Building a Modern Guide to Orthodox Pilgrimage in North America

Christ is risen! Христосъ воскресе!

In the Orthodox tradition, a pilgrimage is more than just a trip; it is a physical journey toward the spiritual. Across North America, we are blessed with the sacred relics of many saints. However, finding these sites has historically been a challenge. They are often tucked away in parishes across the country. While a wonderful spiritual experience, not everyone has to take a trip to Russia or Greece. We have a wonderful treasure of Orthodox Saints here in North America, and I built OrthodoxPilgrimage.com to show that.

The Mission

To provide an interactive, community-driven resource that helps the faithful discover holy sites available for public veneration and plan their spiritual journeys. It covers the breadth of North America, from the historic sites in Alaska to the growing missions across the Midwest.

The Tech Stack

As a developer, I wanted to build something fast, maintainable and fairly inexpensive to host. I chose a stack that favors simplicity.

• Go (Golang): The backbone of the project. Using the standard library’s net/http package ensures the app is fast and requires minimal compute resources. The entire site compiles down to a single binary.
• HTMX & Vanilla CSS: Instead of a heavy JavaScript framework (like React or Vue), I used HTMX. The server sends HTML fragments directly to the browser. This provides a “Single Page App” feel with smooth transitions and partial page updates—without the complexity of a separate frontend build process.
• OpenStreetMap: For the map, I utilized OpenLayers & OpenStreetMap to create a fluid, mobile-first experience. It dynamically loads markers based on the user’s viewport, ensuring performance even as our database grows. I wanted to use an open source map like OpenStreetMap so I could make corrections if needed to the upstream map.
• SQLite & sqlc: Data is stored in SQLite, which is perfect for this use case. I use sqlc to generate type-safe Go code from raw SQL queries, giving me the performance of SQL with the safety of a compiled language. I also use Litestream to back the database up to an object store.
• Hosting: I am hosting this project on fly.io. It has the features that I need and is pretty cheap for a single Go application to run on and can stop the machine when there are no requests. Content is cached in Cloudflare, so only uncached requests are sent to this application as needed.

All of the code is available at github.com/edwlarkey/orthodoxpilgrimage

Data from the Faithful

A project like this lives or dies by the accuracy of its data. The faithful are encouraged to email updates, new information, photos, etc to info@orthodoxpilgrimage.com so I can keep the site up to date.