pilgrims news stories on Newser

Europe's 'First Travel Guide' Stolen

Rob Quinn — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 05:00:45 CDT

Modern technology didn't prevent the theft of a priceless 12th-century manuscript from a Spanish cathedral. The Codex Calixtinus—known as "Europe's oldest travel guide" because it contained a guide to walking routes for pilgrims—is believed to have been stolen by professional thieves from an safe in the archives of...

Suicide Bomber Kills 25 Pilgrims in Iraq

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 07:59:59 CST

Iraqi police say a suicide bomber struck Shiite pilgrims near a shrine north of Baghdad that has been a flashpoint in sectarian strife, killing at least 25 people. Authorities say the bomber blew himself up this afternoon in a crowd of pilgrims just 200 yards outside the al-Askari mosque. A...

Car Bombs Targeting Pilgrims Kill 18 in Iraq

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 05:00:00 CST

Two car bombs struck Shiite pilgrims today in an Iraqi holy city, killing at least 18 people as crowds massed for religious rituals marking the end of a 40-day mourning period for the Islamic sect's most beloved saint. The blasts in Karbala were the latest in nearly a week of...

Record Crowds Throng Bethlehem

Sat, 25 Dec 2010 05:46:45 CST

The largest number of pilgrims in a decade gathered in Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas, with tens of thousands flocking to the Church of the Nativity for prayers this morning. Israeli military officials, who coordinate movement in and out of the West Bank, said more than 100,000 pilgrims have come...

Bomb Threat Clears Lourdes

Jane Yager — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 04:17:00 CDT

Some 30,000 Catholic pilgrims, many of them disabled or ailing, had to flee the Lourdes pilgrimage site in France yesterday because of a bomb scare on the Feast of the Assumption, one of the site's busiest days of the year. A phone call to police warning that four bombs...

Provincetown: Pilgrims Landed Here First

Jen Paton — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:26:00 CST

Provincetown, Mass., wants you to know: The Pilgrims landed here first. Sure, the fresh water was lacking, the sand not so great for growing things, and the Native Americans were a bit scary, causing them to move a few weeks later to Plymouth—the same Plymouth that gets all the...

Pope to Kids: Spurn 'Spiritual Desert'

Green Point — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 09:11:32 CDT

Pope Benedict XVI called on young Christians to revive spirituality by rejecting modern society's greed and materialism, AP reports. At a mass of 350,000 young pilgrims in Sydney, and a global TV audience of millions, the pope called for "a new age in which hope liberates us from the...

40 Iraq Shiite Pilgrims Killed in Blast

Mary Papenfuss — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 10:00:33 CST

At least 40 people were killed today when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest amid a crowd of Shiite pilgrims during a trek south of Baghdad. A tent where the marchers stopped for food exploded in Iskandariyah in the second attack on Arbaeen, a day when millions descend on...

Religious Pilgrims Perish in Bus Crash

Dustin Lushing — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 12:38:24 CDT

Twenty-six people died and 24 were injured today when a bus carrying religious pilgrims plunged off a bridge in the French Alps. Forty-nine Polish nationals and two drivers were on a tour of European Roman Catholic shrines when their coach slammed through a wall onto a riverbank and burst into...