Take the cockle to … Jerusalem!?

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In More 'medieval' pilgrims in the Netherlands we wrote on this forum

To take the cockle is synonymous with Old Dutch 'Palster ende scerpe nemen' meaning to take the staff (bourdon) and scrib (wallet for letters of recommandation) like a well-known English pilgrim is doing on the Camino these days.

Now -to our amazement we must admit- we read in CHAPTER IX: "GARLEEK, OYNONS, AND EEK LEKES" of The Pilgrim and the Book: A Study of Dante, Langland, and Chaucer (by Julia Bolton Holloway -remember that name!) on http://www.questia.com/read/65085795

(...) Therefore Dame Lent . . . made a now to go to Jerusalem; she put great effort into going across the sea. . . . On Good Friday she dressed in a pilgrim's cloak, a big, round hat with many scallop shells on it, a staff laden with religious images and on it a fine palm branch, a basket and beads so as to say her prayers rapidly, shoes that were round-toed and double-soled; she flung a big sack over her back, there she stored rolls and pieces of sacramental bread, pilgrims go equipped with these things.(...)

Did anyone notice any pilgrims displaying cockle shells on their hats lately in the Holy Land?

 

[PILGRIMSPLAZA]

Next year in Jerusalem?

Following Take the cockle to … Jerusalem!? on miscellaneous-topics/topic5968.html here's some Vatican stats published today on visnews_en@mlists.vatican.va in Vatican Information Service so you won't feel a stranger in Jerusalem and the surrounding Promised Lands:

THE CHURCH IN JORDAN, ISRAEL, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

For the occasion of Benedict XVI's forthcoming pilgrimage to the Holy Land, due to take place from 8 to 15 May, statistics have been published concerning the Catholic Church in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories. The information, updated to 31 December 2007, comes from the Central Statistical Office of the Church.

Jordan has a population of 5,720,000 of whom 109,000 (1.91 percent) are Catholic. There are three ecclesiastical circumscriptions and sixty-four parishes. Currently, there are four bishops, 103 priests and 258 religious. Major seminarians number seven.

A total of 30,595 students attend the 123 infant, primary, middle and secondary schools that belong to the Catholic Church or are run by priests or religious. Other institutions belonging to the Church or run by priests or religious in Jordan include two hospitals, one clinic, one family counselling centre, and three centres for education and social rehabilitation.

Israel and the Palestinian Territories have a population of 7,180,000 of whom 130,000 (1.81 percent) are Catholic. There are nine ecclesiastical circumscriptions, seventy-eight parishes and three pastoral centres of other kinds. Currently, there are eleven bishops, 406 priests, 1,171 religious and one lay missionary. Minor seminarians number fourteen and major seminarians 110.

A total of 43,876 students attend 192 centres of Catholic education, from kindergartens to universities. Other institutions belonging to the Church or run by priests or religious in Israel and the Palestinian Territories include eleven hospitals, ten clinics, nine homes for the elderly or disabled, eleven orphanages and nurseries, four centres for education and social rehabilitation, and two institutions of other kinds.

VATICAN CITY, 5 MAY 2009 (VIS) - OP/STATISTICS JORDAN ISRAEL PALESTINE/...VIS 090505 (280)