protopilgrimage

English

Etymology

proto- +‎ pilgrimage

Noun

protopilgrimage (plural protopilgrimages)

1. A journey or quest that predates or approaches being a pilgrimage.
   • 1991, Eugene Vance, “Style and value: From soldier to pilgrim in the Song of Roland”, in Yale French Studies:

     Thus, Charlemagne's protopilgrimage brings him to a protosanctuary where the hero's body is already almost a statue,

   • 2020, David Bowe, Poetry in Dialogue in the Duecento and Dante, page 144:

     Dante makes this earlier exchange into a protopilgrimage in the purgatorial style and retroactively imbues it with the weight of this later project, his sacrato poema.

   • 2022, Simon Coleman, Powers of Pilgrimage: Religion in a World of Movement, page 229:

     The Virgin in Rogers Park manifests the inchoate qualities of a protopilgrimage site that occupies municipal land, reaching out toward a proximate urban realm rather than a remote desert or mountain.