Definition of "protopilgrimage"

Thus, Charlemagne's protopilgrimage brings him to a protosanctuary where the hero's body is already almost a statue,

1991, Eugene Vance, “Style and value: From soldier to pilgrim in the Song of Roland”, in Yale French Studies

Dante makes this earlier exchange into a protopilgrimage in the purgatorial style and retroactively imbues it with the weight of this later project, his sacrato poema.

2020, David Bowe, Poetry in Dialogue in the Duecento and Dante, page 144

The Virgin in Rogers Park manifests the inchoate qualities of a protopilgrimage site that occupies municipal land, reaching out toward a proximate urban realm rather than a remote desert or mountain.

2022, Simon Coleman, Powers of Pilgrimage: Religion in a World of Movement, page 229