Europe seeing large increase in traffic at Christian pilgrimage sites

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While pilgrimage remains an important tenet of Orthodox spiritual life, the same cannot be said for the post-Reformation West. Or can it?

With the onset of the Reformation and Enlightenment, well-worn paths of pilgrimage to Western Europe's holy sites began to see a precipitous drop in traffic which has continued into the twenty-first century. But this trend has recently reversed itself.

In 2023, the route running from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Campostela—the West' most popular pilgrimage route—saw a nearly sixfold increase in pilgrims. in 2003, Santiago saw about 74,324 pilgrims, in 2023 that number hit 440,370. 

And these numbers have continued to rise—2024 saw a twelve percent increase at Santiago, for 499,242 total pilgrims. We should note that these numbers do not include those who failed to complete their pilgrimage. 

Even more interesting is that Americans top the chart for pilgrimage at 8% of total pilgrims—28,052 completed their trek.  

While those of us in the Church won't find this overly surprising—seeing the large waves of conversions the church has experienced over the last five years—but for secularists, this is a baffling trend. Sarah Baxter, of the Telegraph, stated:

What the devil is going on? Despite our secularizing world, pilgrimage is enjoying a boom not seen since the Middle Ages.

"Perhaps," she speculates, "[it's] because pilgrimage is the original form of mindful travel."

Yes, Sarah, secular people are flying from America to France, then walking 483 miles (778km) in rain and the heat of mid-summer to visit a large, historic Catholic Church in Spain because it's a more thoughtful and climate-conscious way to travel to places they would never want to go—even with a direct flight. 

She almost gets it at one point, noting how covid accelerated the pilgrimage "trend" by confronting people with death and forcing them to reevaluate their lives. 

Those trapped in the secular world—like the staff at the Telegraph—failed to learn the lesson of covid. Unable to answer the questions it raised about their worldviews and lifestyles, they simply braced for it to end.

But for others, this was not the case.

Man, who had spent the last several centuries exalting himself and doing everything in his power to forestall and forget death, was suddenly confronted once more by this age-old enemy. Many came to see the truth: there is only one pathway which leads forth from death—that of the Lord [Ps. 67 LXX]. 

We should glorify God for revealing this pathway to so many through the covid scare. What these pilgrimage rates confirm is what we already know in the Church—the West is returning to faith! This is especially true of liturgical churches, such as the Orthodox and Catholic churches.

And while pilgrimage sites in Europe and Russia abound, pilgrimage sites in America for non-Orthodox are few and far between. We, in the Church, have the blessing of many sites to which we can—and should—make pilgrimage. Perhaps, if we ourselves are more proactive on making pilgrimage, sharing these experiences with friends and encouraging them to do the same, even more Americans will come to the faith. It is, after all, the faith of our fathers.

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