More info
-
Background
Project Places of Pilgrimage (PDF)
Saint Cults in the Netherlands (PDF)
-
Disqualified Places of Pilgrimage
Info about Disqualified Places of Pilgrimage
Local saint cults are researched and partially described, but are proved not to comply with the scientific criteria for a place of pilgrimage. -
Database of Dutch Patron Saints in the year 1959
This database contains basic information on the veneration of some of the many patron saints in the Netherlands and Flanders around the year 1959. It concerns Catholic saints whose "protection force" extends over eight so-called patronages (goals, see below). Such patron saints are invoked to protect people, animals or crops from diseases or to prevent bad weather; or they are invoked to cure people from diseases or to protect crops for the consequences of bad weather.
The saints listed here and the places where they were worshiped around 1960 are strictly related to the following diseases or problems : headaches, seizures, arthritis, dandruff; bad weather; diseases of horses, pigs and cattle.
Who in the database seeks under the Dutch word 'Doelen' (= goals) finds the places where the saints to that end were venerated or at least the places that in 1959 were specified by the informants. Is the place of the saint cult also a place of pilgrimage, then there is a link to the description of the shrine and the pilgrimage in the Pilgrimage database. One can also search with the saints name and the place name.
The original questionnaires (from which the general data were generated), contain often more information. To consult a questionnaire one can click the link to the scans of the 1959 questionnaires.