TY - JOUR
KW - Finland
KW - Karelia
KW - Orthodox tradition
KW - Skolt Saami
KW - pilgrimage
KW - procession of the cross
AU - Elina Vuola
AB - This article examines two cases of Finnish Orthodox traditions of procession and pilgrimage that are currently being reframed in response to physical, political, and religious disruption. Annual Orthodox processions are now held in Northern Karelia close to and across the Finnish-Russian border, while the pilgrimage of St. Tryphon of Pechenga, the patron saint of the Skolt Saami in northeastern Finland, crosses the border between Finland and Norway to visit their lost home area, as an act of remembrance and recognition of the history of the Skolt Saami. Here I argue that, contrary to some trends within pilgrimage studies to blur tourism and pilgrimage, these journeys are primarily religious, understood only with an appreciation of Orthodox theology and worldview. Each case demonstrates both continuity and change in Orthodox pilgrimage praxis and its theological underpinnings. It highlights the pragmatism of the priests and congregations involved in adapting traditional forms to complex new contexts involving the loss of tangible and intangible heritage. The analysis shows that both events include the active agency of both the institution and local participants and a significant amount of invention in relation to new contexts of loss.
DO - 10.1163/15685276-12341602
M1 - 5
N1 - Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
N2 - This article examines two cases of Finnish Orthodox traditions of procession and pilgrimage that are currently being reframed in response to physical, political, and religious disruption. Annual Orthodox processions are now held in Northern Karelia close to and across the Finnish-Russian border, while the pilgrimage of St. Tryphon of Pechenga, the patron saint of the Skolt Saami in northeastern Finland, crosses the border between Finland and Norway to visit their lost home area, as an act of remembrance and recognition of the history of the Skolt Saami. Here I argue that, contrary to some trends within pilgrimage studies to blur tourism and pilgrimage, these journeys are primarily religious, understood only with an appreciation of Orthodox theology and worldview. Each case demonstrates both continuity and change in Orthodox pilgrimage praxis and its theological underpinnings. It highlights the pragmatism of the priests and congregations involved in adapting traditional forms to complex new contexts involving the loss of tangible and intangible heritage. The analysis shows that both events include the active agency of both the institution and local participants and a significant amount of invention in relation to new contexts of loss.
SP - 557
EP - 585
TI - Reinventions of an Old Tradition: Orthodox Processions and Pilgrimage in Contemporary Finland
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85118310308&doi=10.1163%2f15685276-12341602&partnerID=40&md5=0c01bc199457b64131502251fd4de694
VL - 67
SN - 00295973 (ISSN)
ER -