So difficult to know where to post this!
I would like to introduce you to a forgotten pilgrim. Or at least, there are many who would prefer he remain forgotten!
Not exactly a household name, Priscillian, one time Bishop of Avila in Spain, was executed by the newly established Roman church on charges of �Witchcraft and Heresy�, in 386CE. Along with him died several of his closest supporters, including a woman, Euchrotia. They were the first victims of the �inquisition� many centuries before the term �Spanish� had been attached to it.
So who was Priscillian, and was he guilty?
This is the subject of my newly published novel entitled Pilgrimage to Heresy: Don�t Believe Everything They Tell You.
Last year more than half a million pilgrims walked the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. Some come for religious purposes, as have many thousands before them since the Middle Ages; however, many more walk for their own reasons: some to discover Spanish culture and customs, some to find their own way to personal spirituality. Many walk to find their reasons for walking. But few question whether the remains in the silver casket in the cathedral are actually those of St. James.
And perhaps, it doesn�t matter.
But what if they are not? What if one of the last few pilgrimages in the western world are to the remains of a heretic?
Pilgrimage to Heresy follows the pilgrimage of Miranda, a professor at the University of Toronto. Along the way she meets many like-minded souls, among them, Kieran, a lapsed candidate for the priesthood who is carrying and translating a book written in Latin: a book he should not have. Early in the story Kieran disappears � and so does his book. Dovetailed with this is a �time shift� to the 4th century, and a, admittedly fictitious, look at Priscillian and his followers, based on the facts we know of his life and teachings. Readers will find a decidedly Gnostic slant to his thoughts and practises, and perhaps too much Paganism which ultimately cost him his life.
I walked my own Camino in 1999 from the Pyrenees. There is still no doubt in my mind that it was perhaps the most important thing I have ever done, and, as it does with all pilgrims remains a constant influence in my everyday life.
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