Having arrived in Volkach in June 2019, the first undertaking was to participate in the pilgrimage between Volkach and Burgwindheim. The distance isn't long, around 35 km. Burgwindheim was the site of a mediaeval Eucharistic miracle and has drawn local pilgrims from the hinterland, especially around the feast of Corpus Christi which is a public holiday in Bavaria on the original feast day rather than on the following Sunday.
The Burgwindheim pilgrimage involves rising early for Mass and travelling over various terrains in Unterfranken on the weekend of the feast the Sacred Heart, which takes place eight days after the traditional Corpus Christi. As the feast of the Sacred Heart was on 28 June in 2019, the following day was Ss Peter & Paul, another Catholic solemnity. This was particularly late and the weather was very warm. Part of the pilgrimage is through forest, which is thankfully shady. The fact the pilgrims luggage is carried by a horse-drawn cart adds to the colour of the occasion.
The lateness of the pilgrimage in 2019 meant the weather was particularly hot. It can be warm in June but it can also be wet. This year was the former. The pilgrims are accompanied by a brass band as they recite the rosary in German, while singing hymns and saying other prayers. The people of Volkach have been doing this since a plague broke out in the town in 1646, which was at the tail end of the Thirty Years' War. Within Bavaria, the province of Franconia is quite like Ulster in that it is a fault line in the religious divide in Germany which goes right back to the Reformation. When living in the town of Kleinwallstadt in the Landkreis Miltenberg (near Aschaffenburg), I became acutely aware of this ideological border just over 15 years ago. The people of Franconia are friendly and will greet you on the road. But some will say "Grüß Gott" and others will say "Guten Tag", which in itself hint at the religious divide. The pilgrims from Volkach go through a particular Protestant village on the way. At one stage, still in living memory, the locals would drive their pigs into the streets but in these more ecumenical days, the minister greets the group with a couple of altar servers and guides them through the town.
I should not want to paint the picture of religious fervour here. Though the bulk of the pilgrims are regular church goers, not everyone is. Nor would I be quick to second guess anyone's religious or political views on the basis of participation in the pilgrimage. The practice of the faith is in decline in Volkach, as it is in the rest of the so-called west. But decline does not mean it is either dead or that it will die any time soon. The group of pilgrims, a few hundred in all, may have mixed motives and opinions, but collectively they testify to the continued life of the faith in Bavaria, in Germany and in Europe. Put them together with pilgrimage groups here and elsewhere and they begin to make a formidable number.
The Burgwindheim pilgrimage involves rising early for Mass and travelling over various terrains in Unterfranken on the weekend of the feast the Sacred Heart, which takes place eight days after the traditional Corpus Christi. As the feast of the Sacred Heart was on 28 June in 2019, the following day was Ss Peter & Paul, another Catholic solemnity. This was particularly late and the weather was very warm. Part of the pilgrimage is through forest, which is thankfully shady. The fact the pilgrims luggage is carried by a horse-drawn cart adds to the colour of the occasion.
The lateness of the pilgrimage in 2019 meant the weather was particularly hot. It can be warm in June but it can also be wet. This year was the former. The pilgrims are accompanied by a brass band as they recite the rosary in German, while singing hymns and saying other prayers. The people of Volkach have been doing this since a plague broke out in the town in 1646, which was at the tail end of the Thirty Years' War. Within Bavaria, the province of Franconia is quite like Ulster in that it is a fault line in the religious divide in Germany which goes right back to the Reformation. When living in the town of Kleinwallstadt in the Landkreis Miltenberg (near Aschaffenburg), I became acutely aware of this ideological border just over 15 years ago. The people of Franconia are friendly and will greet you on the road. But some will say "Grüß Gott" and others will say "Guten Tag", which in itself hint at the religious divide. The pilgrims from Volkach go through a particular Protestant village on the way. At one stage, still in living memory, the locals would drive their pigs into the streets but in these more ecumenical days, the minister greets the group with a couple of altar servers and guides them through the town.
I should not want to paint the picture of religious fervour here. Though the bulk of the pilgrims are regular church goers, not everyone is. Nor would I be quick to second guess anyone's religious or political views on the basis of participation in the pilgrimage. The practice of the faith is in decline in Volkach, as it is in the rest of the so-called west. But decline does not mean it is either dead or that it will die any time soon. The group of pilgrims, a few hundred in all, may have mixed motives and opinions, but collectively they testify to the continued life of the faith in Bavaria, in Germany and in Europe. Put them together with pilgrimage groups here and elsewhere and they begin to make a formidable number.
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