Russian wandering

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". A major work to come out of this tradition is called The Way of a Wanderer.

By the 19th century, wandering driven by religious devotion had turned into a mass movement. Notable wanderers include Anthony the Wanderer, Vasily the Barefoot, and Paraskeva Diveyevskaya. For a similar phenomenon, though not religiously motivated, to the west of Russia, see Dziady.