The Biblical Foundations of the Pilgrimage

This paper aims to highlight some aspects concerning the phenomenon of religious pilgrimage, insisting on some biblical foundations of the pilgrimage phenomenon, as well as, in a theological approach, on its motivations and significance in Christianity. Religious pilgrimage centres on the desire to experience the encounter with God. Going on pilgrimage is an answer to this inner call: the pilgrim begins his journey with the awareness of being called by God. Some events and persons in the history of Israel anticipate and symbolize aspects and features of religious pilgrimage. The entire journey of the people of Israel through the desert was a pilgrimage made with the hope of reaching the Promised Land. Although during a pilgrimage may occur moments of wandering, difficulties, attempts and sometimes even desperation (events that can be also found in the pilgrimage of the chosen people), the experience of the pilgrimage is a celebration that profoundly marks the personality and spirituality of pilgrims.