The Walking Pilgrim

Physical changes

The physical changes to the towns and villages and to the roads are, of course, largely brought about by increased economic prosperity. This is true throughout Europe, but it's been particularly noticeable in post-Franco Spain. There has been much migration, particularly by young people, in search of better opportunities. Much of this has been to the larger towns, which have modernised rapidly. Those places they departed, such as many villages, have been left to the older generation, who maintain the old traditional ways but will not be around for very much longer. To some extent, the Camino Francés has mitigated these effects, as it has provided its own little boom in the villages that happen to be along the route. The economic boom has also led to an increase in traffic between the places that have prospered, which has led to both an increase in tarmac and large numbers of road-building projects. The impression one used to have in many parts of Spain of it being little changed for hundreds of years is fading.

None of this, though, was particularly surprising. What is surprising is the huge increase in interest in the Camino, and the huge increase in numbers walking it. This is something no-one would have anticipated 20-25 years ago, when I first became interested, and it's led to some surprising results:

• numbers: compare the 23 claiming a compostela in 1977 and the 13 in 1978 with the 75,000 in 2003 and 180,000 in 2004. 20 years ago, you could easily walk the entire Camino Francés without seeing very many if any other pilgrims; this is very unlikely now.
• publicity: 20 years ago, it was hard to find out anything about practical aspects of walking the Camino; there were 2 guides, one Spanish, one French, but neither were easy to obtain. Nowadays, mainstream media carry items on it, bookshops have whole shelves on the subject, and there are umpteen websites devoted to it.
• physical status of Camino Francés: not only have small lanes been tarmaced, but where previously there were several long sections along main roads, these have largely disappeared; new cycle-paths have been constructed parallel to the road, and/or entirely new off-road routes have been developed for some sections. By and large, this is welcome, as few pilgrims want the noise and smells of constant traffic, quite apart from the physical danger involved. However, it does also mean that the historical continuity of the route is steadily being eroded, and, as with the villages, the 'medieval' impression is fading - it's effectively disappeared in many places.
• waymarking: 20 years ago, waymarking on the Camino Francés was still patchy; now, you would have to be half-asleep to go astray.
• other routes: 20 years ago, in Spain there was really only one route: the Camino Francés. In France, there was the GR65 from Le Puy to the Pyrenees, which was the only waymarked route with any connection to Spain or Santiago. If you wanted to get to Santiago by some other way, for example, starting at your own front door, you had to invent your own route. Now, many routes, not only in Spain and France, but in other countries too (witness this website), are marked and increasingly used, although the Camino Francés remains by far the most used.
• refuges: 20 years ago, there were far fewer pilgrim refuges on the Camino Francés, and virtually none elsewhere. Many of those there were were only open in summer. Now, almost every village on the Camino Francés has one open all year round, and many are opening on other routes, both in Spain and in other countries such as France and Germany.
• groups of Friends: 20 years ago, there were few groups of Amigos/Amis/Friends. Now there are many, in Europe and elsewhere, all adding to the publicity, waymarked routes and refuges
• involvement of non-Church organisations: the increase in numbers has not escaped the notice of other bodies, such as governments and commercial businesses. 20 years ago, the Camino and the pilgrimage were largely a matter for the Church. Now, many other organisations have got involved, in publicity and in improving the infrastructure.

Conceptual changes

Those are the more obvious changes. They have though also led to more subtle changes in attitudes to both the Camino and the concept of pilgrimage itself. Whilst the Camino de Santiago has become a watchword for 'pilgrimage', the idea of what this consists of has changed and no longer bears much resemblance to other Christian pilgrimages. At the same time, a fixed idea of what a pilgrim should be and do has emerged, which is again specific to the Camino. In a curious way, the concept of pilgrimage has blurred and the idea of what a pilgrim should be has hardened:

