Stumbled upon this concept of “pilgrimages”. I feel like it’s become a less known idea, of traveling with a religious purpose to a specific religious place. I guess for me it gives more of a purpose to travel, which sometimes otherwise seems to seem less appealing to me. (I’ve heard the word “travel” comes from a word related to “torture” because travel used to be a lot more difficult before modern times)

Any thoughts on the topic of religious pilgrimages?

Catholic encyclopedia on pilgramages: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12085a.htm

Once theophanies are localized, pilgrimages necessarily follow. The Incarnation was bound inevitably to draw men across Europe to visit the Holy Places, for the custom itself arises spontaneously from the heart. It is found in all religions. The Egyptians journeyed to Sekket’s shrine at Bubastis or to Ammon’s oracle at Thebes; the Greeks sought for counsel from Apollo at Delphi and for cures from Asclepius at Epidaurus; the Mexicans gathered at the huge temple of Quetzal; the Peruvians massed in sun-worship at Cuzco and the Bolivians in Titicaca. But it is evident that the religions which centered round a single character, be he god or prophet, would be the most famous for their pilgrimages, not for any reason of tribal returns to a central district where alone the deity has power, but rather owing to the perfectly natural wish to visit spots made holy by the birth, life, or death of the god or prophet. Hence Buddhism and Mohammedanism are especially famous in inculcating this method of devotion. Huge gatherings of people intermittently all the year round venerate Kapilavastu where Gaukama Gaukama Buddha began his life, Benares where he opened his sacred mission, Kasinagara where he died; and Mecca and Medina have become almost bywords in English as the goals of long aspirations, so famous are they for their connexion with the prophet of Islam.

…

Again it may be noted how, when the penitential system of the Church, which grouped itself round the sacrament of the confessional, had been authoritatively and legally organized, pilgrimages were set down as adequate punishments inflicted for certain crimes. The hardships of the journey, the penitential garb worn, the mendicity it entailed made a pilgrimage a real and efficient penance (Beazley, “Dawn of Modern Geography”, II, 139; Furnival, “The Stacions of Rome and the Pilgrim’s Sea Voyage”, London, 1867, 47). To quote a late text, the following is one of the canons enacted under King Edgar (959-75): “It is a deep penitence that a layman lay aside his weapons and travel far barefoot and nowhere pass a second night and fast and watch much and pray fervently, by day and by night and willingly undergo fatigue and be so squalid that iron come not on hair or on nail” (Thorpe, “Ancient Laws”, London, 1840, 411-2; cf. 44, 410, etc.).