Medieval Pilgrimage

This book offers a fresh, approachable look at medieval pilgrimage in the Christian West, the first of its kind in over twenty years and the first to take account of prevailing trends in anthropological studies of pilgrimage. Previous works have described pilgrimage as it happened in the medieval period, but this study also offers a framework for understanding the concept of pilgrimage. The book first challenges the reader to question the definition of pilgrimage itself and provides a critical overview of the key historical and anthropological literature. It then presents readers with a short history of medieval pilgrimage, fleshing out the core argument that pilgrimage was both contested and dynamic, and firmly rooted in its local and regional contexts. It concludes by exploring the vexed question of reconstructing the medieval pilgrim experience, emphasizing the messiness and unpredictability of pilgrim behaviour.

John Jenkins is Director of the Centre for Pilgrimage Studies at the University of York. He is also the editor and translator of the Customary of the Shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral with Arc Humanities (2022).