In Cammino, the pilgrimage to European Abbeys reaches Belgium on 22 and 23 April

There will be two stops in Belgium for the ongoing pilgrimage of the exhibition ‘In Cammino’ - the Abbey of Scourmont and that of Orval. These abbeys will be the respectively sixth and seventh destinations for the special exhibition which was put together and promoted by Livia Pomodoro, and which, from 2023 to 2025, (the year of the Jubilee itself) will crisscross Europe, covering seven nations and 14 of the most important Abbeys on the continent, many of which are Unesco heritage sites. This modern take on pilgrimage will reach Rome for the Holy Year – its final destination – in 2025.

Scourmont and Orval are two Trappist Abbeys that represent very well the spiritual and agricultural activity that revolves around the daily activity of the monks, whose production is aimed at bio-sustainability and a non-invasive impact on nature. It is no coincidence that the word that will accompany pilgrims in these two stages is: "Water".

In the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Scourmont, located near the town of Chimay, the sixth stage will begin on Monday 22 April 2024 at 4pm with a guided tour inside the monastic complex, which is famous for its production of beer and a cheese. At the end of the visit, there will be a gathering with reflections of spirituality in water, opened by Livia Pomodoro, President of the No'hma Theater in Milan. The following day, Tuesday 23 April, will see the seventh stop: the Abbey of Notre-Dame d'Orval, which is also famous for the production of the Trappist beer of the same name.

The organizer said: “In this second year of our journey, we have chosen as our sixth and seventh stops, two Trappist Abbeys which are famous not only for their beer production, but for also being centers of prayer and work which is fully respectful of Mankind and Nature in all its forms. And water, a precious element for life, unites the eco-sustainable choices of the monks of both Abbeys. At Scourmont, it fuels the work of the abbey in an eco-friendly way without waste, and it’s the same in Orval, where it is also at the origin of the myth of Matilda of Canossa and the Aurea Vallis".

‘In Cammino’ is one of the events selected by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, Pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, for the Jubilee of 2025, whose motto, is “Pilgrims of Hope”. Over the three-year pilgrimage, stage after stage, an orchestra will be formed involving musicians and students from the conservatories of the areas where the Abbeys are situated. The ‘In Viaggio’ orchestra will have the Archimia string quartet as its initial nucleus, until it arrives in Rome in 2025 with an organic orchestra which will perform an original composition written for the occasion by the award-winning and internationally respected composer, Maestro Fabio Vacchi.