Pilgrimage Sites - Stephen Mason

In “Images and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture,” there is a chapter devoted to the seeing of religious visions and apparitions. The chapter begins explaining how in Medieval times people would visit shrines that have already been well established and would see visions even though visions were not necessarily associated with that pilgrimage place. More recently though people have seen visions at a certain place and then made shrines in order to commemorate that vision. This original vision then makes people want to take pilgrimage to these areas. To me it seems like this switch in the formation of pilgrimage spots, although not suggested in the book, is because of the lack of holy relics. In the past people would make a pilgrimage site the site of a holy relic to make people want take pilgrimage there. Since there are no new relics, people define new pilgrimage spots by visions given by apostles or other religious figures. This makes a place connected to a religious figure without having to have a particular relic at the location associated with them.