Between warfare and conflict resolution: Pilgrimage and politics in the Holy Land

Pilgrimage was a two-way traffic for the Tuscan city of Lucca because, while pilgrims set out from the city to shrines in Italy and beyond, pilgrims from elsewhere were also attracted to Lucca itself. Indeed it argues that there was something of three-way traffic, since Lucca was not only a pilgrimage destination in itself, it was also an important staging post on the Via Francigena, one of the main pilgrimage routes from Northern Italy to Rome. One form of pilgrimage which is quite frequently met with in Lucchese wills is pilgrimage to the local church of San Michele Angeli at Monte Brancalo a few miles from Lucca. This is the only form of pilgrimage for which it was sometimes stipulated that the pilgrim should be a woman. The main motivation for pilgrimage, whether undertaken in person or by deputy, was to obtain the pardon or indulgences offered at particular shrines.