Shrines & Places Map of Europe with reliquary locations and major pilgrimage sites Canterbury Cologne Paris Santiago de Compostella Rome Constantinople Jerusalem Venice
Video from the Domitilla Catacombs on Rome

Select the image to watch video from the Domitilla Catacombs in Rome.

The idea that certain places in this world are holy is central to the cult of saints, either because they house the relics of holy men and women or because they contain traces of their long absent bodies. It was the desire to gain proximity to such holy places that inspired the first pilgrims to make their way to Jerusalem, where they walked in the footsteps of Christ and visited the scenes of his martyrdom.

Yet, to be a pilgrim in late Antiquity or the Middle Ages meant much more than traveling to a destination considered to be a holy place. It meant undertaking a journey that was physically and spiritually taxing, since pilgrims committed to crossing great distances, often by foot, while paying penance for their sins along the way.

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