Pilgrimages By Gerson Balcazar About Pilgrimages A pilgrimage is a long religious journey or search of great moral significance Pilgrimages were first made to places connected with the birth life crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Pilgrimages were a way to spread the beliefs of the monasteries to the outside world The crusades to the holy land are also considered to be mass armed pilgrimages Middle Ages Church encouraged people to make pilgrimages to special holy places called shrines Surviving descriptions of Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land date from the 4th century It was believed that if you prayed to shrines you might be forgiven for your sins and have more chance of going to heaven 10th century on attracted people looking for miraculous cures from saints Pilgrimages also began to be made to Rome and other sites associated with the Apostles Saints and Christian martyrs as well as to places where there have been apparitions of the Virgin Mary Relics After Thomas Becket was murdered a piece of cloth that was soaked in his blood was believed to cure blindness epilepsy and leprosy in Norfolk there was a sealed glass jar that was said to contain the milk of the Virgin Mary In Palestine it was believed that u could visit a cave that was supposed to contain the beds of Adam and Eve and a pillar of salt that had once been Lots wife The keepers of certain shrines would sell pilgrims metal badge that had been stamped with the symbol of the shrine so that people would know they had visited that shrine Splinters from the cross Christianity Jerusalem Site of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Rome Site of the deaths of Saint Peter Saint Paul and other early martyrs Headquarters of the Catholic Church Constantinople Istanbul Turkey Site of one of the five ancient Patriarchates and the Hagia Sophia former cathedral and burial place of many Ecumenical Patriarchs Santiago de Compostela Spain The shrine of Saint James Judaism The western wall of the original temple in the city of Jerusalem most sacred site for Zionist Jews was off limits from 19481967 Some Reform and Conservative Jews who no longer consider themselves exiles take pilgrimages in groups to Israel even though its not considered an official pilgrimage Islam Hajj Pilgrimage to Mecca one of the Five Pillars of Islam It should be attempted at least once in the lifetime of all able bodied Muslims Ziarah visits to local graves that are found throughout Muslim countries Hinduism Char Dham Kedarnath Gangotri Yamunotri Rishikesh Buddhism Lumbini birth place of Gautama Buddha in Nepal Bodh Gaya place of Enlightenment Sarnath where Buddha delivered his first teaching Kusinara in Kusinagar India where Buddha died
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