Why Medieval Pilgrimages Were the Original Social Network

Theology Made Podcast · Jul 17, 2025 · 8m · transcript

Before hashtags, hot takes, and going vliral meant a million views, there was the medieval pilgrimage. In this episode, we explore how spiritual journeys to places like Canterbury and Compostela became the original social network. Pilgrimage was not just a religious ritual. It was a medieval mix of Twitter threads, TikTok trends, Amazon storefronts, and reputation management. Along muddy roads and crowded shrines, people traded stories, relics, gossip, and grace.

This is the story of how walking shaped belief, collapsed social classes, and curated a spiritual feed long before the internet…