Peregrinatio

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The peregrinatio under the sign of God's mercy in Bielsko-Biała (2016)

Peregrinatio (Latin) means life in a foreign country . Within Roman Catholic monasticism, the term is a paraphrase for turning away from the profane environment.

Concept development

The Latin word peregrinus ("beyond the field, stranger") got the meaning "citizen of heaven - stranger on earth" in Christian usage. In 2 Corinthians 5 : 6 it says in the Vulgate translation: "Dum sumus in corpore, peregrinamur a Domino". In Hebrews 11:13 it says: "confitentes quia peregrini et hospites sunt super terram". In the Middle Ages, those who had set out for a foreign country for religious reasons were called peregrini . This is how the word found its way into all European languages: pellegrino ( Italian ), pélérin (French), pilgrim (German), pilgrim (eng.).

Peregrinatio as a way of life

Peregrinatio as a departure from the standards of the world is the idea on which all monasticism is based, even if no wandering life in the external sense was connected with it.

Since late antiquity, the peregrinatio has also meant the pilgrimage to holy places, especially to the graves of saints, up to lifelong voluntary exile from the homeland.

Iroschotti traveling missionaries

Iro-Scottish monks in particular lived this seclusion, but refused to wander around without a place. Since the late 6th century, the Irish Scottish monks took over the banishment provided for in the old Irish law for serious offenses as a voluntary penance for Christ, as "peregrinatio pro Christo". They went abroad for Christ's sake, founded monasteries or hermitages , often on an island, but also on the continent. Columban of Luxeuil , Columban the Elder and Kilian deserve special mention here.

With their "going into foreign lands" they renounced the familiar security. This is ultimately due to Christ's commandment to leave his father and mother for his sake. The missionaries from Ireland left their protection of the community or the clan with the peregrinatio . They thus sank down to the level of the exiled or the outlaw .

Some of the oldest Irish legal texts recorded evidence that an exile for Christ's sake (deorad dé) enjoyed the same legal status and protection as a king or bishop, that is, he enjoyed immunity throughout Ireland, not the continent .

Irish monks began their missionary work in England as early as the 5th and 6th centuries , especially around Northumbria , whereby the mission was initially only a side effect of the peregrinatio. From the thirties of the 7th century they can be found on the (European) continent.

The Irish monks had a certain idea of ​​the peregrinatio, mostly the monks were on the road with twelve companions to evangelize the populations in other countries. They were in hierarchical order among themselves. Within their travel group, they saw it themselves as a kind of inward penance and preferred the ascetic separation more than the life in a foreign country. They are mostly understood as ascetics and reformers.

Medieval pilgrimage

The peregrinatio achieved overall occidental importance and developed into a pilgrimage to holy places, often associated with the grave of a saint. The pilgrimage should be an exercise of penance, supplication or sanctification.

Participation in crusades was also understood as a pilgrimage, which was followed by particularly rich graces.

Some of the most important places were:

Important missionaries, pilgrims:

literature

  • Arnold Angenendt : The Irish peregrinatio and its effects on the continent before the year 800 (The Irish and Europe in the early Middle Ages I). 1982
  • Friedrich Prinz: Peregrinatio, Mönchtum und Mission (The Church in the Early Middle Ages). 1978
  • Thomas Charles-Edwards: The Social Background to Irish Peregrination (Celtica II). 1976, pp. 43-59
  • Bernhard Kötting: Peregrinatio religiosa. Pilgrimages in antiquity and pilgrimage in the old church . 1950
  • Hans von Campenhausen : The ascetic homelessness in early church and early medieval monasticism . 1930
  • Peter Lindenthal: Peregrinatio Compostellana anno 1654. The adventurous journey of Christoph Guntzinger from Wiener Neustadt to Santiago. Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck 2014, ISBN 978-3-7022-3303-7