Starting point of the Pilgrimage – Rosary Chapel of Pirita Convent
In the early autumn of 2017 we celebrated the starting point of the Pilgrimage – we put a plaque on the foundation of the Pirita Convent chapel with good wished to all pilgrims.
This is the start of the pilgrimage route across St Mary’s Land – from Pirita Convent to the chapel in Vana-Vastseliina. Both houses of God were pilgrimage destinations already during the Middle Ages. Today, as back then, we seek and need just as much faith, forgiveness and putting ourselves to test.
Dear pilgrim, let your feet be nimble and let your soul find stimulation on this journey.
The traveller asks:
My Lord, show me a path where I can walk.
The Lord replies:
My friend, I will show you a path,
which can be described in three ways.
The aim is the same, if you stick to it.
At first the path is stony, later quite smooth.
At first the path is dark, but then gets lighter.
For a while the path is bitter, in the end it is mild.
The traveller replies:
Just show me the path, and I will follow it.
I see it is dangerous to delay and take the wrong path.
But the reward is high if I follow the path.
Fulfil my wish and show me the true path.
(Revelations of St Brigitta: IV, chapter 107.
The prayer is part of one of Brigitta’s talks with Christ.)
HISTORY OF THE ROSARY CHAPEL OF PIRITA CONVENT
The six-faceted chapel once standing at the portal of St Brigid’s Convent church was built by the brotherhood of Rosenkrantz in the early 1520s. The chapel was dedicated to Virgin Mary and was allegedly quite grand. Virgin Mary was the Queen of Heaven and everybody who lived under the skies, were responsible for one another. People thus supported one another and the Queen of Heaven helped through prayers.
Pilgrims who came to the Pirita Convent church were welcomed to say prayers of Hail Mary and the Lord’s Prayer also in the Rosary Chapel.
Only the foundation still survives of the chapel today.
Ruth Rajamaa