Experience of the Sacred" in the Modern Pilgrimage Narrative: the Question of the Construction of Orthodox Identity (on the Material of the Velikoretsky Procession)

The article analyzes the representation of the practice of walking pilgrimage in modern public discourse. The object of study were publications that reveal the personal experience of the procession of weakly churched believers to the Velikoretsky sacred place (Kirov region).The pilgrimage narrative is considered as a practice reflecting the process of constructing religious identity. It is concluded that the purpose of the pilgrimage narrative is religious self-identification based on the reflection of the "experience of the sacred".