Drawing on the transnational concept of identity construction through pilgrimages in religious anthropology (Victor Turner) and nationalism studies (Benedict Anderson), the paper shows that today’s political influence in foreign affairs of the pope as a major religious and transnational player can be explained by two linked and mutually supportive factors of identity construction: 1. ) the reinvention of the pope in Rome as transnational pilgrimage destination that started in the late 19th century to attract papal pilgrims; 2.) the dynamization of the pope as a pilgrim pope since the last decades of the 20th century. Together these two developments managed to establish a transnational mass movement that reaffirmed the influence of the papacy.
