This special issue draws on the database Bedevaartplaatsen in Nederland (transl. Pilgrimage Sites in the Netherlands), an initiative of the Meertens Institute that began more than thirty years ago (and now includes 679 pilgrimage sites) and is still being updated and expanded. Five years ago, the collection of source material was moved to the KDC in Nijmegen, where a team is working on further expansion and enrichment.
The articles show how a very dense pilgrimage network developed in the nineteenth century, ranging from centuries-old to relatively recent sites, which encouraged Catholics to visit various places of worship closer to home more often. The research results analyse the factors that were decisive for the enormous pilgrimage boom that the Low Countries experienced in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in which Marian devotion, patron saints, apparitions and miraculous healings were important conditions. However, the relationship with science and the medical profession was also important. Not to mention the sophisticated marketing and competition, and the support or opposition of civil and ecclesiastical authorities.
The role of those directly involved and the visitors' own needs were exciting. In addition, the contemporary experience of the journey to a pilgrimage site and the reflection afterwards are examined closely. As are the transformations of original designs and the adaptation of practices. Together, these historical articles (in open access) reveal a dynamic field of research that can be expanded to include more contemporary forms. Further research is possible in the rich collections on the websites of the Meertens Institute and the KDC..
Download the Trajecta-articles via Amsterdam University Press
Search the database Bedevaartplaatsen in Nederland
About Trajecta
Trajecta. Religion, Culture and Society in the Low Countries publishes peer reviewed articles on the historical dynamics between religion, culture and society in the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands), and the related heritage. The journal pays attention to all confessional and religious traditions that played a role in the Low Countries and its (post-)colonial history and heritage.
Trajecta is published in cooperation with KADOC-KU Leuven, Documentation and Research Centre on Religion, HDC Centre for Religious History at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Catholic Documentation Centre at Radboud University (KDC) and the Archives and Documentation Centre of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands at the Theological University Kampen (ADC) and distributed by Amsterdam University Press.
