In the Middle Ages, a palmer (Latin: palmarius or palmerius) was a Christian Pilgrim, normally from Western Europe, who had visited the holy places in Palestine, and who, as a token of his visit, brought back a palm leaf, or a palm leaf folded into a cross. The word is frequently used as synonymous with “pilgrim”.
One of the most prominent literary characters to have been a palmer was Wilfrid of Ivanhoe, the protagonist of the eponymous book by Sir Walter Scott.