What makes a Creative Pilgrimage?

Liz Garnett • August 16, 2023

What makes a Creative Pilgrimage? Alexandra le Rossignol and I found this question answered when we travelled with a group of artists on our first Kent pilgrimage route – The Augustine Camino. The experience was so profound that we found ourselves creating a pilgrimage route from Dover to Canterbury for an exhibition as part of Kent Pilgrims Festival 2022.

We had expected to follow the Via Francigena in reverse from Dover to Canterbury. Then Alex asked me if we could add in a detour via the church at Barfrestone and I suggested we dip down into the valley between Kingston and Bishopsbourne because there was a good tearoom there. The route began to change and adapt organically as I had it following the River Dour through Dover after we had taken in the ruins of St Martin le Grand, St Edmunds chapel and the Maison Dieu. This is only a snapshot of what the route through Dover has to offer.

As a group of artists drawn to pilgrimage, research has been key to the creation of our artworks and was a very important part in it’s development. At every turn little gems were dropping into our laps in the form of history, architecture, landscape, nature or stories of medieval pilgrimage. Walking with fellow artists has benefited each of us as we have had the opportunity to see the route through each others’ eyes.

Having some of us with limited physical abilities it was important to break the route down into shorter sections. For us The Way of Saint Martin is a slow pilgrimage. It is about the journey, stopping, looking, exploring and experiencing the route and all that it has to offer. The variety of architecture in each church along the route is a reflection of it’s community over time. Our experience encompassed: sitting watching the trout in the River Dour or watching the swans glide effortless along; stooping to look at wildflowers on Barham Downs or looking out across the valley as we headed into Kingston; taking in the fresh air of the valley between Kingston and Bishopsbourne and looking up at a bird of prey; marvelling at the ancient yew trees in churchyards along the route and reflecting on all that has passed in their lifetime; sharing of knowledge and experiences.

The starting point for the pilgrimage is on the beach at Dover where medieval pilgrims would land and search for a hag stone to bring to St Edmund’s chapel as an offering and from there they would make their way to the Shrine of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The route would not have been a defined one and many also visited Barfrestone church and other shrines along the route. A relic of St Thomas is now housed in St Thomas’s RC church in Canterbury just before the pilgrimage ends at the Cathedral.

The natural landscape along the route encompasses the wildflower meadows where the pilgrim can rest and seek out rare orchids or look to the skies for the skylark or the newly released chough – a bird with a strong connection to St Thomas Becket. Churches along the route provide sanctuary from the rain as well as a chance to discover medieval wall paintings, mass dials, carvings or fascinating gravestones. The River Dour and the Nailbourne provide a contrast in that the first is one of 200 chalk streams in the world and the second is an intermittent stream that runs every few years.

The area has rich links with historical and creative figures: Saint Augustine, Bishop Odo of Bayeux, Saint Martin of Tours, King Ethelbert and Queen Bertha, Saint Thomas Becket, Joseph Conrad, Mary Tourtel, Jocelyn Brooke, Henry Moore, Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, Aphra Behn and Ian Fleming to name but a few.

In the guidebook the route has been split into 6 short walks with public transport links at either end of each section. There is information on the historical aspects of the route and the pilgrim is encouraged to seek out for architectural features, plants and wildlife. The website also includes a free GPX file of the route.

Liz Garnett

Links:

The Way of Saint Martin

The Creative Pilgrims

The Augustine Camino

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The Pilgrimage of Hope is open for day pilgrims to register!

By Phil McCarthy • June 5, 2025

Registration for day pilgrims to join the 2025 National Walking Pilgrimage of Hope is now open! The Pilgrimage of Hope is a national walking pilgrimage with four main Ways converging at the Cathedral of St Barnabas, Nottingham, on Saturday 13th September 2025, for shared prayer and celebration. The four main Ways start at the Catholic cathedrals in Cardiff, Leeds, Norwich and Southwark, London, and will bless our nations with a Sign of the Cross and with the Gospels. The routes are named after the Evangelists and use established hiking routes and are off road as much as possible. A small group of 4-6 'perpetual pilgrims' will walk the full distance of each Way, and up to 20 day pilgrims will be able to join for day stages. Stretches which are suitable for wheelchairs and buggies have been be identified. There will be opportunities for non-walkers to provide enroute support, hospitality and prayer. There are possible feeder routes to the four main Ways from all the other Catholic cathedrals of England & Wales for keen long-distance walkers, so people from every diocese can organise their own pilgrimages. More information and registration Information about how to support the Pilgrimage with prayer and hospitality and how to register to walk stages as day pilgrims can be found here . Wishing you every blessing and joy during this Jubilee year, as we strive to become ‘pilgrims of hope’. I hope to meet many of you in Nottingham on 13th September. Buen camino! Phil McCarthy, Project Lead

