Contemporary Aspects of Popular Religiosity as Seen in Pilgrimage to Medjugorje

Abstract

Post-communist countries of Central and Eastern (CE) Europe where religions used to be repressed by authorities are now experiencing religious pluralisation. As the small numbers of adherents in Sunday services indicate, a steady decline of religious institutions has given way to alternative practices and more individualised religiosity. While statistical investigations have proven this general trend, the common elements of this emerging popular religiosity have received little attention. I address this gap by scrutinising various aspects of the popular religiosity observed in bus pilgrimages from Slovenia to Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina. According to numerous interviews with pilgrims and spiritual leaders, Medjugorje attracts people with its informality, relaxed religious authority, spontaneity, and residents’ hospitality. I argue that all of these factors allow pilgrims to seek and experience open access to the divine. Their implicit (and sometimes explicit) struggles with the Franciscans, who want to control and establish the ideal pilgrimage path and impose meanings on the landscape of Medjugorje, increasingly generate multiple “rival” spiritual and secular pilgrims’ activities that hinder the institutionalisation of the pilgrimage site. Pilgrims’ actions, such as choosing their spiritual leader, attending spontaneous rites, or keeping strong ties with the locals in Medjugorje, can be seen as persistent elements of popular religiosity observed in pilgrimage from Slovenia.