Abstract :

The French catholic pilgrimages to the Holy Land in the nineteenth century

From the romantic pilgrim to the return of crusaders

The nineteenth century was the one of the rediscovery of the Holy Land. The French Catholics progressively went back to Palestine through pilgrimages which had become rare during the last centuries.

In 1806, René François de Chateaubriand was the first renowned pilgrim to go to Jerusalem, opening the path to isolated pilgrims during the first half of the century. In 1853, mass pilgrimages which had disappeared since the crusades were put in place, they went once or twice a year to Jerusalem. This was the starting point of a sumptuous era for French caravans, pioneers by their number and their frequency. In 1882, a pilgrimage organized by the assumptionnists gathered more than one thousand pilgrims and was named the nineth crusade, because of its tremendous number and impact of the Holy City. The last quart of the century was a golden age for France where pilgrimages played a big part in the resurgence of Catholicism and French in Palestine.

Our objective is firstly to make a history of these pilgrimages in the Holy City during the nineteenth century, a poorly studied aspect yet an integral part of Palestine’s opening up to the world. Secondly, we want to demonstrate that the pilgrimages have been an important promotional factor for the catholic church that was aiming at restoring its power since the middle of the nineteenth century, in a land that had become orthodox. This was also true for France, who wanted, via capitulations, to hold on to a privileged position in this part of the Middle East.