What does the word “pilgrim” mean?
Each November, we celebrate Thanksgiving to commemorate the Pilgrims who left England to establish a colony in the New World. We call them pilgrims because they left their homes and journeyed into the unknown.
The word “pilgrim” means a wayfarer, a traveler, one who journeys especially to a foreign place. Its origin is from the Latin word peregrinus, meaning “foreign, alien, coming from abroad, traveling.”
It soon took deep roots in Christian tradition, especially describing Christians traveling to the Holy Land seeking God, especially to visit the land of the Bible and of Our Lord. St. Augustine used the term “peregrinatio” to describe a Christian’s spiritual exile in search of divine truth.
The earliest recorded Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land was by the anonymous Pilgrim of Bordeaux in 333 AD. He recounts his spiritual journey through the sacred sites.
By the 4th century, pilgrimage was actively encouraged by figures such as St. Jerome and St. Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great. Pilgrimages were grueling in those days, and they never knew if they would return home. St. Francis of Assisi took his pilgrimage in 1219, and his followers eventually became the protectors of the holy sites.
But Christians did not “invent” pilgrimages. The Israelites would go on pilgrimages to Jerusalem every year to celebrate the high and holy feasts at the Temple. Psalm 84 describes their longing for the Lord’s precincts as they journeyed (my article on Psalm 84). Psalms 120-134 are known as the “Psalms of Ascent” or the “Pilgrimage Psalms,” as they were sung by those who climbed the mountain to experience God’s presence in Jerusalem.
Psalm 122 begins, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD!’ Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!”
Mary, Jesus, and the Israelites of old chanted these Psalms as they journeyed on their yearly pilgrimage, much like we do today.
Janet and I first followed untold millions of pilgrims to the Holy Land in 1995 after our conversion to the Catholic Church. Soon, we had an irrepressible urge to visit the land of the Bible for ourselves. I cried the whole way through our first pilgrimage. Subsequent trips inspired us to share our discoveries and joy with others.
In 2005, we took our first full bus of pilgrims landing in Tel Aviv (the biblical Lydda, Acts 9:36-43). Since then, we have visited the Land over 200 times and have led over 150 pilgrimage groups. Well over 10,000 people have joined us.
We invite you to join us on one of our upcoming pilgrimages to seek God and experience the numerous graces that come from visiting these holy sites.