A Pilgrimage to Rome
Joe Patterson
In the year 2001 I walked from Canterbury to Rome. A simple statement quickly read or said, but the reality was a long, long walk of some 1200 miles through four countries, taking some ten weeks in all.
Why you might ask? Well in 1998, together with a friend, I had walked across Spain to Santiago de Compostela, to the Cathedral shrine of Saint James and on my return home a chance remark by my wife set me thinking of a further pilgrimage, this time to Rome. In 1999 I resolved to make the walk in 2000, Jubilee year. However January 2000 saw me with acute chest pains and February, March and April, in and out of hospital. This period was the lowest point in my 64 years on this earth. However, in May 2000 I had a surgical procedure to open up a coronary artery, which was by then 98% blocked. The rest of the year 2000 was spent in regaining my fitness.
So, could I, or more to the point, dare I walk from Canterbury to Rome? I reasoned there was only one way to find out, so in August 2001, following a blessing at my parish church of St. Augustine in Weymouth, I travelled to Canterbury. That day was a day of contrasts. I received a pilgrim blessing from the Dean in Canterbury Cathedral, had my pilgrim passport stamped and later watched Kent County cricket team play a game under floodlights. Not something I was likely to see on the way. A brisk walk along the North Downs Way took me to Dover, where I walked straight on to a ferry and before I had time to reflect, I found myself in France questioning my sanity.
When plotting my route to Rome, I had become aware of the Via Francigena or the Way of the Franks. This ‘way’ became the backbone of the Roman road system and represented the shortest route between the North Sea and Rome. During the middle ages the route followed Roman and Longobard roads, being first called the ‘Iter Francorum’ and then for the first time in 876 AD the ‘Via Francigena’. Following the Muslim domination of Jerusalem in 640 AD, Rome became the main destination for Christian pilgrimages (until the tenth century and the veneration of St. James of Compostela), and the route reached its highest popularity in the 13th. Century. Later the route fell out of fashion around the seventeenth century
In 990AD Sigeric, then Bishop of Romsey, was made Archbishop of Canterbury and travelled to Rome to receive the Pallium from Pope John 15th. Sigeric kept a record of his return journey and the 80 stages of the route recorded by him have become the fixed points on the roads then known as the ‘Via Francigena’. This was the route I resolved to follow. Obviously by the 21st century much of this route has been obliterated by modern road building programmes. In England some traces are still found near the A2, but most modern pilgrims now follow the North Downs Way from Canterbury to Dover.
In France the ‘Via Francigena’ is non-existent in the modern context of signposting. However a close study of the excellent Green Series 1:100 000 (Top 100) maps showed it was possible to walk mainly on small roads and tracks. So from Calais I walked to Wissant, where Sigeric embarked for England, as did Julius Caesar before him, and later Thomas Becket. Relatively easy walking along tracks and minor roads across the empty Northern plains of France through Giunes, Tourneham, Theroruanne, Bruay, Arras and Laon brought me to Reims and its beautiful Cathedral. Walking through this part of France provides much food for thought. The number and size of the cemeteries for the dead of two world wars bears stark witness to the greed, ambitions and stupidity of man.
I had intended following Sigeric’s route from Reims through Chalons-sur-Marne, Donnement, Humes, Grenant, Seveux and other small villages to Besancon, but it appeared accommodation might be difficult to find, so I followed the Marne-Saone Canal to Langres, which gave seven days of level walking and I reached Besancon two days later. By now the terrain was becoming steeper as I entered the Haute Saone region and three days later I entered Switzerland.
Walking through Switzerland was a pleasure. From my entry at Ste. Croix, to Orbe, to Lausanne and the lakeside and then along the River Rhone, with the Alps getting bigger all the time. Around here the first of the Via Francigena signposts started to appear. I was treated as a true pilgrim at the monastery at St. Maurice, being given free lodgings and food, but then it was upward and upward towards the Grand St. Bernard Pass. At some 1500 metres altitude I suffered the first serious setback on the walk when the sole of one of my boots came adrift. Which prompted a friend to later comment ‘Most people walk to Rome to save their soles not to lose them’ A roll of elastoplast solved the immediate problem but I had to return twenty plus miles to Matigny, to purchase a replacement pair. Re-equipped I eventually reached the Hospice at the top of the Grand Saint Bernard Pass on 11th September. So I will forever remember that day. ‘Pray for the world’, said the Abbot when I asked if I could carry any prayer or intention for his community to Rome. A phrase still relevant today.
