The Baltic Pilgrimage

In AD 1103, in the central lands of the Rus and the Siberian plains, the earth quaked as it was rent and torn asunder for hundreds of miles southward. Spilling forth from this deep abyss, chasm, was a deluge of enchanted energies and a series of interlocking deities who, having been trapped within the forming of the Earth, now ascended up, residing upon Luna, overlooking the world below. The dark and light energies of magic leaking into the atmosphere, encasing Earth and altering the civilizations upon her forever. Having learned to incorporate these new magical energies into restricted priesthoods, the militaries and daily life of all Europeans and Asians had, by AD 1337, changed wildly. And yet it was also at this time that Europe began to face a new and wholly daunting threat of a unified Lithuania, being the largest landmass kingdom in all of Europe, which was ruled over by the quasi-immortal Undeath Aristocracy. The Teutonic Order, having been invited by the Polish crown into the Baltic for their protection, was now Europe’s, and, even more dire, Christianity’s, last bulwark and defensive line against the encroaching corruption and vile taint of nature that was wrought by the undeath and their monstrous legions of Norr, the rank-and-file infantry who enforced the dark and enslaving rule of the undeath. The coming events and the newly arrived Teutonic member, Ludwig, would change, with steel, anger, and magical spells, not just the course and shape of events in the Baltic, but the very face and future of not just Christianity but humanity as a whole.

For millennia people have travelled to religious sites for worship, initiatory and leisure purposes. Today there are hundreds, if not thousands, of religious pilgrimage routes and trails around the world that are used by pilgrims as well as tourists. Indeed, many religious pilgrimage routes and trails are today used as themes by tourism marketers in an effort to promote regional economic development. An important resource for those interested in religious tourism and pilgrimage, this book is also an invaluable collection for academics and policy-makers within heritage tourism and regional development.

There is a vigorous debate on the exact beginnings of the Crusades, as well as a growing conviction that some practices of crusading may have been in existence, at least in part, long before they were identified as such. The Prehistory of the Crusades explores how the Crusades came to be seen as the use of aggressive warfare to Christianise pagan lands and peoples. Reynolds focuses on the Baltic, or Northern, Crusades, an aspect of the Crusades that has been little documented, thus bringing a new perspective to their historical and ideological origins. Baltic Crusades were distinctive because they were not directed at the Holy Land, and they were not against Muslim opponents, but rather against pagan peoples. From the Emperor Charlemagne's wars against the Saxons in the 8th and 9th centuries to the Baltic Crusades of the 12th century, this book explores the sanctification of war in creating the ideal of crusade. In so doing, it shows how crusading ultimately developed in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Prehistory of the Crusades provides a valuable insight into the topic for students of medieval history and the Crusades.

Values-rich journeys can be described as pilgrimage, spiritual travel, personal heritage tourism, holistic tourism, and valuistic journeys. There are many motivations for undertaking these journeys; the most important being personal values, life experience, personal and social identity, lifestyle, social and cultural influence. This book presents contributions that address pilgrim motivation, identity and values as they are shaped by the broader sociological, psychological, cultural and environmental perspectives. The focus of the book is the travellers themselves and their inner world through the lens of their pilgrimage. The research presented focuses on the typology of pilgrim journeys as ways in which identity and values are presented to a post-modern consumer society, providing interesting and challenging perspectives on the identity of pilgrims in the 21st century.

The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, written by a missionary priest in the early thirteenth century to record the history of the crusades to Livonia and Estonia around 1186-1227, offers one of the most vivid examples of the early thirteenth century crusading ideology in practice. Step by step, it has become one of the most widely read and acknowledged frontier crusading and missionary chronicles. Henry's chronicle offers many opportunities to test and broaden the new approaches and key concepts brought along by recent developments in medieval studies, including the new pluralist definition of crusading and the relationship between the peripheries and core areas of Europe. While recent years have produced a significant amount of new research into Henry of Livonia, much of it has been limited to particular historical traditions and languages. A key objective of this book, therefore, is to synthesise the current state of research for the international scholarly audience. The volume provides a multi-sided and multi-disciplinary companion to the chronicle, and is divided into three parts. The first part, 'Representations,' brings into focus the imaginary sphere of the chronicle - the various images brought into existence by the amalgamation of crusading and missionary ideology and the frontier experience. This is followed by studies on 'Practices,' which examines the chronicle's reflections of the diplomatic, religious, and military practices of the christianisation and colonisation processes in medieval Livonia. The volume concludes with a section on the 'Appropriations,' which maps the reception history of the chronicle: the dynamics of the medieval, early modern and modern national uses and abuses of the text.

