Picture by Adrian Shaw

Walking the Camino

Wednesday September 21 2016

Adrian Shaw reflects on his journey along an ancient pilgrimage route.

THE reawakening of interest in pilgrimage has been remarkable in recent years, not just in the Roman Catholic Church but across all denominations and faiths.

There is growing interest in Scotland with new pilgrim routes being explored across the country.

The most famous and most travelled pilgrim route in Europe is the Camino de Santiago, where for more than 1000 years pilgrims have travelled on foot, horseback and by boat to the Church of St James in Santiago, Galicia, in the north western corner of Spain.

The antiquity of the pilgrimage is marked by the ancient crosses, churches and cathedrals along the route from St Jean Port de Pied in France, through Pamplona, Burgos and Leon. This route, El Camino Frances, is the most travelled but far from only route to Santiago.

The number of pilgrims was declining before the Reformation, but this and the counterreformation hastened the decline. Martin Luther was openly hostile to pilgrimage, and its association with relics and the earthly remains of saints.

However, the pilgrimage to Santiago never died out entirely, surviving the traumatic years of the Spanish Civil War and Franco regime.

What is astonishing is the revival of numbers walking the Camino in the last 30 years. From less than 2,500 pilgrims in 1986, the number grew to over 50,000 by the millennium and has continued to soar, with over a quarter of a million expected to arrive at Santiago in 2016.

Having long been fascinated by the Camino and its history I took a month away from my post as Climate Change Officer for the Church of Scotland to pull on my best walking boots for the long haul from St Jean to Santiago, nearly 800km or about 500 miles. I started in the snowy Pyrenees at the end of March 2016 and ended up in the warmth of the sun at Santiago before the end of April.

There is no getting away from it: the Camino is hard work, particularly if the weather, as in April 2016, was very mixed with many days that were decidedly Scottish in character.

The Route Frances starts in the French Pyrenees and climbs to over 1400m to cross into Spain.

Most of the walking across Spain is less demanding than the first day in the mountains, following tracks through the hills and across the great central plains, the Meseta, linking towns and villages in a chain.

Three great cities mark the route to Santiago: Pamplona, Burgos and Leon. Accommodation of many kinds including albergues, hostels and hotels is easy to find and relatively inexpensive as are the filling menu de pelegrinos widely available in cafes and restaurants.

From such a long journey a few impressions stand out. The Camino is crowded and getting more so, particularly in its later stages. While some have complained that the Camino is becoming very commercial, it is clear that helping pilgrims along the way is an expression of faith for many of those running albergues or other businesses, and shows the hospitality industry at its best.

So what is the motivation drawing so many back to the Camino? Some seek to venerate St James at his shrine in Santiago. Many pilgrims travel at a turning point in their lives or to mark some special event.

Some walk without any explicit reason, whilst many are led by faith but there are others who are uncertain or profess no faith. Perhaps it is a reaction to our secular age, a spiritual yearning that for many people can no longer find expression in traditional religion but which remains alive and in search of meaning. How churches, including the Church of Scotland, can respond to this yearning is something to ponder.

You can find out more about pilgrimage in Scotland at the website of the Scottish Pilgrim Routes Forum: http://www.sprf.org.uk/ and practical information about walking the Camino from the website of the Confraternity of Saint James http://www.csj.org.uk/

This is an abridged version of an article which appears in the September issue of Life and Work. Subscribe to the magazine of the Church of Scotland here