Hiking The Camino de Santiago de Compostela. (the what?)

**Note: This post is about the history and significance of hiking The Camino de Santiago. If that doesn’t interest you, check out my posts over the next few weeks about my actual day-by-day experience on the hike.**

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WHAT is the Camino de Santiago de Compostela?

I asked the same question.

Basically, hiking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela – literally translated as “The Way of St. James” (we’ll call it ‘The Camino’ here), refers to any of several pilgrimage routes (typically walking and/or biking, but sometimes on horseback) through Spain and ending in Santiago de Compostela- a city in the autonomous community of Galicia in the northwestern corner of Spain.

People have been hiking The Camino’s pilgrimage routes to Santiago since the middle ages. All routes of the pilgrimage end on the site that Catholicism believes is the burial place of the apostle St. James the Greater.

St. James’s burial site is located in (under) the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela- a HUGE cathedral that took 113 years to build and was finished in 1188 (with additional facade details added through the 18th century).

The official Camino trail is over 1,200 years old, but humans have been walking in the area for much longer than that, with stone tools, painted caves, art, and the remains of settlements and roads dating to well before that time.

Locals claim that there is a special energy in the land itself, fostering the spiritual cleansing one feels as they walk the well-worn paths of the pilgrimage.

Based on my experience, this is totally true.

The Camino is also known by the English names Route of Santiago de Compostela, Way/Path/Trail of St. James,  the Road to Santiago, or just The Way. 

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Camino (Spanish) = Path, Road, Journey, Way (English)

Santiago (Spanish) = St. James (English)

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There are a few different routes one can take when hiking The Camino on official pilgrimages, all starting in a different location and ending at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

The 5 most common routes are:

• Camino Francés: starting in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France. (775 km)
  *This is the most popular route, and the one I took. Many modern pilgrims (like me) start in Sarria, Spain, rather than Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and only walk the last 115 km of the journey, though many of the pilgrims I walked with started in Saint-Dean-Pied-de-Port!*
• Camino Portugués: starting in Porto, Portugal. (244 km)
• Camino del Norte: Irún starting in Irún, Spain and running along the northern coast of Spain. (815 km)
• Camino Inglés: starting in Ferrol, Spain. (122 km)
• Camino Primitivo: starting in Oviedo, Spain. (321 km)

WHO was St. James the Greater?
WHAT does he have to do with hiking The Camino?

According to the Bible, St. James the Greater (aka St. James aka just James) was one of Jesus’s twelve disciples. It’s understood that he was one of the three disciples in Jesus’s innermost circle, along with John and Peter.

James was a major character in the story of Jesus and was present at all of the significant moments of Jesus’s ministry. James was also the first of Jesus’s apostles to be martyred (he was beheaded) in the Holy Land in AD 44.

He is now known as the patron saint of Spain and Galicia.

Weird thing is, nothing in history really connects St. James to Spain or Iberia, where he is known as Santiago, other than one legendary mission to gather followers for Jesus.

The connection comes from legends and folklore from the 9th century (several hundred years after St. James’s death). In these stories, James came to Iberia (the peninsula that is now Spain and Portugal) a few years before his death to collect followers for Jesus.

James had a rough go of it and was discouraged by the small handful of people he was able to gain as followers of Christ. It is said that, at his most desperate times, the Virgin Mary appeared to him for encouragement. (Once in Muxía in a stone boat steered by angels and once in Zaragoza on a pillar in the sky surrounded by angels).

It is said that James was in Iberia for the last four (ish) years of his life and was beheaded by the king of Judea, Herod Agrippa when he returned home from his journey.

The story goes on to state that two of James’s most devout disciples took his body and boarded another stone boat guided by angels and were carried to the coast of Galicia (northwestern Spain).

They journeyed inland and buried James’s body on a hill in what is now Santiago de Compostela. This was supposed to have happened on July 25th, which is now recognized as the Feast of St. James The Greater in the Roman Catholic calendar.

Apparently, everyone forgot this happened for about 770 years.

In about AD 814 when a hermit (or maybe a shepherd?) named Pelayo followed a trail of stars that lead him to St. James’s tomb. He told a local bishop named Theodomir about what he had found and the bishop confirmed that it was indeed the tomb of St. James the Greater.

A chapel was commissioned to be built over the site. Over time, there have been three churches on the site, with the current Cathedral de Santiago de Compostela (finished in 1188 and updated through the 18th century) remaining today.

The Camino is modeled on Pelayo’s trail following the stars to St. James’s tomb.

It is said that the word Compostela could loosely derive from the Latin “Campus Stellae” or “field of the stars.”

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Wait. But who is St. James The Greater?
(and therefore who is “James the less great”?)

Again. I asked the same question. All of my childhood religious studies just called him St. James or James.

There are, in fact, as many as five different Jameses presented in the Scripture.
*Not confusing at all for anyone.*

For this purpose, we’ll focus on two of them: James the Less and James the Great.

James the Less: Uncle of James the Greater and a cousin of Jesus. Referred to as “the Less” in the gospel of Mark.

James the Great: Nephew of James the Lesser and a disciple (one of the favorite three with Peter and John) of Jesus.