The route over the Grand St. Bernard is interesting. There is evidence of four roads at the summit at some 2469metres altitude. There are traces of the old Roman road, the medieval road, the road built by Napoleon and the modern asphalt road. It was minus 8 degrees Celsius when I left the hospice and 26 degrees when I reached Aosta in Italy. Sadly this is where the road walking began. Unlike France, these were busy Italian roads!
Prior to my departure from Canterbury, I had obtained a copy of the ‘Vademecum’, produced by the Via Francigena Association. This booklet lists all the places on the route through Italy, with places to stay and places of special interest. Using this it was easy to follow the ‘correct’ route, but most of that route now followed main roads, so searching for alternative routes became a major pre-occupation. The Po valley seemed to be one long industrial estate, but crossing the River Po (sadly in a modern powerboat) where Sigeric himself had crossed, was made memorable by the warm and friendly hospitality of Pierluigi Capelleti and his wife Daniela at Orio Lita. Pierluigi is a primary schoolteacher and so introduced me to his class who sang a song in English for me, namely, ‘John Brown’s body lies….’ I am still getting letters from the children.
Through the Province of Parma, efforts have been made to get walkers off the main roads and is one of the few places where way marks were plentiful. Their route over the Apennines is exciting and you actually descend to go over the Passo Della Cisa at 1040 metres altitude. After Pontremoli the way marks disappeared and it was back to main roads for a time.
Around Castelfiorentino I developed very painful tendonitis along one shin bone and had to attend the casualty department of the local hospital, my only experience of the Italian ‘NHS’ service. Interesting, as I could not speak Italian. No documentation seemed required, the doctor called me ‘English’ throughout, declined to examine my leg, scribbled on a piece of paper which he passed to me, mimed shaving himself and closed his eyes feigning sleep whilst holding up three fingers. This translated into ‘I’ve seen walker’s injuries before, a prescription for a cream which resembled shaving foam, and rest for three days’. Several painful days followed, but I travelled on through Siena, Abbadia S. Salvatore (once the home of the ‘Jarrow’ bible), Bolsena, Montefiscione, Viterbo, Sutri, La Storta and eventually to Rome where I met my wife on the steps of St Peters.
My wife had already made arrangements for me to meet the President of the Via Francigena Association, Adelaide Trezzini. Almost before I had drawn breath she rushed me off to the studios of Vatican Radio to record an interview and then back to St. Peters to get my pilgrim passport stamped in the Sacrarium and then to attend the Pilgrim mass in St Peter’s, where I was welcomed to Rome from the altar during the mass. A very emotional moment for me.
The next day I returned to St. Peters where I was awarded an ornate Pilgrim Testimonium, in a ceremony in the underground Capello Clemente (Chapel of St Clement, the Pope’s own chapel, one wall of which is the wall of St Peter’s tomb). I was then invited to see and touch the tomb of St Peter deep underneath the Basilica. Down there I also walked along the ‘Avenue’ of the tombs of the popes, and touched the sarcophagus of Pope Hadrian (Nicholas Brakespeare), the only English Pope. Finally I was taken to the hidden church of St. Pelerin – once the ‘Pilgrim Church’, now the private chapel of the Swiss Guards. Within the church, behind the altar, is a beautiful 8th. Century fresco of Christ. Standing before it I realised that Sigeric himself might well have stood at that selfsame spot, looking at the same fresco as myself more than a thousand years before. A very satisfying, but thought provoking moment.
Walking a long distance such as this, alone, is not easy. There is the weather to contend with, the terrain, the traffic and the constant anxiety as to where you will sleep each night. It is hard work, but I console myself with the thought that no matter how hard I worked my Guardian Angel worked so much harder!
In 1994 the Council of Europe agreed to promote theVia Francigena as a European Cultural Itinerary to promote the historical study of the Way and provide pilgrims as well as tourists with information on the route. In 2000 the Association published the ‘Vademecum’ for the route from Grand St. Bernard to Rome. This year they have produced a further ‘Vademecum’ for the route from London to the Grand St. Bernard. Although written mainly in Italian the information on the route and places to stay and to see are in international symbol form and thus easy to follow.
For those wishing to follow this pilgrimage, or just to obtain more information about the route, I strongly recommend contacting the Via Francigena Association either through their web site at www.francigena.ch or by writing to the President of the Association, Mme. Adelaide Trezzini, 6 Lgo Ecuador,1 – 00198 Roma. Alternatively I can be contacted at [email protected]
or Tel. 0044 (0)1305 833331. In English please!