PILGRIMAGE IN WALES: THEN AND NOW
Unfortunately, the booked speaker had to cancel with only three weeks’ notice, but Cowbridge U3A History Group were able to secure an excellent replacement for their December 2021 talk in the form of Professor Madeleine Gray. Her illustrated presentation was entitled “Pilgrimage in Wales: Then and Now”.
Pilgrimages have been a part of Welsh tradition for many years. The rood screen in the re-constructed church in the National Museum of History at St Fagans shows the life story of St Teilo, including his pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Another local saint is Cadoc, Abbot of Llancarfan, who is said, in folklore, to have gone on a pilgrimage to Rome.
The shrine of St Winefride at Holywell has a chapel built over a spring (the “holy well”) where the healing waters were said to cause miraculous cures (a Welsh Lourdes). It is the oldest unbroken pilgrimage site in Great Britain and was not excessively damaged during the Reformation, unlike many others.
In the late 15th century, Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, built the chapel overlooking the well, which now opens onto a pool where visitors may bathe. Many of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators went there and James II visited the shrine to pray for a son.
In medieval times, two pilgrimages to St David’s were deemed to be equivalent to one to Rome in terms of indulgences (a full or partial remission of the punishment for sins after death), while three pilgrimages to the Welsh city were the same as one to Jerusalem.
| The shrine of St Winefride at Holywell | St Davids Cathedral a pilgrimage site | Bardsey Island |
Bardsey Island, where 20,000 saints are said to be buried, was another pilgrimage destination. Even today, the crossing of Bardsey Sound is very weather-dependent. Three visits there were comparable with one to Rome.
The shrine to Our Lady in Penrhys in the Rhondda was identified by the Reformation proponents as one of the top six in the country that had to be destroyed. The wooden statue of the Virgin and Child was taken to London and burned.
A stone replacement statue of Our Lady was unveiled in 1953 and a new pilgrimage way of 21 miles from Llandaff to Penrhys has been developed in recent years.
It has been suggested that pilgrims on their way to St David’s would follow a roundabout route to “bag” other shrines, such as Penrhys, that were not too far from the direct course, to gain extra indulgences.
| Penrhys statue of Virgin and Child | modern Penrhys pilgrimage route |
How did people get from place to place? John Ogilby’s maps of the late 17th century depicted, for example, the pilgrimage routes from London to St David’s and Holywell to St David’s, via Talybont, in the form of ribbon drawings.
The late Terry Jones, a former Monty Python member, set out on a series of televised journeys through Wales in 2008, following Ogilby's “Britannia”, the world's first road atlas. Two pilgrimage routes were included in the schedule.
Pilgrims would most likely have travelled in groups for safety, with a guide. This meant that non-aristocratic women had the opportunity to go on pilgrimages – the Wife of Bath in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” was a widow on pilgrimage with the group.
The church at Llandyfodwg (between Bridgend and Tonyrefail) is sited on a hill on an ancient pilgrimage route from East Wales to the Cathedral of St. David's. Inside, there is a famous medieval effigy slab which depicts a pilgrim with staff, satchel and badges, including a scallop shell (Santiago de Compostela) and the crossed keys of St Peter (Rome).
| Medieval slab effigy possibly St Tyfodwg | Medieval pilgrims |
Why did people go on pilgrimages? There were a myriad of reasons; to repent for wrongdoing and obtain an indulgence, out of pure religious devotion, to ask for healing and, because it was a big adventure, an opportunity to widen one’s horizons. Surprisingly, you could pay a person of good moral standing to undertake a pilgrimage for you and still receive the religious benefits of the journey – useful if you were money-rich and time-poor.
There is a market in modern society for pilgrimages, even if many of those who travel the routes are not religious devotees. Many of the new breed of pilgrims report the experience as being a satisfying and healing experience.
There is a known link between mental and physical health. Those with milder forms of anxiety and depression are often advised to “get out in the fresh air” and to take gentle exercise. In a group of walkers, it is often easier to talk on deeper subjects without eye contact being made. Perhaps this is what medieval pilgrims also found.
Maddy cited a case of a doctor recommending red wine and gentle exercise, such as walking, as a drug-free alternative to worry and despondency. The response from the audience was along the lines of “That’s a prescription I’d like to be given on the National Health”.
Steve Monaghan
