Votive Exopraxis

Abstract

Twice a year, the Greek Orthodox Monastery of St. George on the island of Büyükada, off the coast of Istanbul, attracts tens of thousands of Muslim pilgrims who come to make heterogenous and inventive votive offerings. Since these visitors are not Christians, their behavior is a form of exopraxis, which is the subject of the issue of Common Knowledge in which this contribution appears. Due to its scope and dynamism, this shared pilgrimage is perhaps the most important in the contemporary religious landscape of the Middle East, but it is part of a broader ecology that includes many mausoleums of Muslim saints and other Muslim holy places visited by Christians. The rationale and logic of such exopraxes is wild hope (in the Lévi-Straussian sense of wild). Pilgrims from one religious community travel to the sacred place of another not so much for communication or contact with its patron saint—the Muslim pilgrims to Büyükada pray for help to Allah, not to St. George or Jesus—as they travel to be in a place of hope at a time of personal need. This article analyzes how the proliferation of these votive exopraxes indicates both the tenuousness of the distinction between monotheist religions and their need of each other.

Consuming the divine grace: circulations and ritual re-uses of votive materiality in pilgrimage spaces

“…(Plate 7). Fliche and Pénicaud (2020) observed that between 2006 and 2014, it also occurs with amulets whose number increased from 12 to 27, some specifically relating to military service, exams, disability, sorrow, success, freedom, etc.…”

“…However, they never manage to fully contain/prevent heteropraxis, i.e. practices considered deviant and heterodox (Fliche and P enicaud, 2020). This is obvious in the case of pilgrimages: religious authorities (e.g.…”

“…George’s pilgrimage is a powerful example of “shared” pilgrimage, i.e. attended by pilgrims of different religions (Couroucli, 2012; Diktaş, 2020; Fliche and Pénicaud, 2020). Located on the island of Büyükada off the coast of Istanbul (Turkey), this pilgrimage is initially a Christian one because of the presence of a miraculous and powerful icon of St. George (a major figure in Eastern Christianity) which has been housed in a Greek Orthodox monastery (Plate 3) since at least the Middle Ages.…”

“…For the feasts of St. George and St Thecla, most pilgrims are paradoxically Muslims who temporarily attend this Christian place (Fliche and P enicaud, 2020) and show astonishing ritual inventiveness, as far as votive performance is concerned. Their lack of knowledge of the rules and customs prescribed by Greek-Orthodox Christianity facilitates and catalyses an abundant votive creativity that invades the interior of the monastery and all its surroundings.…”

“…The data on the pilgrimage of St. George come from a collective fieldwork carried out by several anthropologists, in which P enicaud participated. Their ethnography has been based on observation (between 2006 and 2014) to grasp the dynamics that run through and modify Consuming the divine grace the ritual choreography of the phenomenon (Fliche and P enicaud, 2020). As with the Regragas' case, participant observation was central.…”