Social Class and Gender in Medieval Pilgrimages

Medieval Tour Guides and The Stations of Rome

Introduction to Medieval Pilgrimage

Miracle collections can also provide an understanding of pilgrims’ composition, from social class to gender. Of Bury St Edmunds, it becomes clear that the cult was far more established than some other shrines, containing numerous high-profile pilgrims. The miracles collected at Bury St Edmunds are limited, only 52 being accounted for across the Miraculas written by Archdeacon Herman (c.1070), Goscelin (c.1100), Osbert (c.1130s), and Abbot Samson (c.1200). Nevertheless, the results are still relevant in understanding the composition of pilgrim devotees. Of the 52 pilgrims recorded, the sex of the pilgrims at Bury St Edmunds closely follows the overall national average. Whilst the national average is 61% male and 39% female, Bury St Edmunds consists of 65% male, 35% female – nothing overly unique. The distinctiveness of the cult comes in the form of social class representation.

Bury St. Edmunds and St. Mary’s Church

Bury St Edmunds and its Pilgrims

In both male and female shrine visitors, there is a notable amount of nobility, knights, and upper ecclesiasts. A probable cause for such a function is perhaps due to the nature of St Edmund being an Anglo-Saxon king who was martyred at the hands of foreign invaders. Thus, when Edward I prayed before St Edmund and was bestowed his blessed banner before fighting the Scots, it makes sense that Bury functions as a primarily royal and monastic patron. It is no surprise then that Herman, in his De Miraculis, was motivated to portray Edmund as a symbol of foreign resistance and military strength. In the aftermath of The Conquest, Edmund thus played a key role in bridging the gap between the foreign Norman culture and Anglo-Saxon tradition. Furthermore, with so many nobles having land disputes, levied taxes, and succession conflicts as a result of the The Conquest, it is understandable why there is such a heightened interaction between the saint and high nobles, aristocracy, and nobility. It should be noted, however, that St Edmund healed as much as he punished, and there are positive experiences of Norman knights being healed by the saint. Ranulf, a Norman knight who arrived with William I in c.1066, was cured of madness by St Edmund, whilst William Fitz Asketill, a knight from Herefordshire, was cured of a fever after making an offering. Overall, however, healing a specific illness was the most asked-for miracle amongst men, whilst being crippled was oddly popular amongst women, something seemingly unique to Bury.

Gender Analysis in Pilgrimage

Aside from spheres of influence, analysing miracles can also provide an understanding of the sex of pilgrims which is particularly important in understanding the role of women in pilgrimage. Finucane analysed two local shrines in England, of which, there are a unique number of female pilgrims. The first is Godric of Finchale, situated outside of Durham. Of the 244 miracles analysed, two-thirds of these are women, higher than any other shrine analysed by me or Finucane. No other saint also accounted for so many lower-class people but considering that the social class of women were typically unspecified, this is no surprise. The other shrine with predominantly female devotees was Frideswide of Oxford. Of the 108 miracles, also two-thirds of these were women.

This provides a special insight into how women were able to express their faith in this period, but other contemporary sources involving pilgrimage can also enable understanding into understanding the degree of freedom women had. The following source, a letter sent to Eleanor of Provence, the queen of England, from Pope Innocent IV, is particularly notable as it demonstrates that royalty frequently undertook pilgrimage:

“Yielding to your devout prayers, we concede to you by the present authority that since from time to time it happens, by reason of devotion, that you come to many monasteries, of Cistercians and others, of the kingdom of England, you are permitted, with ten good and honest women, to enter their churches and cloisters for the purpose of prayer; any custom or statute confirmed by the Apostolic See or other authority notwithstanding.”

Gender and Ecclesiastical Authority in Pilgrimage

More than this, however, it expresses certain complexities within gender and pilgrimage that are a prevalent undertone throughout this period, namely that women could only seemingly undertake pilgrimage through the approval of men, and more specifically, only with the permission of ecclesiastical males. The most striking aspect of the passage is that the pope “concedes” his approval and is “yielding” after her multiple attempts at visiting monasteries. This great reluctance to allow women on pilgrimage is seemingly a microcosm for a common opinion as St Cuthbert, patron of Durham Cathedral, was equally as reluctant to provide women with access to the cathedral-priory and other areas.

St Cuthbert’s Shrine: Gender Restrictions and Pilgrimage Trends

By using Finucane’s methodology on the 86 miracles of St Cuthbert (based on the collections constructed by Symeon of Durham in the 1100s, and Reginald of Durham in the 1160s), we can discover that 89% of pilgrim visitors were men, which is notably higher than the overall male average of 61%. Such a result only corroborates the understanding that St Cuthbert was a misogynistic saint. The ban on women entering St Cuthbert’s church was first recorded in Symeon of Durham’s Libellus de Exordio, whereby Cuthbert “severed his monks from all-female company” so that through “the indiscreet association of women with God’s servants the monks should not endanger their resolve and so ruin them, thereby giving joy to the Enemy.” It is perhaps not surprising then that a quarter of male pilgrims were ecclesiastical, one of the largest proportions across English and French shrines. In correspondence to what Symeon describes, it seems to be that certain shrines and monastic communities were highly protective over who could and couldn’t access the shrine, but it is noteworthy that this rule extends to include even the queen.

Patterns and Trends in English and Northern French Pilgrimage

By understanding pilgrimage through all the miracles across all the shrines researched, we can draw together patterns and trends within English and Northern French pilgrimage. To begin with, as previously stated, across 2,000 pilgrims analysed, over 61% were male, and 39% were female. Of those women, the majority were obviously of unspecified social class aside from named examples from nobility and gentry. Whilst 86% of women were from the lower class, only 56% of men came from this social level. Instead, the most frequent male pilgrims were of the lower clergy, such as monks or priests.

Comparative Analysis of English and French Pilgrims

A comparison between the English and French cults provides some interesting, yet peculiar outcomes. The same proportion of sexes was found in both England and France, and exactly the same proportion of female pilgrims were from the lower classes. The only prominent difference between French and English pilgrims was that English male pilgrims were typically of a higher social class than male French pilgrims. Nevertheless, the similarities are striking, and the reasons for these parallels are uncertain, yet it is certain that pilgrimage and oral tradition were incredibly ingrained into all sects and classes of society, and the motivation to undertake a pilgrimage was felt by most if not everyone.