Russian wandering

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In the history of Russian Orthodox religion the tradition of wandering (Russian: странничество, strannichestvo) was a special way of life, a form of piety, devotion, and the search of God, which consisted in rejecting the earthly ways of life. A person was called странник, strannik, literally "wanderer". It is similar to the concept of (Christian) pilgrimage and often is translated in English with this term. However, in Russian language pilgrimage is denoted by a different word: (Russian: паломничество, palomnichestvo). The major distinction is that pilgrimage has a finite goal: a visit of some holy place, while strannichectvo is the wandering way of life.^[1] It should be distinguished from aimless wandering, or wandering of the poor, vagrancy. For the purpose of this distinction, the terms "spiritual wandering" and "holy wanderer" were used.^[2]