Here is your Essay on the Significance of Pilgrimage for Christians.
Christianity has had long and glorious relations with India. According to the legends, St. Thomas sailed to India from Eastern Asia in AD 52. He spent 12 years in India, the last eight of his life in Mylapore in Madras (now Chennai). Several shrines have been created in the places associated with him.
Apart from this, the advent of Europeans in India from the 15th century onwards led to the mass influx of Christians and subsequent development of Christian worship places. Some of the churches of colonial India are comparable to the best in the world and are as much a part of the heritage of India as its ancient temples. You must visit these churches and explore the fascinating world of Christianity in India.
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Significance of Pilgrimage: is an important part of spiritual life for many Christians. Christians see life itself as a journey, coming from God and returning to God. The pilgrim seeks to separate himself from the everyday concerns of the world, and to spend time in the presence of God as he travels to a place of special meaning.
A pilgrimage is a symbol that is acted out. Back in the middle Ages pilgrimages were very popular. Pilgrimage was long and very dangerous – not at all like a holiday! It may have taken many years. The pilgrims would usually travel in groups, and stay in monasteries or inns overnight.
Pilgrimages to Christian shrines in India have two noteworthy features. First, the most popular shrines attract pilgrims round the year not only from among the Christians but also from among “Indians of other faiths as well”. “Even Muslims have been known to overcome their aversion to graven images and to pray at the shrines of Mary”. Secondly, norms associated with most of these Christian pilgrimages reflect a significant impact of Hinduism on them.
For example, a Christian pilgrim suffering from an ailment in any part of the body offers a wax replica of the affected organ to St. Mary at Bandra. It resembles the practice of offering silver or other metallic replicas of eye, nose, ear, hand or foot to Lord Venkateswara at Tirupati by the Hindu devotees for the cure of ailment of particular organs.
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The walking pilgrimage of the Christians from Howrah to Bandel to visit ‘Our Lady of Happy Voyage’ reminds one of similar pilgrimages by the Hindus to many places like Tarakeswar or Baidyanath Dham, where they carry water from a sacred river, walking all the distance on foot. To collect money from aims to visit a place of pilgrimage and Bhakhaoti as found among the Christian pilgrims to the shrines of Virgin Mary at Bettiah and the village of Rampur in North Bihar or elsewhere are also Hindu attributes. The pilgrimage by two Christianity in early fifties to Kedarnath and Gangotri as an instance of indigenization of Christianity in India and an attempt to understand Christianity with the use of Hindu idioms and vice- versa