Virgin Trails: A Secular Pilgrimage

by Robert Ward

In Medieval and Renaissance Europe, humble journeyman painters would depict the Virgin Mary in city walls and cobblestones. Their identities have long been erased by time, and they are remembered today only as madonnari, the Madonna painters. In Virgin Trails, author Robert Ward sets out to become a modern-day madonnaro, painting a contemporary portrait of the most beloved figure in Catholic theology. As Ward points out, Mary has little to say in the Bible itself and our image of her has been built piece by piece over two millennia. To understand how we have come to view her, then, we must return to the great Marian cathedrals, shrines and pilgrimages of Christian Europe. So from Paris to Lourdes, and from the Camino de Santiago to Loreto, Ward's curious, wry and intelligent quest to find the truth of Mary unfolds. And it unfolds with true Chaucerian delight. Full of colour, character and conversation, Virgin Trails is as much a portrait of the people Ward meets and the places he visits as it is of Mary. At once a thought-provoking examination of the nature of spirituality and belief, and an affirmation of the beauty of the human spirit, Virgin Trails is a stunning debut from a major new talent.

Hardcover

Published May 1, 2002

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.

Other authors publishing under this name are:

Robert Ward, educator
Robert Ward
Robert Ward, U.S. novelist and screenwriter
Robert Ward

Reviews

[Brian Carrigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice read

[Julie Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was once a fourth famous Virgin of Chartres; a silver image crafted in the thirteenth century. She no longer exists, though a depiction ofher may still be seen in one of the windows, where a pilgrim is shown praying to her. Her story proves that vandalism is not exclusively the province of revolutionaries.

This Virgin was greatly venerated in the Middle Ages; indeed, she held the place of honor above that altar. Yet at some point her popularity went into decline ...

For the next two centuries she forged on, doing her best despite reduced conditions. But then came the debt crunch of the 1760s. The canons of the cathedral went casting about for any little scrap of gold or silver. In a note signed April 6, 1769, Germain Blonnie, a goldsmith of Chartres, acknowledged receipt of twenty-four livres for "melting down the Christ and the Virgin of the old altar." The little silver Virgin had been turned into ingots to pay for Carrara marble ...

It is horrifying to think that an image that had received so many prayers over the centuries could be so blithely destroyed. Then again, the Church could reply that works of religious art are intended to be not receptacles for prayer, but windows to a higher reality; that one prays through, not to, an image. A statue of Mary is not Mary, and maybe it's better to melt down the images from time to time before they turn into idols.

An avowed atheist, Ward indulged his long held desire to walk on pilgrimage in going to various Marian shrines throughout Europe. In doing so he presents one of the clearest and most even handed views of pilgrimage and these shrines that I have ever read. He gives the history for each place, which includes Lourdes, Chartres, and Fatima. We then share his experiences in current day surroundings and see the many types of pilgrims that also are at these shrines. Atheist or not, Ward has an excellent understanding of the Catholic Church's view and is more open minded in many cases than some Catholics I know. Highly recommended.