Walking in the steps of London's saints

By Colette Joyce /ICN • June 4, 2025

A group of 25 pilgrims gathered at the English Martyrs Church by Tower Hill last Thursday morning, Feast of the Ascension, to take part in the Westminster Way Jubilee Year Pilgrimage, led by Westminster Diocese Justice and Peace Co-Ordinator Colette Joyce. At each station we prayed and reflected on saints connected to London and the inspiration they continue to be for us today: St John Houghton and the Carthusian Martyrs of the Reformation, the missionary St Augustine of Canterbury, St Anne Line who sheltered priests and held secret Masses in her home during the Elizabethan persecution, St Erconwald, St Ethelburga and St Etheldreda. We remembered the scholars of the 7th century who brought learning and education to both men and women, and St John Henry Newman whose own spiritual journey of conversion and prophetic sense of the nature of the Church had a profound influence on the 20th century leading up to the Second Vatican Council. From the church we walked past the Tower of London, where so many Catholic martyrs met their fate during the Reformation, stopping to pray at the site of the scaffold where St John Fisher and St Thomas More were executed. Our next stop was Mary Moorfields, the only Catholic Church in the City of London. From here we walked to the Charterhouse, once a Carthusian priory and home to the first martyrs of the Reformation. The Prior, St John Houghton and Companions were hung and quartered for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy. Watching from his cell window, St Thomas More witnessed the monks being dragged on hurdles from the Tower of London on 4 May 1535. He is said to have admired their courage and faith as they went to their deaths, viewing them as "Cheerfully going to their deaths as bridegrooms going to their marriage." From here we walked to St Etheldreda's, Ely Place, one of the oldest Catholic churches in London. Built around 1250 as the town chapel for the bishops of Ely. After the Reformation It had several owners . For a a time it was used by the Spanish ambassador as a private chapel. During Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth, it was used as a prison and a hospital. The Rosminians bought St Etheldreda's in 1874 and have restored it beautifully. As we were walking during Laudato Si' Week, pilgrim leader Colette Joyce invited pilgrims to reflect on the flora and fauna of London on our way. London is a surprisingly green city, blessed with around twenty percent tree coverage - which makes it technically a forest! We are especially grateful to the Victorians who planted the ubiquitous London Plane trees which can be found in streets and parks all over the city, while there are more than 400 other species of tree to discover. "The entire material universe speaks of God's love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God… contemplation of creation allows us to discover in each thing a teaching which God wishes to hand on to us." (Laudato Si', 84-85) After a stop at Corpus Christi Church in Covent Garden - where former parish priest Fr Francis Stanfield wrote Sweet Sacrament Divine and Mgr Ronald Knox preached his famous homilies on the Blessed Sacrament - we made our way down the Strand, past Traflagar Square, through Whitehall, down to Westminster Cathedral. On our arrival, we weary walkers were greeted by the Cathedral Dean, Fr Slawomir Witoń. We ended our pilgrimage with prayers in the Martyrs Chapel and a reflection from Fr Slawomir on the life and witness of St John Southworth, patron saint of clergy in the Diocese of Westminster. The pilgrims received the final stamp in their Pilgrim Passports and a blessing before returning home. Colette Joyce, Westminster Diocese Justice and Peace Co-Ordinator Read more about the Westminster Way: https://westminsterjusticeandpeace.org/2025/06/02/walking-the-westminster-way/ This article was first published on Independent Catholic News: Independent Catholic News Image: Pilgrims at Westminster Cathedral (Archdiocese of Westminster)

The Psychology of Pilgrimage

By Phil McCarthy • June 3, 2025

In this podcast I discuss the psychology of pilgrimage, especially as it relates to visiting First World War battlefields and cemeteries.

Walking the St Wulstan Way

By Peter Chisholm • May 31, 2025

Pilgrims joined Fr Gerry Walsh tracing St Wulstan’s life and legacy, from Worcester Cathedral to Clifton Cathedral as part of the Catholic Church’s Year of Jubilee, “Pilgrims of Hope” celebrations. Participants explored their faith while journeying through stunning landscapes and historic locations.