• blurrings
  • organisational
    as non-Church organisations, such as government and commercial interests, have got involved, objectives have blurred: organisations seek to promote their own area or their own facilities rather than help pilgrims get to Santiago. When they do mention 'pilgrimage', it is often their own version of this, which may not be the same as that of the Church. In the best cases, all the relevant bodies work together, but in some cases rival visions arise, even to the extent of creating entirely separate facilities or routes. It's a strange paradox that organisations with no religious remit whatever, such as tourist offices or the administrator of French GRs, the walking federation FFRP, have become leading promoters of the pilgrimage to Santiago
  • beliefs
    not only are non-Church organisations now involved in the Camino, many pilgrims are likewise not motivated by the traditional values of Christian pilgrimage. Although most claim to have a spiritual motive of some sort, it's striking how much this varies, from the conventionally pious to the decidedly esoteric
  • route
    there's also been a blurring of the concepts of pilgrimage and waymarked trail. In Spain, a rather vaguely defined Camino de Santiago has become a clearly defined waymarked trail, a long-distance footpath. In France, the opposite has happened. Waymarked trails like the GR65 and the GR653 were originally no different from any other GR; it's true they were loosely based on what were claimed by the Liber Sancti Jacobi (LSJ) to be the four main routes in France, but they were never really intended as pilgrimage routes, and walking them no more implied that you were a pilgrim to Santiago than walking the Sentier Cathare implies that you are a Cathar. Now, as the responsible bodies have noticed the increased popularity of walking to Santiago, the GRs are increasingly promoted as 'pilgrimage routes', in some way almost an extension of the Camino Francés. Existing walking trails are bundled together and 'rebranded' as a Road to Santiago, even though their links with Santiago are pretty tenuous, in fact in many cases non-existent.
    This merging of pilgrimage route and waymarked trail has in turn led to the idea that the pilgrimage starts at the 'trailhead'. People make extraordinarily complicated journeys by public transport to get to places like Roncesvalles or St-Jean-Pied-de-Port because they think that's where you have to start. Gone is the idea that pilgrims themselves are the 'trailhead': your pilgrimage starts where you are. Some do start from their own front door, but these are only a small minority
  • accommodation
    with different types of organisation involved in providing accommodation, the hospitality ethos has also blurred. In Spain, the Church tried to encourage a 'pilgrim ethos' by setting up a network of 'refuges offered by Christian hospitality along the Way'. 20 years ago, many if not most of the hostels along the Camino Francés were indeed set up in a spirit of Christian hospitality, often in Church-run buildings; those set up later by the various Jacobean associations are inspired by similar values. However, many of the newer hostels in Spain are municipally run, and often motivated more by tourist promotion than by Christian hospitality; they are thus closer in spirit to youth hostels or the French gîtes d'étape. Conversely, in France, as the relevant GRs have slowly become pilgrimage routes, so the walkers' hostels on them, the gîtes d'étape, have slowly become more pilgrim-oriented. This blurring of ethos has in turn led to a certain amount of conflict: complaints from other walkers that they can't get into 'their' gîtes because they're full of pilgrims, and complaints from pilgrims if they find 'their' pilgrim hostel is occupied by a youth group who do not have the 'correct' attitude.
• hardenings
  • route
    the complete waymarking of the route(s) and the publication of guides, plus the increased availability of specific accommodation, has led to an increasingly dogmatic definition of the route to be taken, generally based on a claim that this is the 'historic line' (a claim that is often spurious, because the historic line is generally the main road, not the waymarked trail). Of course, in many respects waymarking etc is a good thing, as most of those en route for Santiago are not familiar with the terrain. Nevertheless it has become one of the unspoken rules of the modern pilgrimage to Santiago that you have to follow the waymarked trail. Even the locals are in on the conspiracy: if you deviate from the waymarked route, they seek to put you back on the proper path; if you tell them you are going a different way, they look at you in bemusement: 'But you can't do that; that's not what pilgrims do!' Gone is the idea that you make your own Camino (as in Machado's much-quoted lines 'no hay camino,/se hace camino al andar')
  • accommodation
    whereas before it was not possible to walk even the Camino Francés using only pilgrim hostels, now it is, and the idea that only pilgrims should use pilgrim hostels has somehow mutated to the idea that pilgrims should only use pilgrim hostels; support the local community by spending money in the local hotel and you are somehow not doing what pilgrims ought to do. (In fact, of course, both hostel and hotel ultimately derive from the same medieval source - in fact, are cognate, the same word.) This concentration on pilgrim hostels has in turn added to the emphasis on the Camino Francés, as that is the only route where it is possible to rely solely on them; the other routes are more like what the Camino Francés used to be 20 years ago
  • distance
    when the cathedral authorities introduced the compostela (along with the related credencial), the criterion for gaining one was that you have to walk a minimum distance, the reasoning being that pilgrimage should involve some physical exertion. The intention is no doubt good, but it has led to the idea that pilgrimage involves some sort of long walk. This idea is however unique to Compostela, and in reality, pilgrimage has nothing to do with long walks - few of the many thousands of pilgrims to, say, Guadelupe or Montserrat, Lourdes or Fátima walk there. What's more, the minimum distance is completely arbitrary, and means that most Galicians do not qualify if they start from their front door. Galicians are the largest component of those claiming a compostela, but if they want one they must start somewhere that is more than the minimum distance from Santiago. A majority of pilgrims start from within Galicia, so it seems logical to assume that many of these are Galicians from elsewhere in Galicia - a decidedly odd arrangement
  • direction
    because the compostela is issued in Santiago and not on your return home, the idea has arisen that pilgrimage is a one-way street in the direction of Santiago. As there is no minimum walking distance for the return journey, very few return home on foot as well. This has given rise to the idea that it's ok for a pilgrim to catch a train or plane from Santiago home, but not from home to Santiago - another peculiar idea. This idea has been reinforced by the fact that the yellow arrow waymarks are only in the direction of Santiago and so of limited use to those on the return journey
  • because of this lack of a return, the tradition of getting a shell in Santiago and carrying it home as a witness of your pilgrimage has changed to carrying a shell on your way there, another example of how original concepts have changed

