A Participatory Pilgrimage-and-Prayer-Immersion Research Skills-Sharing Event
Albania 2026

Prayer is not merely an individual act of devotion, but a communal practice shaped and enriched by its environment—whether tangible or intangible. From the space, place and architecture that enfolds a congregation to the rituals, liturgical movements, texts and services that structure devotion, every element contributes to an immersive experience for worshippers.

A close, contextual reading of these “setting-proxies” (space, place, movement, ritual, service and text) is therefore essential to capture the plurality and dynamism of prayer across late medieval and early modern faith traditions.

In this context, the aim of the meeting is to explore how material and immaterial contexts frame and inform communal and individual prayer; to bring together scholars working on late medieval and early modern Christian and non-Christian monuments; to immerse graduate and doctoral students in the theories, approaches and methods within these contexts; and to foster interdisciplinary dialogue on methodologies for contextual analysis in the study of prayer.

The meeting will take the form of a skills-sharing event, during which the participants will have a chance to share their skills, knowledge and expertise at a workshop (see cfp below). They will also get a chance to participate in pilgrimage to select sites (e.g. Berat and the relics of Saints Angelarios,

Gorazd and Nikodemos, Krujë and the tekke of Sari Salltik, Saint Anthony of Padua and Saint Blaise, Laç), which will enable communal immersion, contemplation, and on-field observation. This part, combined with a workshop on pilgrimage and prayer immersion would be the content of the participatory pilgrimage-and-prayer-immersion research skills-sharing event.