Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

(Re)Inscribing Meaning: Embodied Religious-Spiritual Practices At Croagh Patrick And Our Lady’S Island, Ireland, Richard Scriven, Eoin O'Mahony

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Responding to calls for critical interrogations of pilgrimages, our paper examines how different religious meanings are (re)inscribed in spaces through the performance of annual events in a post-secular context. This focus reveals how pilgrims’ embodied practices are fundamental to continuing definitions of these locations as sacred places. Using accounts of the Croagh Patrick and Our Lady’s Island pilgrimages in Ireland, we trace the movement of people in these spaces focusing on how meanings are forged, refracted, and challenged through the performances. These mass embodiments assert traditional understandings of Christian worship and looser spiritual interpretations, while simultaneously involving secular concerns. The …