So, the hopes of the cathedral authorities that by introducing the compostela they would encourage a new breed of pilgrim to make some physical effort to reach Santiago have been fulfilled beyond their wildest dreams. They must be pleased that so many claim to have spiritual motives, though how many are specifically Christian, let alone Roman Catholic, is questionable. On the other hand, a vaguely defined Road to the shrine of St James walked by people who made use of whatever limited infrastructure was available has become a rigidly defined waymarked trail to Santiago walked by people who must adhere to the predefined route and stop in the appropriate lodgings to be considered 'pilgrims'. These 'neo-pilgrims', following the waymarked trail and sleeping in pilgrim hostels, often claim to be the descendants of medieval ones, but are in reality rather different. Curiously, in fact, if they later try one of the other routes, more like what the Camino Francés used to be, some of them don't like it: no fellow pilgrims, few hostels, patchy waymarking, not at all the way 'the Camino' and 'the pilgrimage' should be.

How should one respond to such changes?

As with any other change, some people react negatively, complaining that the Camino Francés has been ruined and lamenting that the pilgrimage ain't what it used to be. Not that this affects the numbers of people walking to Santiago - on the contrary, numbers keep on rising. Part of this is no doubt due to the newcomers not being aware of what it was before, and only what it has become.

My main reaction is more one of interest: I find it intriguing that the Camino has evolved in the way it has. Of course, things ain't what they used to be, but then they never are: 'Nothing is constant but change, nothing permanent but death', as the German writer Ludwig Börne put it.* It's true that there are more people than ever before, but the idea that the Camino is 'ruined' or 'overcrowded' is exaggerated. The main problem is the limited accommodation in pilgrim hostels on the Camino Francés, but that could easily be solved, for example, by letting pilgrims sleep in churches en route. Individuals can easily solve the problem either by sleeping under the stars, as their ancestors used to do, or by going out of season, or by deviating off the predefined route; of course, there won't be any pilgrim-specific infrastructure there, but does this matter? I do find the increasing dogmatism on route etc rather tiresome, but there is enough information around these days, on the web and elsewhere, for people to be able to distinguish the real from the bogus if they want to.

In some respects though, I do find my own attitudes changing. This is particularly the case with LSJ, and particularly its claim of there being four roads to Santiago. As I say in the My Caminos page, my interest was first aroused by a visit to Conques. At that time, I accepted the received opinion that Conques was on a Road to Santiago. I no longer believe this, at least not to the extent that is often depicted (see other page for more scepticism). Conques was a major shrine, but I now consider it unlikely that it was visited by many pilgrims en route to Santiago. In fact, AFAICS there is no evidence there was ever a major road between Le Puy and the Pyrenees as claimed by LSJ, for pilgrims or anyone else. The so-called Le Puy route happened to be the first modern route in France to be developed (largely because, unlike the other routes, there was no major road) and for this reason has acquired pre-eminence, but there is no historical or religious justification for this. I find it rather amusing that what appears to be an invention of LSJ, reinvented in the 1970s as an attractive walking trail, is now revered by the neo-pilgrims as a leading pilgrimage route. Which, I suppose, just goes to show that modern pilgrims are just as gullible as their medieval counterparts.