The cathedral at Worcester
My wife and I are in England to catch up with some family and are staying in Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire. We went to the nearby city of Worcester for a half day trip. A nice lunch and a visit to the cathedral were the agenda. I always feel like a pilgrim when I return to England and at the cathedral we came across a real pilgrim and his ”signi peregrinationis”.
“Cathedral” derives from the Latin word “cathedra” for seat and referred to the cathedral containing a bishop’s “seat”. English Protestantism formed when Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife followed the Catholic hierarchical structure of archbishops, overseeing bishops etcetera.
The English church didn’t adopt the more protestant church concept of “presbyteral” governance with an assembly of elders of presbyters. “Presby” comes from the Greek for “an elder, old man”. The “pres” means before, in front of, or leader. The whole word may have meant “one who leads the cattle,” from the “bous” for cow.
The Worcester Pilgrim
Cathedrals are full of ornate, expensive memorials to kings, aristocrats and wealthy members of its congregation. However, during excavations at Worcester Cathedral (in 1987) they discovered a simple burial which was later thought to be Robert Sutton—a Worcester merchant—who had died in 1454. The skeleton was missing its head (thought to be lost during a more recent burial).
Sutton had chosen to be buried as a pilgrim. He was dressed in woollen garments and knee-length walking boots. Beside him was placed a wooden staff and a perforated “cockle shell”.
Skeletal analysis showed that he had done a lot of walking—wear on his left shoulder, elbow and hand was probably from having put repeated pressure on a staff while walking.
Signs of pilgrimage
The objects buried with Sutton had symbolic significance as “signi peregrinationis” i.e. signs of pilgrimage.
Pilgrim’s staff
The pilgrim’s or palmer’s staff or bourdon is a walking stick used by pilgrims. Sutton’s staff was made of ash wood and had a double pronged iron spike at one end.
Cockle shell (scallop shell)
According to the education material in the cathedral, the “cockle shell” indicated that he had made the 3,200 kilometre pilgrimage to the shrine of St James in Santiago de Compostela in Spain. What is identified as a “cockle shell” is more likely a scallop shell. Pilgrims to Compostela often stopped to gather scallop shells as souvenirs on the Galician region’s beaches.
Palmer’s scrip
The other essential piece of pilgrim equipment (although not found in the burial) was a satchel, known as a pilgrim’s or palmer’s scrip. It may derive from “scrap” either by being made from a “scrap” (of leather) or as holding “scraps” (of food).
The origins of pilgrim
“Pilgrim” entered English in about 1200 (from “pilegrim”) for a person traveling to a holy place (also used for a traveller or a wayfarer). It comes via Old French (“pelerin” or “peregrin”) from Latin “peregre” meaning from abroad—“per” from beyond and “agri” for country.
“Peregrine” survives in peregrine falcon—a large bird of prey. It has been used in English from the 1550s and comes via Norman French from Medieval Latin “falco peregrinus”. Perhaps because they may have been “caught in transit” compared to one taken from the nest.
A palmer was an itinerant monk going from shrine to shrine under a perpetual vow of poverty. It originally referred to a pilgrim who has returned from the Holy Land because they wore palm branches in commemoration of the journey.
Other pilgrims
The Pilgrim Fathers, the English separatists who crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower and founded Plymouth colony in Massachusetts in 1620 has been used since. They sometimes wrote of themselves as Pilgrims based on Hebrews xi.13.
“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.”
Pilgrim has been used in U.S. slang for “an original settler” since 1841. It later came to mean a newcomer or a “tenderfoot” perhaps in reference to the Mormon migrations. A “tenderfoot” was an immigrant who was not used to the tough pioneer life and became used to mean any inexperienced person.
The origins of pilgrim
“Pilgrim” entered English in about 1200. It derives from “pilegrim” meaning a person traveling to a holy place although it was also used for a traveller generally or a wayfarer. I t ,” from Old French pelerin or peregrin meaning a pilgrim, crusader, foreigner, or stranger. It comes from Late Latin pelegrinus (from Latin peregrinus) for foreigner, stranger, foreign resident. It derives from peregre which means from abroad—from per from beyond and “agri” locative case of ager “country, land” (from PIE root *agro- “field”).
The new pilgrim
The word “pilgrim” has carried with it the essence of foreignness, spiritual quest, and dedication. The pilgrim represents perseverance, faith in something beyond yourself, and the pursuit of a higher purpose.