Pilgrimage and Pilgrimage Practices. Reactions in Times of Crisis

In the present study, the current state of the local cult to St. Theotokos of Kalwaria Pacławska in Poland is presented, used as an example of pilgrimage and pilgrimage practices realized in various crisis situations. The thesis is advocated that such a cult is characterized by stability, a certain structural arrangement of symbolic objects, belief in miracles, as well as standardized social communication between its participants. Man, in moments of crisis, seeks a natural touch to the sacred. A transforming religiosity imposes on the urbanistic worldview of modern man as practices, but without affecting the dogmatic postulates of faith. The approach of the modern devotee shows multiple paths to the ultimate goal (namely Divine penetration) which are different interpretations of the same universal pattern. The contacts built at different levels in the analyzed pilgrimage show of the adhesion of many images and motives, leading to the functioning of the developing religious ritual system, reconciling the local and the universal, which can be used as a model of action when looking for a way out of various types of crises.