Summary
The Princes’ Islands – an archipelago off the coast of Istanbul in the Sea of Marmara, consisting of four larger islands and a handful of tiny islets – has an old historical connexion with the city. A large number of religious buildings (churches, synagogues, mosques, monasteries) constitute a tangible sign of the well-established coexistence of various faiths in this small space. Among these religious places, the Orthodox monastery of St. George, on the summit of the largest island, Büyükada, has recently acquired a particular prominence. 

This monastery has a quite old origin, and was rebuilt towards the half of the 18th century. According to widespread legends, it had curative properties linked to some miraculous events connected to its foundation. Various travellers who visited the monastery during the 19th century indicate its specialization in the treatment of mental illness. The presence of a miraculous icon and of an ayazma also contributed to its fame.

The former celebrity of the monastery, however, is minor if compared with the contemporary outburst of devotions converging on it. In the last thirty years, St. George monastery has become increasingly popular in Istanbul, due to its reputation for votive efficacy concerning health and any kind of personal problems. Many people of different faiths visit the island and climb to the monastery, in expectation of having their wishes granted. These visits may be individual, at different moment during the year. Moreover, there are two important collective pilgrimages: on April 23, which is St George’s Day; and on September 24, St. Tecla’s Day. 

The April pilgrimage is the most important and attracts huge crowds that take boats to go there from Istanbul’s ports, spending all day in Büyükada. The number of pilgrims depends on specific factors (like weather conditions, for example). In some years (for instance in 2014) it may arrive up to 80,000. The great majority of the visitors are Muslims. If the Greek presence is quite limited, besides the priests and the helpers in the monastery area, other Christian denominations attend the pilgrimage, as well as a limited number of Jews.

This paper will present a description of the effervescence of ritual practices during this day and will analyse both the main modes of sharing and the spatial organization of the pilgrimage.

Dionigi Albera is an anthropologist and senior research fellow at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). He is based at the IDEMEC (Institute of European Mediterranean and Comparative Ethnology, Aix-Marseille University), which he has directed from 2006 to 2016. His research has focused on Europe and the Mediterranean, and his interests include migration, kinship and family, pilgrimage and interfaith mixing. Among his latest books are: Sharing Sacred Spaces in the Mediterranean: Christians, Muslims and Jews at Shrines and Sanctuaries (2012), edited with M. Couroucli; Dieu, une enquête. Judaïsme, christianisme, islam: ce qui les distingue, ce qui les rapproche (2013), edited with K. Berthelot; International Perspectives on Pilgrimage Studies: Itineraries, Gaps and Obstacles (2015), edited with J. Eade; Pellegrini del nuovo millennio (2015), edited with M. Blanchard; Reframing the History of Family and Kinship: From the Alps towards Europe (2016), edited with L. Lorenzetti and J. Mathieu; Dictionnaire de la Méditerranée (2016), edited with M. Crivello and M. Tozy, and New Pathways in Pilgrimage Studies (2017), edited with J. Eade. He is one of the curators of the touring exhibition Shared Sacred Sites held at the Museum of Mediterranean and European Civilizations in Marseille (Mucem, 2015), the Bardo Museum, Tunis (2016), the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art and the National Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki (2017), the National Museum of the History of Immigration in Paris (2017-2018) and the Museum of Confluences-Dar el-Bacha, Marrakesh (2018), New York Public Library, Morgan Library and Museum and James Gallery, New York (2018), Depo, Istanbul (2019) CerModern, Ankara (2021).