During the Middle Ages, pilgrimages to important religious sites became a significant practice for European medieval Christians. The tradition extended throughout many places in western Europe, to various cathedrals and relics via numerous routes. A relic of a saint represented the physical remains of a venerated Christian. Touching the remains of a saint could provide miraculous healing and a connection through a saint to God. Overall, pilgrimages were an integral part of medieval Christian culture because of the practice of visiting reliquaries, decorative containers for the relics of saints. A Christian could visit a reliquary if their town had one, but in the early Middle Ages, not many cities did. Therefore, people would travel to visit these relics, thus developing the practice of pilgrimaging to reliquaries. The pilgrimage, the Way of St. James, is a pilgrimage through France to the Spanish city of Santiago, ending at the cathedral, Santiago de Compostela, where the remains of St. James rest. The city became culturally relevant after a bishop discovered the remains of St. James in Santiago, Spain. During the 9th and 10th centuries C.E., religious leaders, such as bishops, abbots, and priests began to travel to see these remains housed in a church. Bishop Gotescalco of Le Puy was one of these first pilgrims and his journey through the southern part of France is what eventually became the Le Puy-en-Velay route.
The Le Puy-en-Velay route holds cultural significance as the oldest and most popular route of the Way of St. James in France. Starting in the city of le Puy, the terrain of the route comprises volcanic regions, countrysides, and cities. In general, every route offers the opportunity to visit reliquaries of various saints in shrines along the way before reaching the end destination. The Way of St. James, once more, ends at the cathedral, Santiago de Compostela, which houses the shrine of St. James. However, along the Le Puy route, pilgrims had the opportunity to visit several shrines with saint reliquaries. Among these relics were the reliquaries of the Black Madonna in Le Puy and Sainte Foy in Conques. One of the reasons the route was so popular was because it took pilgrims through the city of Conques where they could pay respect to and touch the reliquary with the relic of Sainte Foy in the abbey of Conques. The young female martyr was a famous martyr and became a famous reliquary to visit. As the pilgrim continued past Conques, they would pass through the valley of the Lot River where they could pay respect and see relics at the abbeys in Figeac, Marcilhac, and Moissac.
During the next two centuries, the practice reached high popularity with several participating pilgrims from all over western Europe, traveling by foot or horse to the Spanish city. These pilgrims of St. James had a distinctive appearance to not only signify who they were but where they were going also. These pilgrims wore satchels, pilgrims' hats, and coats, were decorated with a scallop shell and carried a Bible and walking staff in hand. As they ventured on their way, they were respected and revered by people who lived along the path, with these people offering to provide shelter and goodness to the travelers on their Holy way. Once the pilgrims arrived at the cathedral in Santiago, they could venerate, touch the reliquary, and pray at the altar of St. James. They could also buy a metal scallop shell as a souvenir and proof of their journey. The tradition flourished throughout the Middles Ages until the French Revolution, which ended the religious state of France under the headship of a king.
After the tradition ended during the last decade of the 18th century, there were various resurges during the 19th and early 20th centuries. However, with the continual wars in Europe during the first half of the 20th century, the pilgrimages and the routes never truly returned to being functional. During the latter half of the century, the Way of St. James reemerged with more consistency when Pope John Paull II officially reinstated the practice in 1982. Pilgrims today can then partake in this journey and exercise their faith by following the medieval routes. The route is directed towards one goal and direction, utilizing people and churches along the way to create a spiritual journey where the participants grow in their personal beliefs.
The exhibit, thus, explores the practice through medieval artifacts from past pilgrims, main cathedrals, and medieval texts documenting the pilgrimage in order to gain a deeper understanding of the continuing journey. In effect, the project will not only demonstrate why medieval people partook in these pilgrimages but how the practice contributed to the French culture of the time, the religious significance of these practices for French Christians, and its lasting effects on culture and Catholics today. Understanding why medieval Christians cherished this practice is important to understanding its rebirth in the Contemporary Age. Therefore, the exhibit includes information and artifacts on the historical and biblical life of St. James, the general religious practice of pilgrimages, the pilgrims themselves and medieval culture, the history and construction of the cathedrals, and contemporary pilgrims of today. Overall, the artifacts and categories of the exhibit will create an overreaching representation of the Way of St. James by the Le Puy-en-Velay route to not only comprehend the history but how the historical context can influence the culture in France and for Catholics today.
Curatorial Statement and Biography
For centuries, European Catholic pilgrims marched along countrysides and through villages to a sacred location to pray for protection and blessings from saints. This exhibit critically and articulately examines a part of this history of medieval pilgrimages. With this, the exhibit provides the historical background of the saint, Saint James, to explain why people traveled to visit his remains, the history of pilgrimage and route of the Way of St. James, the end route cathedral, Santiago de Compostela, and how this practice has changed over the centuries into the contemporary day.
The vision for the exhibit is for it to be an easy to access and understandable resource for all who wish to learn about the Way of St. James. With the historical and chronological format, I hope to communicate a wide encompassing look at the different aspects of the pilgrimage in order to communicate this vision. The particular ideas explored through the objects is an understanding of how these objects function together and separately to create a story. One of the ideas is understanding how these medieval pilgrims looked and lived through examining the artifacts from their pilgrimages, such as the pilgrim’s hat and the metal cockle shells. The architectural pieces provide a spatial understanding of what it would have been like to see what the pilgrims saw to generate what the experience would have been like. The organization contributes to the meaning by being in chronological order to tell a straightforward story that people can logically follow. The relationship between the objects is that they all connect back to the pilgrims themselves and understanding how that particular object relates to, what it means to, and how it describes the pilgrim. I hope that the audience will learn about and appreciate the medieval practice in order to gain a deeper understanding and then apply that understanding to their everyday lives.
The overarching themes are religious devotion and cultural heritage. The people who partook in these pilgrimages sacrificed their time, money, energy, and selves in the devotion to their faith through the action of going on this journey. The reward of seeing and praying to the saint was worth their experience as the trials it took to travel by foot demonstrates their faith. The theme of cultural heritage becomes apparent when one studies the continuance of the practice and how the architecture and practice survived and ceased during great historical events. The impact is to grow the general knowledge on the subject of pilgrimages for the public. The exhibit will be a resource for students and people interested in the concept to learn about the history of the Way of St. James and Santiago de Compostela. The understandings I intend to convey encompasses a greater appreciation of the concepts of Way of St. James and the practice of medieval pilgrimages.
My name is Elizabeth Washburn. I am an undergraduate student in my fourth year at Northern Arizona University, where I am double majoring in Global Languages with an emphasis in French, Comparative Cultural Studies with an emphasis in art history, and minoring in museum studies. I intend to go to graduate school within the next two years to earn my Master’s in art history. I would like to study medieval art, hopefully with a focus on early medieval architecture.