(source)

I’ve also read that James the Less was called so simply to differentiate him as literally being shorter than James the Great, but I’m not sure about how to prove that…

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The important thing to note is that nobody really knows what exactly happened in James’s life or how he got his name. There are several different interpretations of who James the Lesser and James the Greater were.

All of this occured 2,000 years ago and the stories of who was who and where they went and what they did are a little milky, to say the least.

The story I’ve described here is the one I read most frequently and the story I choose to keep in mind when I think of hiking The Camino.

That’s what religion is about, right? Just believing in something.

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WHY do people make this journey of hiking The Camino?

Seems hard.

Well- it is hard. That’s kind of the point. Traditionally, hiking The Camino is a sacrificial religious pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James the Great.

Today, people do it for all sorts of reasons in addition to (or in spite of) the religious pilgrimage such as for a fitness challenge, spiritual meditation, social interaction (thousands of pilgrims make the journey each year and foster incredible camaraderie along the way), and simple historical and cultural curiosity.

I started somewhere between spiritual meditation and cultural curiosity, but may have picked up some renewed religious appreciation along the way.

I was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family, so the religious aspect of the journey did interest me at the start, but if I’m being honest, my reasons for doing it sat more firmly in the adventurous trek across northern Spain, the time for quiet contemplation along the way, and the historical and cultural significance of it all. (just don’t tell my Grandma that).

In the end, I finished with a renewed sense of pride and appreciation for my Catholic roots. I was able to shed some of the earthly negativities I had begun to associate with the Catholic church and gained a refreshed appreciation for the incredible tradition of spirituality at its core.

Maybe it was the people that I met.
Maybe it was the energy of the land beneath my feet.
Maybe it was overcoming a physical hardship in beautiful surroundings.
Maybe it was experiencing a sacred mass in an ancient cathedral.

I’m not sure, but some kind of baggage was dropped from my soul along those 115 km.

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If you complete at least the last official 115km of hiking The Camino and make it to the Cathedral de Santiago, you are able to claim status as an official pilgrim of The Camino.

Every pilgrim must carry with them a credential (“pilgrim’s passport”) to collect stamps along the way at various albergues (pilgrim hostels), Paradores (old buildings converted to luxury hotels) restaurants, churches, cafes, roadside stands, etc. to prove that they actually made the journey. Pilgrims must collect at least two stamps per day for the final 115 km journey.

When a pilgrim reaches the end of The Camino at the Cathedral of Santiago, they must show their completed “pilgrim passport” to officials at the Pilgrim’s Office to be issued a certificate called a “Compostela” naming them as an official pilgrim of The Camino.

You can also request a “Distance Certificate” from the officials noting where your pilgrimage started and how far you walked to complete it.

What’s With the Scallop Shell & Hiking The Camino?

A scallop shell is the most well-known symbol associated with the Camino de Santiago.
so *iconic*

The shells of scallops are common along the coast of northwestern Spain. You’ll see the symbol everywhere as you walk The Camino like on wayfinding markers, outside homes, embedded in paved streets, and posted at pilgrim-focused establishments.

Originally, the scallop shell was a “prize” given to pilgrims on their arrival at Santiago de Compostela as a sort of souvenir for completing their pilgrimage. Pilgrims would display the shell on their hats or capes on their journey back home to show that they had completed the pilgrimage. Carrying the shell was also considered a form of veneration to St. James, similar to carrying medallions of St. Christopher for protection.

So, what’s it like?

Hiking The Camino is an experience like no other experience.

Spiritual. Mental. Physical. Social. Religious. Natural. Magical. The list can go in any direction with each new person you meet.

It’s something that requires more than one blog post to describe.

Each day of the journey is different, with new people, new places, new problems, new blessings, new miracles, and new hills to climb. I’m going to give each day its due description. Stay tuned over the next few weeks for a day-by-day account of my 5-day pilgrimage and more of my collected experiences on hiking The Camino- the good, the bad, and the busted knees. (But mostly good.)

_{Pilgrim’s Prayer Text:} “<sub>Although I may have traveled all the roads, crossed mountains and valleys from East to West if I have not discovered the freedom to be myself, I have arrived nowhere.

Although I may have shared all of my possessions with people of other languages and cultures, made friends with Pilgrims of a thousand paths, or shared albergue with saints and princes, if I am not capable of forgiving my neighbor tomorrow, I have arrived nowhere.

Although I may have carried my pack from beginning to end and waited for every Pilgrim in need of encouragement, or given my bed to one who arrived later than I, given my bottle of water in exchange for nothing; If upon returning to my home and work, I am not able to create brotherhood or to make happiness, peace, and unity, I have arrived nowhere.

Although I may have had food and water each day, and enjoyed a roof and shower every night, or may have had my injuries well attended, if I have not discovered the love of God, I have arrived nowhere.

Although I may have seen all the monuments and contemplated the best sunsets; although I may have learned a greeting in every language or tasted the clean water from every fountain; if I have not discovered who is the author of so much free beauty and so much peace, I have arrived nowhere.

If from today I do not continue walking on your path, searching and living according to what I have learned; if from today I do not see in every person, friend or foe, a companion on the Camino; if from today I cannot recognize God, the God of Jesus of Nazareth as the one God of my life, I have arrived nowhere.</sub>

#truth