The MYTHS of the Camino Santiago

There are several myths that have been and are being generated that there is ONE path and ONE way to walk to Santiago and there are "rules" that must be followed in order to be a 'real pilgrim." There are several definitions of the word pilgrim. According to the Oxford Dictionary, a pilgrim can simply be a person who travels on long journeys.

So what constitutes a "real pilgrim" and what are these myths I'm talking about? One myth is that in order to be a "real pilgrim" you must carry your backpack. That is simply not true. People who could afford it have sought shortcuts and ease, and have hired transport for themselves and their luggage from the beginning of the pilgrimage. There were no "backpacks" originally. Some pilgrims walked with nothing but a cloak or blanket and water, and a staff or stick to help them. Some carried a bedroll. Some did not.



Some think the Way should be affordable for pilgrims, and that merchants, restaurants, bars, and lodging owners should cut pilgrims some slack. Sorry, not historically true. Pilgrims have been targets of $$$ stings from the beginning. Expect it. It's no different than any other place in the world. It's very much a commercial enterprise for many who live along The Way.



Yet another myth is that the Camino "should" be a spiritual experience. Though it often is, and perhaps began as such, there is no rule stating that. There used to be a spot on the Credential, and still is on some, asking if your journey is religious/spiritual. Historically, some walked with great feelings of religious or spiritual purpose. However, others walked because they were ordered to by a judge or court as payment for a crime.

The reasons for walking the Camino these days are legion. Kyung -Mi Im and SuJung Jun, in their interesting paper, The Meaning of Learning on the Camino Santiago Pilgrimage, state, "The Camino de Santiago itself is a spiritual way and a way of self-mortification that engenders physical and spiritual pain while walking for more than a month... many people have gone on this route of self-mortification in the past. It is because this way leads to the unknown world and is the way of experience of life that offers them the feelings of loneliness, longing, warmth, rumination of regrets, recovery, consolation, and self-discovery. For many participants, the Camino de Santiago leads to maturation. Furthermore, various people pursue communication and coexistence, reconciliation, and sharing for national and international peace on the journey...The travel on the Camino de Santiago is not a simple voyage, but a learning experience that consists of transformative learning. It also brings passion to life and catalyzes spiritual awakening and development."

Another other myth is that you must walk every step along the guidebook's stage, and stay in the villages suggested, whether it be Brierley or otherwise. Wrong again! Pilgrimages are often taken on horseback, or in carriages.


Modern pilgrims traveling via cart to Roccio

Some will tell you, "You MUST begin in St. Jean Pied de Port!" 

But where is the "beginning" to the Camino Santiago de Compostella? Is it St. Jean Pied de Port? Is it Roncesvalles?

No. The Camino Santiago begins at your front door. You get to the whichever route you are taking, however you get there, whether you fly, take a boat, or walk. You can take the high road or the low road, whatever suits you. You can walk on the designated route, or you can choose your own route. You can walk the "stages" or "etapas" stated by guidbooks, or stop and start anywhere you wish.

And must you sleep in a municipal albergue with coughing, snoring, farting pilgrims surrounding you?  No! You can sleep in a village albergue, refugio, municipal, or you can sleep on a park bench or in a church or a barn, or you can book a room in the Parador.

Sleep in a Hay Loft

or

The Parador

The point of the pilgrimage is simply to arrive in the sacred city of Santiago de Compostela. There is no specific starting point. There is no mandatory sleeping place. Historically, because it was safe for people to walk together, common paths and roads were created. However, those paths have changed over time. And people sleep wherever they can afford.

In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church encouraged people to make pilgrimages to a shrine, believing if you prayed at these shrines, you would have forgiveness of sins and have more chance of getting into heaven. Some went to shrines hoping to be cured of an illness 

from which they were suffering.

Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages; notice horses.

Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela reached its peak during the Middle Ages. By the 12th century, the Camino had become quite organized. What is widely regarded as the world's first travel guide, the Codex Calixtinus from around 1140, provided the would-be pilgrim with the rudiments of what he or she would need to know while en route. Book V, the famous "Liber Peregrinationis" ("Guide of the Medieval Pilgrim") provided practical information, while Book II, the "Book of Miracles", would surely have provided encouragement while underway. (From American Pilgrims on the Camino)

A massive infrastructure developed to support pilgrimage and, not coincidentally, to gain commercially from it. Bridges were constructed across rivers to draw pilgrims to certain cities and they prospered. Pilgrim hospices were chartered by religious orders, kings and queens and they gained favor in heaven. All manner of commercial businesses were established to both take advantage of and to support pilgrims. Cultures mixed, languages merged and history was affected.

The routes we walk have been changed over time by war, new construction, natural disaster, re-routing TO some villages, or AWAY from villages that didn't want to be bothered by pilgrims.

An excellent example of a current route change is the path going down the hill before you get to the river at Portomarin. I much prefer the older path, and that's the one I take! Or the crazy dip down into Lorca. I ignore that dip and stay on the road - and enter the village at the exact same spot.

An example of a larger change is the village of Portomarin itself, the original village which you can see at the bottom of the water below the bridge.  When the water was dammed up, the village disappeared below the water. The church was brought up, brick by brick, and reconstructed. (For some great photos of the original village, and stories about that change, visit the wonderful hospitalera at Albergue Ultreia in Portomarin. )

Original Village of Portomarin and Original Bridge

These steps are not required!

So for those, for example, saying you MUST climb the steps UP into the village after that long walk, instead of simply going around them (a much easier way), because you must stay on the original Camino, sorry, they are way off base. Those steps have only been there since the 1960's when I was a wild teenager! Well within my lifetime! They are not part of any "original" Camino. I have climbed them once or twice. Never again!  

I turn right at this staircase and walk up a gentle hill until a park, where I turn left and walk right into the village.

So what is the Compostela? It is a document that certifies a pilgrim has completed the required last 100 kilometers of Camino de Santiago (and only the required last 100 kilometers!) 

Appearances of the Compostela
have changed over the years.

The Compostela was sought for the forgiveness of sins for those who walked as Catholics. The Camino was originally a Catholic pilgrimage (though some say it was a pagan pilgrimage long before - but there are no records I know of supporting that theory.) 

The Compostela is awarded by the Catholic Church authorities. A pilgrim collects it at the Pilgrim Reception Office. The Compostela was created in the 9th and 10th centuries. Originally the scallop shell was used to certify you had walked, and was picked up at the END of the pilgrimage, but that was an easy thing to forge, and so in the 13th century, the Church replaced that with cartas probatorias, the direct predecessor of today's Compostela. 

There is also a Certificate of Distance available, which is also very nice, for those who do not want or do not qualify for the Compostela.

Unlike today, people couldn't afford to just stop their lives and go on pilgrimage! They didn't just go walk the Camino Santiago unless they had been instructed to by a judge as punishment for a crime they committed, or because they wanted their sins forgiven, or because they sought healing, physical or spiritual. And those people were most certainly Catholic. 

Today, you don't have to be Catholic. You don't have to walk to have your sins forgiven. You can walk for many reasons. You can just walk for exercise, to see the country, to honor someone, to raise money for a charity, and a hundred other reasons.

If you are walking the Camino, the ONLY rule I know of is that you must be walking for a spiritual/religious reason and you must walk every step of the last 100 kilometers IF YOU WANT THE COMPOSTELA. 

That's it. 

It does not have to be from Sarria. 

It can be from ANYWHERE 100 kilometers out from Santiago. 

And there is nothing in the rules 

about carrying your pack 

or walking a particular street or path.

The only thing that remains true 

is the pilgrim goes towards Santiago de Compostella. 

The road you take there is of no matter whatsoever.

So go on your pilgrimage, whatever that word means to you, and enjoy it.

• Walk from wherever you want to begin. 
• Carry whatever you wish to carry. 
• Stop wherever you wish to stop. 
• Sleep wherever you wish to sleep... 
• And don't let anyone dictate to you any myths they believe are "the rules," because they just don't exist. 

Buen Camino! 

Annie