Instagram has been in the news lately for various dangers it poses to society.
We wish to add another complaint to the mix: the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) engendered by following too many European pilgrim hiker accounts while being stuck at home.
Pilgrim hiking season is in full swing in Europe, as cooler temperatures arrive but before the rains of late autumn. Here are a few updates from the world of European pilgrim routes.
The Via Francigena_EU account is tracking a group of hikers traveling the southern part of the Via Francigena toward the ports in the south of Italy that medieval pilgrims would use to embark to Jerusalem.
Kevin Donahue, the author of the Sacred Steps book that we profiled in an earlier post, has been hiking the Pilgrim Way from London to Canterbury before beginning the Via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome. Give him a follow here and here.
The new Irish pilgrim route, St. Declan’s Way, that we profiled a few months ago was recently officially opened on 29 September. The Irish government also announced funding for 31 more trails in rural Ireland. From an RTE news report, “Other routes to be supported in the coming months include the Dingle Way in Kerry; the Ballyhoura Way in Limerick; the South Leinster Way in Kilkenny; the Cavan Way, the Wicklow Uplands Way; the Lung/Lough Gara Way in Roscommon; and the Sli Gaeltacht Mhuscrai in Cork.”
Not quite a pilgrim route, but certainly transiting a lot of religious sites along the way, is the newly created Hexatrek in France. The name pays homage to France’s informal name “the Hexagon.” It is a newly established 3000km (1800 miles) hiking trail through the mountains of France, which are located along the borders of France with Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain.
The trail will be officially opened in June 2022 with a group of through-hikers that intend to complete the trek by September 2022.
Check out this beautiful video promoting the trek.
Back to religious pilgrim routes, St. Conan’s Way in Scotland is a weeklong pilgrimage across Scotland that “connects the two significant holy places of Iona – famous through St Columba for bringing the Christian faith to the Highlands of Scotland in the 6th century – and Dalmally – where St Conan, a disciple of St Columba, founded a community.”
18th century philosopher Samuel Johnson wrote of a visit to Iona: “We were now treading that illustrious Island, which was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge, and the blessings of religion. To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible, if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish, if it were possible. Far from me and from my friends, be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona!”
We end in Europe’s north - at the 1000 year old pilgrim route of St. Olaf’s Way, which were actually multiple routes all culminating at St. Olaf’s burial place at the cathedral of Nidaros in Trondheim. This was considered the northernmost pilgrimage destination in the Middle Ages. St. Olaf, who died in 1031, was credited with the Christianization of Scandinavia, and is one of the last saints to be recognized by both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church before the Great Schism.
May all the saints protect us on our own pilgrim journeys, whether or not we document them on Instagram! Buen camino a todos!