Canterbury Cathedral has appointed a Pilgrim Officer to help re-establish itself as England's leading pilgrimage site.
Once as significant as Rome and Santiago de Compostela, Canterbury attracted many pilgrims in the Middle Ages. Torin Brown, the new Pilgrim Officer, first came to the city through the Camino de Santiago and later studied theology at Christ Church University.
While working part-time as a shepherd at the Cathedral, Brown engaged with modern pilgrims by stamping Pilgrim Passports, offering blessings, and taking photos at the Cathedral’s Pilgrim Stone. Fascinated by their journeys, he began collecting data, which revealed that spirituality is the primary reason for the growing interest in pilgrimage.
This insight is shaping Canterbury’s pilgrim mission, with Brown collaborating with other cathedrals to share pilgrimage data across the UK.
Speaking about his appointment, Brown said: "Pilgrimage as a religious ritual to a sacred space is an ancient practice that appears to be enjoying quite a renaissance in our post-pandemic, climate-sensitive era.
"There seems to be an undeniable spiritual thirst for what religious people experience as transcendent realities – that characteristic of pilgrimage which can bridge the gap between the sacred and the profane in extraordinary places where the veil is believed to be especially thin.
"It can provide a space where the big questions of life, death, and suffering can be offered up for profound contemplation, and cathedrals and shrines can represent an axis mundi for this meaning-seeking".
Projects are already underway, including Canterbury’s involvement in the city’s pilgrimage-themed Medieval Pageant this summer.