by Brian Mooney, author of A Long Way for a Pizza
A Crowning Achievement
The Via Francigena is well trodden and in recent times this great pilgrim way has generated much fine writing. That posed quite a challenge for Nick Dunne and his wife Fiona. Having walked to Rome, albeit with some interesting detours, Nick set himself the task of distilling their journey into no less than three volumes. The first, Walking on Holy Ground (Som Tam Books 2022), takes the reader along the Western Front as far as Laon and it has a distinctly battlefield flavour. The second volume reviewed here, From the Crowned Mountain (Som Tam Books 2024), continues the journey through Switzerland across the Alps to Aosta and Turin. Both volumes sparkle with fascinating anecdote and thoughtful insights.
The second volume is still peppered with war, and Napoleon features large, but it is on holier ground. Its crowning achievement is that Nick is not afraid to wear his faith on his sleeve and to examine in the raw the reason people in the 21st century set out on pilgrimage and the reasons that many still believe. Nick attends Mass when he can and he even has the courage to examine the practice of granting and gaining indulgences; he sets an example, but he doesn’t preach.
From the Crowned Mountain is also a magnificent exploration of the Saints and holy places along the way – “the ancient tombs of the saints where people had come to seek miraculous healing” – often full of delightful surprises such as the singing columns of Notre-Dame de Laon, and commemoration of the ‘royal touch’ of St Marcoul at Corbeny.
Nick goes out of his way to stay in convents and monasteries where he is constantly rewarded and inspired – the Benedictine convent at St Thierry, the old seminary of Saint Sixtus at Reims which triggers memories of the 19th century French Trappist Charles de Foucauld and a project for the poor in the Glasgow housing estate of Garthamlock run by the order founded in his memory. Or the nuns of Saint-Loup-sur-Aujon whose order prays by the Tyburn cross in London. The reader is often taken off piste, but we are carried along by a gentle, compelling narrative.
I praise Nick above all because he is thoughtful. Listen to him reflecting on the visions of Joan of Arc: “… this walk had provided many examples of the power of the Christian imagination that existed for centuries before film, television and social media could feed us visions in abundance.”
He walks, too, with a confident step and we see a lot of the landscape through his observant and sympathetic eye. It’s hard not to be overwhelmed, as he was, by a sea of butterflies that greets him on the high ground of the Grand St Bernard.
The deviations are packed with interesting history, and they come aplenty. During a visit to a church in Ouhans, we learn about St Roch – a ‘frequent flyer’ on the Via Francigena. Later we set off to England with the Huguenots from the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Lausanne and in Aosta we encounter the rich story of Saint Anselm. The final chapter is totally and literally off piste – Nick and Fiona make their way to Turin, a good 50 km from today’s Via Francigena, to ponder the mystery of the Shroud, the winding cloth believed by many to be imprinted with an image of the crucified Christ. The reader will enjoy sharing their ponderings as much as their wanderings, and we can look forward to volume three.