After years of wandering, George Walter can rest at last, his long journey finally over.

Walter, better known worldwide as “Pilgrim George,” spent more than a decade living part-time in Jefferson Township, staying at the Holy Trinity Monastery for the winter months. From May through August, though, he did the same thing he had done since 1970: He walked, and when people asked where he was headed, he always answered, “En route to heaven.”

Walter’s first major pilgrimage was in 1970, when he walked 4,000 miles from Barcelona to Jerusalem. In interviews over the years, he said he felt like he developed a closer, deeper relationship with Jesus during that first walk, which helped inspire him to continue.

Walter was deeply committed to his Catholic faith, attending seminary at St. Vincent in Latrobe and considering becoming a priest before his first walk.

He chose to become a deacon instead. His calling would not be as a pastor to a church congregation, but something far more radical.

By the end of his 82 years, he’d walked more than 40,000 miles. He traveled simply, wearing a robe made from a patchwork of denim, which he regularly mended.

He made his own sandals from tires, and he traveled with a sleeping bag, tent and staff.

“Jesus said take up your cross and follow me,” he explained. “It's a walk of faith. I start out each (spring) without a penny.”

He walked for years, including a trip that started in Siberia and took him across Europe and Asia, including India, and ended in Haifa, Israel, after 13 years of walking.

Walter usually made about 10 miles a day on his pilgrimages, stopping at churches, at libraries and at homes to keep up with the people he’d met previously and to meet new ones.

His brother, Tom, said Walter would write as many as 500 letters a year. That’s in addition to the synopsis he wrote of each of his journeys.

Walter turned Jackson Township monastery into a sort of winter base for himself, impressing the monks with his piety and devotion. But even as he spent multiple winters there, he bore a quote in mind.

“A pilgrim has no home on earth, but everywhere he feels at home,” he said.

And so, until nearly the very end, he never stopped walking.

Walter didn’t follow a difficult path — he created his own entirely unique path, driven by both his own faith and the hope that demonstrating that faith would inspire others. His life shows how single-minded dedication can take people on journeys others would never dream of.

— JK