A brief history of the via Francigena

I began the via Francigena on Friday 23 May 2008 from my home in north London and walked to Trafalgar Square to link with St Martin-in-the-Fields’ annual pilgrimage to Canterbury cathedral, and continued with my companions to Dover and crossed the English Channel by ferry to Calais. The journey ultimately crossed France, Switzerland to arrive at the Great Saint Bernard pass and crossed into Italy to continue through Aosta to finish on Friday 22 August 2010 at the Basilica of St Peter.

This amazing journey followed more or less directly in the footsteps of Sigeric the Serious Archbishop of Canterbury (989-994) who went to Rome in 989 to receive his cope and pallium (a circular band of white wool with pendant, worn by archbishops) from the hands of the Pope, as was customary for that period. Sigeric on his way home recorded the places he passed through identifying them as 'submansiones'. The manuscript of that journey is kept in the British Library and became the focus for academic research and the re-creation of this modern-day pilgrimage route that  became known as the via Francigena. The Archbishop's description of the route proved accurate although the 10th century names differed in many instances from their modern ones.

Reference
Babette Gallard  (2010) Lightfoot Companion to the Via Francigena. Pilgrimage Publications