‘I renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil’: Pilgrimage, transformation, and liminality at St Patrick’s Purgatory, Ireland

Each of us, in turn, each of us kneels and says three Our Fathers, three Hail Marys, and one Apostles’ Creed at St Brigid’s Cross - a cross marked on the exterior of the basilica - before standing with our backs to the cross, with arms fully outstretched, and say three times aloud ‘I renounce the World, the Flesh, and the Devil’. This embodied prayer captures an essence of Lough Derg pilgrimage. We, as pilgrims, intentionally separate ourselves from the everyday world to pursue a temporary life of prayer and personal contemplation. Within this space, the pilgrim’s journey has physical practices interlinked with metaphysical layers of spirituality and emotionality. It is the voluntary entering into a transitionary social and spiritual state with the intention of achieving a form of renewal or rejuvenation. This potential for spiritual or personal transformation marks pilgrimage out as a distinct form of journey.