arch, says Karlsaune. He does not believe that paying penance, taking stock of one’s sins, or seeking healing, are the only important factors for modern pilgrims –
although prayer and religious observance naturally are important elements for many people.
– If pilgrimages had been exclusively about penance, healing, and saints, there wouldn’t be so many pilgrims today, nor would there have been in the Middle Ages, says Karlsaune.
Arne Bakken, who was the clergyman responsible for pilgrimages in Trondheim in the period from 1994 to 1998, is very familiar with the picture Karlsaune draws of the multifaceted pilgrim.
Bakken believes that the fact that so many go abroad for a pilgrimage also has something to do with Norwegian reticence. – It is easier to express our religiosity by means of a pilgrimage and through the lighting of candles in, for example, Santiago de Compostela, than doing it at home, says Bakken.

Contact at NTNU: Gustav Erik Gullikstad Karlsaune
Tel: +47 73 59 65 79
Email: Erik.Karlsaune@hf.ntnu.no