Not Tourists, but Pilgrims: Defining and Defending Modern Pilgrimage in a Late Imperial Russian Periodical

Abstract

For a historian of religion, Christian pilgrimage offers a perfect example of how religious ideals and practices are reimagined and transformed in response to the changing historical and cultural context. This dynamic displays itself in a particularly interesting way in modernity, with its advent of mass communication and transportation, as well as other economic and socio-political changes. This article discusses some of the resultant changes in the practice of and perspectives on pilgrimage in late-nineteenth-century Russia as seen through the lens of a popular religious journal of the era, Russian Pilgrim. As the first commercial mass publication devoted solely to this subject, Russian Pilgrim was highly instrumental not only in providing its readers with information about pilgrimage places, practices, and travel procedures, but also in shaping their perceptions of what constituted a good pilgrimage. The paper includes close reading of selected materials from the journal, as well as an accompanying analysis of the debates on the value and meaning of modern mass pilgrimage reflected in these examples.

Changing Tourism Trends of the Benedictine Abbey in Tihany: Best Practices of a Hungarian Monastic Community

“…The investigation of religious tourism can be observed in the field of social sciences for a long time. It is a touristic activity whose primary driving force is religious consideration, and this form of tourism is often realized during participation in a pilgrimage (Gisbert 1992;Rashid 2018;Solovieva 2022). It is one of the most ancient journeys of this kind, which has spread widely throughout the world over the centuries-regardless of the exect type of religion (Dallen and Olsen 2006).…”