Procession of the Sacred Affliction

The Vatican Archives record that the first “sacred processions” appeared in the 13th century when the Wars of Triclavianism spread into Westphalia and Saxony. Dispossessed communities of refugees forced away from their land by the ravages of war began to band together, to wander far and wide in search of safety and sustenance. Local communities, alarmed at the prospect of starving beggar armies gathering strength and eventually turning to banditry, pressured the processions to either move elsewhere or attempted to scatter them through force of arms. Many Christians, however, were moved to compassion at the sight of the pitiful processions, for they clung passionately to their Faith in the Almighty even in the face of unthinkable privation and adversity, at times singing hymns and praising God even as they were ridden down.

By the start of the fourteenth century several Holy Orders, most notably the Knights of Saint Lazarus and Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, had taken sacred processions under their protection and guidance. They negotiated with temporal lords for alms and permission for processions to pass through their lands, tended to the sick, ministered to the faithful and punished the sinful. A papal bull in 1303 formalised that it was the duty of all Christians of good standing not to impede the sacred processions, to treat them as pilgrims and to provide succour and charity where possible. In turn the pilgrims of the sacred processions were permitted to beg for alms, to rest for one day in seven on the sabbath in order to praise God, but on all other days they had to march no less than three leagues from their last camp to maintain their status.

The Great Conciliation in 1306 effectively brought the Wars of Triclavianism to a close and with it most of the sacred processions dispersed back to their old homes to rebuild, or else settled in areas depopulated by the conflict. A few processions, however, continued under the auspices of the Knights of Saint Lazarus. These travelled the land collecting together orphans and crippled soldiers abandoned after the wars, as well as the diseased and the insane that had been driven out by their families and neighbours. Each pilgrim was encouraged to help the others in whatever way they could. As Otho, Bishop of Metz wrote:

“For a man without legs cannot march but he can stand watch and prepare food, a blind man can still carry another and be guided by their eyes, a child cannot bear great burdens but may still run ahead to collect birds’ nests and spy out the land. As Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 and 12 tells us, ‘Two are better than one… If one falls down, his friend can help him up… Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.’”

The first true Processions of Sacred Affliction appeared over a generation later, after that dark date in 1346 when Beelzebub unleashed the plague of the Black Grail and began the Corpse Wars. The sick and the dead soon outnumbered the living as the worst epidemic in mankind’s history spread across the continent. Sacred processions clogged the roads, many little more than shuffling almost-dead. In southern France the ancient Roman highway between Toulouse and Marseille is marked to this day by roadside mounds every nine miles, traces of where the processions burned their dead at their nightly camps.

In 1353 it is recorded that a certain Prophet Solon and his procession were refused passage through Andorra after suffering great privations crossing over the Pyrenees mountain range. Solon, himself riven with disease and close to death, and his closest followers shut themselves in a tomb in protest. He told the pilgrims to wait no less than seven days before opening the tomb and to then carry forth what they found to present at the town gates in admonishment of their supposedly Christian oppressors. With great cries and lamentations the pilgrims waited, many reporting that they heard voices below the earth and saw fire in the heavens. On the eighth day the strongest surviving pilgrims broke open the tomb with tremulous strokes, fearing what they might discover within.

To their joy, the prophet emerged and each of his followers came out after. They were still horribly marked and pocked by disease, but they stood straight and strong, and they were in eye and voice even greater than before, as they praised God for they had witnessed a miracle. The Blessed Mary had appeared to them, they said, and salved their wounds with clear cordial. She bid them to bear their afflictions as a sacred gift from God, a stone to be carried that would make them strong enough to endure all the persecutions of Hell. Solon’s followers immediately departed to locate other sacred processions and spread the glad tidings, while Solon himself overcame all objections to travel into Iberia and hence onward into Morocco and then Tunisia, debating other prophets and creating many new processions before disappearing into the Levant at some time after 1401.

Today, the Pilgrims of the Procession of the Sacred Affliction are known for their zeal in close combat, their armour decorated with icons and shields adorned with depictions of the Saints, which despite appearances can withstand machine gun bullets. The millstones they carry upon their backs symbolise the burden of sin, and in battle are used to tie about the necks of sinners before drowning them in the mud and blood of No Man’s Land. They spurn the use of iron capirotes, believing firmly that faith alone is enough to withstand the horrors of Hell and that they must face their fears as God intended.