The long, stony pilgrim trail to Santiago

The Meaning of Pilgrimage

Before my Camino from St Jean Pied de Port to Santiago, I had difficulty articulating in a few words just why I wanted to do it. My motivations and reasons were a complex, shifting mixture of specific purposes and half-understood desires that really only took recognisable shape after I had reached Santiago, and, more importantly, Finisterre.

So I thought it might be helpful to give some thought-starters for others who may be grappling with the same difficulty in planing their pilgrimage.

My first insights came from a leaflet in the little chapel (San Nicolas de Flue) next to the big albergue at Ponferrada.

Many pilgrims do the camino to give thanks to God. Very late in my camino I met a lady who was walking to give thanks for all the good things life had given her and this insight helped me greatly.

Others walk to fulfil a promise, or to do penance. One man I met had walked the Camino Frances 3 times previously. He was walking for someone else, which struck me as a very significant way to focus.

The Pilgrim Museum in Santiago provided another very helpful leaflet that discussed the concept of pilgrimage in general and from which I quote below.

“Every major religion has a tradition and practice of pilgrimage.

Pilgrimage is a ritual journey, either alone or in a group, with the aim of achieving purification, perfection or salvation; a religious experience in which a series of bonds are established between a place of this world and a higher sphere, between an individual traveller and a community, between a flesh-and-blood pilgrim and he who is reborn, purified by the consummation of his goal. These bonds are what distinguish pilgrimage from other types of journey or travel.

Pilgrimage requires a sacred journey, a sacred place and a sacred goal. The sacred place may take many forms – a tree, a spring, a mountain, or a place where holy relics are revered. On the journey – a metaphor of earthly life – a personal transformation is initiated and effected through a series of rites that culminate in the moment of arrival. Here, his goal attained, the pilgrim is reborn, a new man.”

All the above refers to pilgrims in the traditional sense. Of course, many people do the camino for other reasons – they may be keen walkers who want to do a truly long walk, they may want to walk on Roman roads or see famous places or whatever.

But even such “tourists” may have a vaguely-sensed spiritual or religious drive that may be difficult to articulate at the beginning, but which becomes clearer as their journey progresses. They no doubt feel some comfort and satisfaction when they place a stone on a cross, attend the noon Mass at Santiago or carry out some small personal ritual at Finisterre.