The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, written by a missionary priest in the early thirteenth century to record the history of the crusades to Livonia and Estonia around 1186-1227, offers one of the most vivid examples of the early thirteenth century crusading ideology in practice. Step by step, it has become one of the most widely read and acknowledged frontier crusading and missionary chronicles. Henry's chronicle offers many opportunities to test and broaden the new approaches and key concepts brought along by recent developments in medieval studies, including the new pluralist definition of crusading and the relationship between the peripheries and core areas of Europe. While recent years have produced a significant amount of new research into Henry of Livonia, much of it has been limited to particular historical traditions and languages. A key objective of this book, therefore, is to synthesise the current state of research for the international scholarly audience. The volume provides a multi-sided and multi-disciplinary companion to the chronicle, and is divided into three parts. The first part, 'Representations,' brings into focus the imaginary sphere of the chronicle - the various images brought into existence by the amalgamation of crusading and missionary ideology and the frontier experience. This is followed by studies on 'Practices,' which examines the chronicle's reflections of the diplomatic, religious, and military practices of the christianisation and colonisation processes in medieval Livonia. The volume concludes with a section on the 'Appropriations,' which maps the reception history of the chronicle: the dynamics of the medieval, early modern and modern national uses and abuses of the text.

Medieval pilgrimage was, above all, an expression of religious faith, but this was not its only aspect. Men and women of all classes went on pilgrimage for a variety of reasons, sometimes by choice, sometimes involuntarily. They made both long and short journeys: to Rome, Jerusalem and Santiago on the one hand; to innumerable local shrines on the other. The routes that they followed by land and water made up a complex web which covered the face of Europe, and their travels required a range of support services, including the protection of rulers (who were themselves often pilgrims). Pilgrimage left its mark not only on the landscape but also on the art and literature of Europe. Diana Webb's engaging book offers the reader a fresh introduction to the history of European Christian pilgrimage in the twelve hundred years between the conversion of Emperor Constantine and the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation. As well as exploring this multi-faceted activity, it considers both the geography of pilgrimage and its significant cultural legacy.

George Albert Simons (1874-1952) of New York State was the first and only American missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church appointed as superintendent of the Russia Mission. He arrived in St. Petersburg in 1907 during the reign of the Tsar Nicholas II. He succeeded in registering the first Methodist congregation in St. Petersburg in 1912, based on the registration of the Methodist congregation in 1906 in Kaunas, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Imperial Empire. Simons soon mastered the Russian language, and he established numerous congregations in and around St. Petersburg and as far East as Marinsk. A tireless worker, he developed an extensive publishing program of Methodist resources: hymnals, journals, liturgies, discipline, and beliefs, etc. In 1918, after the Bolshevik Revolution, he was forced to leave Russia. In 1920, he was reassigned to the Baltic States with headquarters in Riga, Latvia, with some continuing responsibilities for the Russia Mission. In Riga, he established an institute to train clergy, continued his publishing program, and procured numerous properties for church buildings. Without the efforts of Simons, Methodism in Russia and the Baltic States would be but a shadow of what it is today. The foundation he laid helped make possible the rebirth of Methodism in these countries after the demise of Communism. He was indeed a pilgrim, who journeyed to a sacred place, Russia, to plant seed for the growth of Methodism. He had the soul of a poet as can be seen in his vast amount of poetry and hymns that bear witness to his theology and experience in Russia.