Pilgrimage for Healing and Liberation
Pilgrimage spanned the many cultures and religions of the medieval world. It was a truly global phenomenon of the Middle Ages. Today, making a pilgrimage still appeals to people, whether religiously affiliated or not, and medieval routes continue to attract travelers. Moreover, pilgrimage is now being used in justice work as an embodied practice that can support liberation and racial healing.
The Pilgrimage for Healing and Liberation will investigate pilgrimage practices of hospitality and cross-cultural encounter from the deep past to the present day. This learning will prepare us to embark on an in-person pilgrimage in April 2023 to Chicago, where we will walk in the footsteps of Father Augustus Tolton, the first self-identified African-American man to be ordained a Catholic priest. We will remember Tolton’s witness to the Gospel and his perseverance in the face of endemic racism as he strove to realize the church’s mission to be “truly Catholic” and inclusive of all people.
This project is being organized by Annie Killian, OP, Ph.D., the Public Humanities Fellow at the Medieval Institute, and LaRyssa Herrington, M.Div, a doctoral candidate in Theology at Notre Dame. Co-sponsoring institutions include, at Notre Dame, the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, the Initiative on Race and Resilience, the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, Henkels Lecture Fund, and the Departments of Africana Studies, Theology and the Program of Liberal Studies, as well as the Center for Spirituality at Saint Mary’s College, Modern Catholic Pilgrim, and Saint Augustine Parish - South Bend.
We invite all friends of the MI to join us on the way.