The Camino de Santiago
Background
Since the 9th century, the city of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain has been a
pilgrimage destination. Tradition has it that the remains of the apostle St. James the Elder are buried
there. Along with Rome and Jerusalem, Santiago became one of the three most important medieval
Christian pilgrimage sites. When the age of pilgrimage waned in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Camino
de Santiago entered a period of decline that lasted for hundreds of years. But it has always maintained a
presence in the European imagination, and beginning in the 1980s the pilgrimage has made a dramatic
comeback.
The renaissance of the modern Camino de Santiago emerged from a grass-roots movement in the
early and mid 1980s, led by a group of parish priests and local enthusiasts. They began marking the first
and most famous of the many routes to Santiago, the Camino Francés, which crosses the north of Spain
from the French border 800 kilometers to Santiago. In 1987 they formed the Spanish Federation of
Associations of Friends of the Camino, which is today the Camino’s primary support institution in
Spain. Two European institutions then lent support: the Council of Europe declared the Camino Francés
the First European Cultural Route in 1987, and UNESCO granted World Heritage status first to the
Camino Francés in 1993, and then to selected sites on the four principal Camino routes in France in
1998. While the Catholic Church has always recognized and welcomed pilgrims to Santiago, it became a
supporter of the walking pilgrimage at this time as well. The regional government of Galicia, where the
city of Santiago is located, has also supported the walking pilgrimage since the early 1990s, when it
created an agency, the Xacobeo, to promote the Camino de Santiago around the world.
In 1972, the Pilgrims Office of the Cathedral of Santiago recorded a total of 67 pilgrims who
walked to Santiago. In 1980 that number had increased to 209; in 1990 to 4918, and in the year 2000 to
55,044. Last year, more than 216,000 walking pilgrims registered at the Pilgrims Office. In Holy Years,
when the July 25 Feast of Saint James falls on a Sunday, numbers typically increase 50% over the
previous year.
The surge in numbers of pilgrims has begun to push the Camino into mainstream culture in Europe
and in the Americas. In recent years, numerous books about the pilgrimage, both fiction and nonfiction,
have been published. These include walking guides, personal memoirs, and novels. Among the more
famous authors are German comedian Hans Peter Kerkeling, Portuguese writer Paulo Coelho, and our
very own Shirley MacLaine. (I have always thought that these books by these authors, while well
known, are more about the author than about the Camino.) In addition, several Spanish, French, and
American films have highlighted the pilgrimage; two of the best are Coline Serreau’s Saint-Jacques …
La Mecque and The Way by Emilio Estevez with Martin Sheen. (In November, an outstanding
documentary about the Camino will be available on DVD. Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago,
by Lydia Smith, is the best film that I have seen about walking the Camino today. (Visit the website at
http://caminodocumentary.org/.)
Although there are many marked pilgrimage routes to Santiago, stretching across Spain, France,
and the rest of Europe, most pilgrims begin their walk in Spain. The Camino Francés continues to be the
most popular route. In 2013, more than 151,700 people walked on the Camino Francés, accounting for
70% of the pilgrims registered at the Pilgrims Office in Santiago. Other well known routes in Spain are
the Camino Portugués (29,500; 13.7%), the Camino del Norte (13,400; 6.2%), the Vía de la Plata (9000;
4.2%), and the Camino Primitivo (6800; 3.2%); other routes combined saw approximately 5200 pilgrims
(2.4%).
Support Groups and Organizations
The big-name institutions associated with the Camino generally do not directly support or care for
the infrastructure. The Spanish or French national governments, the Church, UNESCO, and the Council
of Europe, while generous with words, do not (normally) lend material or financial support. Local and
regional organizations do, as do several umbrella institutions of local organizations.
In Spain, the principal umbrella organization is the Federación Española de Asociaciones de
Amigos del Camino de Santiago. Its goals include providing support and information to pilgrims;
training and organizing volunteer hospitaleros; collaborating with local institutions (parishes,
municipalities, etc.) in the creation and operation of places to welcome and to lodge pilgrims; advocating
for the defense, conservation, and development of the historical and cultural heritage of the Camino;
promoting cultural activities, conferences, trips and pilgrimages in collaboration with associations; and
publishing the magazine Revista Peregrina (since 1987).
The real work of caring for the physical trail falls to the local organizations, which may be
municipal, parroquial, or an association. These organizations undertake the recovery, conversion, and
construction of pilgrim albergues; they provide volunteers to care for the albergues; and they keep the
walking path well marked and in good condition.
International organizations of Friends of the Camino de Santiago exist in nearly every country in
Europe, as well as in the Americas, South Africa, even Korea and Japan. Three of these international
organizations that are particularly accessible to us are the English Confraternity of Saint James, the
Canadian Company of Pilgrims, and our own American Pilgrims on the Camino.
Camino Lodging
One of the characteristic features of the pilgrimage to Santiago in Spain is the donation-based
pilgrim’s refuge, or albergue. Since the beginning of the renaissance of the modern Camino in the mid
1980s and the founding of the Federación in 1987, this has been the ideal: a safe overnight shelter, basic
but functional, with bunks, toilets, showers, maybe a cooking area, usually a common area, that operates
on the basis of donations or contributions, and is overseen by volunteer hospitaleros. Unfortunately the
number of albergues that rely on donations has declined in recent years. Most now charge a modest sum
of 5 to 8 euros, or 7 to 11 dollars.
