medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Hello Meg,
There is an early 12th-century sculpture of St James as a pilgrim at the Church of Santa Marta de Tera in Zamora where he has a staff and scrip, with a scallop shell decorating the scrip. According to Kathleen Ashley and Marilyn Deegan, Being a Pilgrim: Art and Ritual on the Medieval Routes to Santiago (Farnham, 2009), p. 65: "In the 11th century, a special liturgical ceremony for departing pilgrims called the "ordo ad servitium peregrinorum" was created in which the pilgrim was blessed, along with the staff and scrip". According to their note 18 (p. 249): For discussion of dates and kinds of blessing, see Robert Plotz, "Pelerins en chemin sur le lieux saints," in Paolo Caucci von Sauken, ed., Pelerinages: Compostelle, Jerusalem, Rome (Paris, 1999), 75-102.
Cheers,
Jim
Greetings all,
I have found numerous texts for blessing pilgrims on the internet, but they seem mostly to be modern ones. Does anyone know of a good medieval text? Also, I was always told that pilgrims set off with a staff and scrip (bag), and indeed there are numerous illustrations of such in the internet. I assume they would also have been blessed, but my question is a slightly different one. St. James is often portrayed as a pilgrim, but in the images a preliminary search has produced, when represented as such he has his scallop shell and a staff, but no scrip. Maybe I’m just looking at the wrong images . . .
As always, any help much appreciated!
Meg