Sociological aspects of the Catholic pilgrimage

Straipsnyje pateikiama katalikiškos piligrimystės samprata, apibūdinami piligriminės kelionės ypatumai. Aptariami pagrindiniai kelionės etapai (pasiruošimas, pati kelionė į tikslo vietą, buvimas šventojoje vietoje, grįžimas namo), reikšmingi kelionės elementai (piligrimų bendravimas, fizinis kelionės patyrimas, kraštovaizdžio įtaka, maldos reikšmė). Analizuojant piligriminę kelionę ypač didelis dėmesys skiriamas piligriminės kelionės motyvams, išgyvenimams ir potyriams kelionėje ir šventojoje vietoje. Straipsnyje piligrimystės reiškinys nagrinėjamas sociologiniu aspektu, naudojamasi sociologiniais metodais.The article presents the conception of the Catholic pilgrimage and the piculiaritics of the pilgrimage journey. The pilgrimage is analyzed from the sociological point of view, the sociological methods arc used. Pilgrimage is a heterogenous phenomenon, it includes two main components: pilgrims and sacred places. The pilgrims vary in age, education, social position, but the purposes of their pilgrimage journey arc religious and spiritual, this is the difference in comparison with cognitive, recreation, casthctical purposes of tourists. The authors' researches show that causes of the pilgrimage journey are the desire for the freshness, a wish of the non-routine experience. Pilgrimage is an unusual relationship between individual and the God. Moreover, pilgrimage needs to contain a challenging physical clement. A hardship is part of the defining concept of a pilgrimage. Analyzing the material it is clear that a landscape has a significant importance to the pilgrims. The other important thing is worship, which vary in forms (individual prayer, the grace, hymns, rosary). In many ways the experience of worship is intensisified during the pilgrimage. The data of sociological research shows that after returning home from sacrum to profanum space the pilgrims sec a contradiction between everyday life and spiritual, internal pilgrimage journey