Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : local identity and transnational cults / Fiorella Giacalone and Kevin Griffin -- Continuity from local cult to "accepted" ritual / Gianfranco Spitilli -- Developing pilgrimage itineraries : the way of St. Francis in Umbria as case in point / Paola de Salvo -- Pilgrimage, religious tourism and heritage in Calabria / Alfonsina Bellio -- Fighting for the saint : ritual rivalries in traditional pilgrimages / Laurent S. Fournier -- Chinese migrations and pilgrimages around Prato (Italy) and Wenzhou (China) / Daniele Parbuono -- Globalizing Romani culture : the pilgrimage to the sea in Les-Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (France) / Ga�ella Loiseau -- The cult of Se�nor de los Milagros of Peruvians in Italy / Riccardo Cruzzolin -- Cultural diversity in a local French pilgrimage / Guillaume Etienne -- Mixing sport and religion in the Landes area of France / Mathilde Lamothe -- An ethnology of the foreign traveller to the Shrine of St Nicholas of Bari, Italy / Andr�e Julliard -- Healing tourists with religion : Saint Rita's cult in Poland / Inga B. Ku�zma -- A transnational cult : St. Rita of Cascia / Fiorella Giacalone -- Saint Rita of Cascia : an evolving devotion in Dublin's inner city / Tony Kiely -- Conclusion / Kevin Griffin and Fiorella Giacalone.

This book is primarily derived from the proceedings of a meeting of Francophone anthropologists, the XXVIII Colloque Eurethno du Conseil d'Europe, on the theme of pilgrimage in Europe, which was held in Perugia and Assisi in 2014. As such, the publication of these papers in English brings to the Anglo-centric academic community many contributions from primarily French and Italian authors in relation to religious tourism and pilgrimage. The established aim for this book was to explore themes such as globalization and even glocalization in relation to the evolution of 'popular' pilgrimages in Europe. The thesis of the project is that local level pilgrimages, when based on strong expressions of faith can have much wider local, regional and international appeal. This idea was elucidated through a range of sociological and ethnographic studies that illustrate the evolution of pilgrimage sites and saints, while also dealing with a range of theoretical issues and themes. A subtext of many of the chapters is the central role of ordinary people in the popularization of faith-based practices, thus illustrating religious tourism as an expression of cultural identity, the interrelationship of cultural groups and the overall formation of culture and society. A further aim of the book is to provide students, managers, scholars and others who are interested in religious tourism and pilgrimage and societal development with a collection of current perspectives on the growth, development and evolution of faith practices surrounding contemporary and historical sites and saints. The book has 15 chapters, a list of discussion questions for each chapter, and a subject index.

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