ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on pilgrimage, a major theme in the writings of both Birgitta of Sweden and Catherine of Siena. At first glance, it seems that the two embraced radically opposed views on that hallmark of medieval spirituality, the pilgrim’s journey. Birgitta appears as the paragon, the over-achiever of the late medieval pellegrina. Catherine, on the other hand, often violently advocated against embarking on pilgrimages, viewing them as a distraction from the lives people should be leading. At the same time, even if pilgrimage as practice is strikingly absent in Catherine’s works, pilgrimage as metaphor fills her prose. How, then, might these two concepts of pilgrimage be both recognized and addressed: perhaps they are in conflict yet related, with one arguably dependent on the other. Tylus tackles this question by examining the vital role of pilgrimages —as lived experience and as symbolic register—for both Birgitta and Catherine.
