Religious Pilgrimage and Tourism Sites in the United States

Christ Church, Alexandria, Virginia from altar end, photo EOP Spring 2004.

Working on materials for the ALRI course on pilgrimage, I have been examining some theses and dissertations relevant to the topic. There are many, and I shall comment on some of them in due course. After a scan reading I am not greatly impressed by the quality of a 2008 Ph.D. dissertation at Loyola University of Chicago, Sarah Bill Schott, Religious Tourism in America (perhaps my impression will become more favorable after a more careful reading). Concerned with tourist visits to a half dozen sites associated with various religious sects, mostly sites in the Middle West, the dissertation seems to be primarily a description of the places the tourists visit. Of greater interest to me, the dissertation concludes with an appendix listing sites of religious tourism in the United States. The author notes that the list is not exhaustive, and among the omissions are most of the numerous Protestant sites in southern states like Virginia and Georgia, but the list still runs to seven single-spaced pages. This is one of the first forays I have made into an inventory of religious sites attracting tourists (and pilgrims) in the United States. It forces a realization that religious sites attracting tourists, at least some of them attracting pilgrims, are quite as numerous here as they are in most of the remainder of the world.

For example, within an hour drive of Fairfax City there are at least a dozen Episcopal and previously Episcopal churches of historic and therefore touristic interest, some of them, like Christ Church in Alexandria, on the itineraries of many tourists. I am uncertain whether any of the churches are pilgrimage destinations, but some of them along with other religious sites nearby could certainly fall into that category based on their antiquity and their associations with significant events.