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And in the middle of the Classic Age of Greece, it was important for Greeks to travel and trade.

interest as each citizen grabbed a small stone from a large pile and started dropping it in two separate piles:

A holy relic was something that had once belonged to or been touched by Jesus or one of the important Saints

Between 1347 and 1350, the Black Death raged through Medieval Europe. Historians and biologists have traced the origins of this deadly pandemic to the remote steppes of Central Asia. Plague had certainly erupted there by 1331 but how exactly did it spread from East to West? After ravaging Central Asia, the plague descended on China, India and Persia. In China alone, the plague killed around half of the human population. Despite such destruction, commercial activities continued unabated. This meant that the traders, their vessels and the rats aboard became the agents of infection. As they travelled along the established trade routes of the medieval world, they unwittingly carried the plague with them.

For several years, the Mongols had allowed a group of merchants from Genoa to control Kaffa, a bustling seaport on the Crimean Peninsula. This was highly advantageous for the Mongols as it provided a direct link to Italy’s largest commercial centre and encouraged trade across all corners of their vast empire. Tensions and disagreements, however, were a common feature of this commercial relationship, arising primarily from their religious differences; the Italians were devoutly Christian and the Mongols had been practising Muslims since the 1200s.

‘This Pestilential Disease’

Definition of a Pilgrimage Definition of a Pilgrimage: A Pilgrimage is a journey to a holy place or shrine undertaken as a spiritual quest to obtain supernatural help or as a form of penance for sins. A pilgrim is one who undertakes a pilgrimage. The word 'pilgrimage' is derived from the Latin word peregrinus meaning foreignerand peregri meaning abroad translated as a traveller in foreign lands. The word 'peregrinatio' was used by Augustine of Hippo 354-430AD , who was considered to be the writer of some of greatest theological works of all time, to describe a Christian spiritual journey as a kind of estrangement and exile - a wanderer. The earliest surviving references to Christian pilgrimage date back to the 4th century.

The Concept of Pilgrimage Augustine of Hippo wrote about the concept of the pilgrimage and other religious leaders such as Saint Jerome also encouraged it in their religious writings. The idea or the concept of Pilgrimage was eagerly accepted by Medieval people from all walks of life, young or old, wealthy or poor. The concept of pilgrimage was and important religious belief in the Middle Ages both in terms of religious activity and as a way of Medieval life.

Soon it became common for Medieval people to make a pilgrimage closer to home visiting sites associated with Christian Saints and martyrs, holy relics and to places where there had been apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Pilgrimages were the first holidays enjoyed by Medieval people. Groups of Christians would set off together on a spiritual journey to visit a holy place or shrine where they would pray together.

When the first civilizations did begin trading with each other about five thousand years ago, however, many of them got rich…and fast.

human interaction, bringing cross-cultural contact to a whole new level

self-sufficiency