The Impact of Pilgrimage on Local Communities and the Medieval Expansion of Europe in the Twelfth Century
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- February 26, 2019
- Creator
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Westermeier, Burton J.
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
- Abstract
- This thesis investigates the impact which the proliferation of pilgrimage had on the local communities where shrines were located. How did locals accommodate the great flow of pilgrims who passed through their villages or arrived in their towns? Was pilgrimage primarily understood as an economic boon, as some historians have suggested, or were other factors at play in the manner in which local people reacted to the arrival of pilgrims? Is pilgrimage always a builder of consensus, as some scholars have assumed, or can it also be a creator of conflict? In particular, this thesis examines the dynamic of Frankish pilgrims traveling to pilgrimage sites in non-Frankish regions such as Santiago de Compostela in Galicia or Saint Patrick’s Purgatory in Ireland. This focus raises another series of questions which this thesis attempts to answer. Was national difference a source of tension between pilgrims and locals? How did the presence of foreign pilgrims shape the development of shrines?
- Date of publication
- spring 2014
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- In Copyright
- Note
- Funding: Burch Fellows; David Anthony Kusa Undergraduate Research Award
- Advisor
- Bull, Marcus
- Degree
- Bachelor of Arts
- Honors level
- Highest Honors
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Extent
- 86
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