The volunteer hospitalero is the key to the public albergue system. The Federación sponsors
training workshops in Spain, as do several international associations in other countries, including
American Pilgrims in the United States. The job of the hospitalero is multi-faceted. The most important
duty is to serve as host to a steady stream of pilgrims. Hospitaleros
 provide a warm welcome to all arriving pilgrims;
 sometimes converse, sometimes listen, and typically serve as a resource for practical information;
 at some albergues, organize or prepare a community evening meal for a full house of hungry
pilgrims;
 see pilgrims off in the morning, perhaps after a basic breakfast;
 keep the albergue clean;
 keep the albergue maintained—ordering propane, buying food and supplies, doing the
accounting—as if they were running a small business
 maintain good relations between the albergue and the town or neighborhood.
Veteran hospitaleros agree that the 15 days of service are one of the most intense, and intensely
gratifying, experiences of their life.
With the explosion of popularity of the Camino, the last ten years have seen a tremendous increase
in the number of private albergues. These generally charge from 10 to 15 euros, or 13 to 20 dollars, but
they usually deliver a greater level of comfort than the public albergues. There seems to be a distinction
between the private albergues owned and run by people interested in providing a service to pilgrims, and
those run simply for profit; this distinction may, however, reside more in attitude and atmosphere than in
the quality of the facilities or services. In addition to public and private albergues, larger towns and cities
usually also have hotels or pensions.
Food!
On the Camino Francés in Spain, there are very few occasions when a pilgrim will walk five miles
without finding food and drink. On other routes, certain stages may call for some forethought and
planning, because distances between towns or villages with a pub or restaurant may increase up to 15
miles. Pilgrims purchase food at small grocery stores in towns and villages, at supermarkets in cities,
and can stop for a drink, a snack, or a meal at cafés, pubs, and restaurants. And of course, one of the joys
of Spain and France is the neighborhood bakery, where a pilgrim can find fresh bread and pastries.
In towns that have a strong tradition of pilgrims passing through, bocadillos are very popular; these
are Subway-style sandwiches, made with a wide variety of fillings in a crusty baguette. For a unique
snack, tapas are common at pubs and cafés, as are their larger complement, raciones. In Spain and
France, special pilgrim menus exist. These are fixed-price sit-down meals of two or three courses, with
bread, drink, and coffee, all for between 8 and 13 euros (11 to 17 dollars). In France, you will
occasionally run across a small stand that a local resident has set up, offering water, coffee, fruit, bread,
eggs, and so on. They operate on the honor system, similar to roadside farm stands here in the States. In
Spain, every town has a public fountain with good drinking water, where pilgrims can drink and refill
their Camelback. In France this is not always the case, but cemeteries always have a spigot near the main
entrance with water fit for drinking. (One of my refrains this last summer was, “Do you want some
cemetery water?”)
Because I believe that gastronomy is one of the best reasons for traveling to new places, I invite
you to take a look at some of the regional specialties on the many Caminos de Santiago … [See the
PowerPoint, but beware: you may find yourself feeling very hungry by the end of the segment.]
Documentation
There are two documents of great importance to pilgrims who walk to Santiago. One is the pilgrim
credential, a small folding booklet with a page for the pilgrim’s identification information and then many
pages for ink stamps. The credential authenticates the pilgrim’s progress on the Camino via these
stamps, which can be obtained at albergues, churches, city halls, pubs, etc. Usually you obtain one stamp
per day of walking, although nearer to Santiago you secure two or more per day. A current credential
allows the pilgrim to stay at public albergues.
The other important document is the Compostela, a certificate of completion of the pilgrimage. It is
issued by the Cathedral of Santiago and is based on a model that reaches back hundreds of years. In
order to receive the Compostela, a pilgrims must
 make the pilgrimage for religious or spiritual motives, or at least with an attitude of searching;
 complete the last 100 kilometers to Santiago on foot or on horseback, or the last 200 kilometers if
riding a bicycle;
 obtain a stamp on the credential for each day of walking up to the final 100 (or 200) kilometers
before Santiago, then obtain two or more stamps per day.
There is an ongoing debate over the 100 kilometer rule. Tens of thousands of people every year
begin their walk at the 100 kilometer point so as to qualify for the Compostela; one might interpret this
as a sign that the certificate is more important to these people than the pilgrimage experience. Whether
or not that is true, it is a fact that the last 100 kilometers before Santiago on the Camino Francés are
overcrowded and commercialized to a disconcerting degree.
A few useful links
http://www.americanpilgrims.com/ American Pilgrims on the Camino website
http://www.csj.org.uk/
Confraternity of Saint James (England)
http://peregrinossantiago.es/eng/
Pilgrim’s Office of the Cathedral of Santiago (in several languages)
http://www.caminosantiago.org/cpperegrino/comun/inicio.asp The Federación website (Spanish only)
http://www.mundicamino.com/
Information website (in several languages)