Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to explore a specific type of pilgrimage that stands apart from the popular repentance pilgrimage to the Black Madonna of Częstochowa: the Polish Hippie Pilgrimage.

Paper long abstract:

This paper aims to explore a specific type of pilgrimage that stands apart from the popular repentance pilgrimage to the Black Madonna of Częstochowa. In this Polish Hippie pilgrimage different kinds of so-called alternative people who hold a rather marginal status in society and institutional Catholic Church join in. At the same time many brothers, priests and nuns participate in the pilgrimage. The 'Hippies' are perceived with suspicion by some conservative Catholics who regard their rather freely structured pilgrimage not as a 'real' Catholic ritual. On the other hand in non-Polish liberal Catholic and secular alternative groups people cannot identify with the Hippies' participation in a pilgrimage to the Virgin Mary as Marian devotion is regarded as a hallmark of conservative Catholicism. All this makes the pilgrimage into an interesting case study on how Catholic identity is contested from different perspectives.