The twenty thousand people who descended upon the tiny city of Chartres in northern France on Pentecost Monday made for an impressive and uplifting sight. But even more striking and inspiring was its largely youthful component embracing a pèlerinage de Chrétienté – pilgrimage of Christendom – rooted in ancient tradition. What some would label as archaic and irrelevant is in fact finding enthusiastic youthful advocates in today’s Church.
The pilgrimage owes its origins to the Sancta Camisa, a piece of silk reputed to have been worn by the Virgin Mary at the Nativity. According to tradition, Charlemagne either stole it in Constantinople – or was given it by the Byzantine royal family – and then in turn gave it to his grandson Charles II, less charitably known as Charles the Bald, who presented it to Chartres Cathedral in 876.
