ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the necessary context of contemporary pilgrimages to Taiz from Estonia it is important to explain something of the background to the history of pilgrimages in Estonia and of the religious history of Estonia in general. The Traditional churches and smaller religious groups persisted in Soviet Estonia. It seems that this was partly the result of considerations of foreign policy and partly a lack of sufficient power to completely eradicate religious organizations. The Phtitsa convent attracted visitors not only from Estonia but from all over the Soviet Union. Phtitsa also became an important hub, a convent for women that was presented to visitors as the Soviet version of the ecumenical Taiz community, comparing the two institutions in their efforts at ecumenical cooperation. Information about Taiz was spreading through circles of friends, including pastors of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (EELC). The pilgrimages discovered that Christians ought not to be on the margins of society.
