Selling fully stamped credentials for €30

[El Cascayal]

Denuncian la venta de credenciales en Lalín para obtener la compostela sin hacer el Camino

El Arzobispado de Santiago pide que los puntos de sellado estén alerta ante estas prácticas

www.lavozdegalicia.es

 

[Robo]

It makes you wonder who buys these and why?

 

[Vacajoe]

Sounds like an urban legend, but then again I wouldn’t put it past some people. The odd thing, though, is why go through effort when it would be far easier to simply fake the Compostela itself?

 

[henrythedog]

It makes you wonder who buys these and why?

If true it’s the logical end point of those who ask ‘what’s the minimum distance to gain a Compostela?’ or use various options to make their holiday easier.

If the minimum distance changed to 50km there would be mass business failures in the 50-100km zone. Sadly.

(Edited to add a note of scepticism per Kathar1na!)

 

[Kathor1]

Sounds like an urban legend, but then again I wouldn’t put it past some people. The odd thing, though, is why go through effort when it would be far easier to simply fake the Compostela itself?

I agree. I read the article and I, too, tend to think that this is a made-up social media story. It's summer - in German this is called Sauregurkenzeit, and in English apparently Silly Season although I've never heard this expression. It is a period in the summer months known for frivolous news stories in the mass media because there are not many other proper news. Everybody is on holiday.

Does anyone know in which Facebook group the "responsables" from a "punto de información de Lalín" published this narrative? I just love the total anonymity of the article . Not a single name is quoted as source. Not even from the archbishopric. I'm sure, though, of course that the author asked "someone" there ...

The whole narrative hinges on the assumption that there is a demand for readily stamped credentials. There is a wide-spread belief that Spaniards need a Compostela to get a job, especially young people. I don't think that it has ever established whether this is actually a fact for the employment market in Spain.

I am not yet buying it ... I mean the story and not the credencial.

 

[Kathor1]

Does anyone know in which Facebook group the "responsables" from a "punto de información de Lalín" published this narrative?

I should have looked myself instead of asking the question here. It was easy to find. It is this link:

Punto de Información al Peregrino en Lalin (on Facebook)​

 

[Kathor1]

Punto de Información al Peregrino en Lalin (on Facebook)​

The Lalín FB group posted the screenshot shown below. Can anyone identify the platform? It is not FB as far as I can tell. And there are now 119 comments to read for their post with this screenshot.

 

[dick bird]

Sounds like a hell of a lot of effort for 30 euros.

 

[Kathor1]

I ploughed through the 119 comments on FB on the page of the Lalín group. There is no new information in these comments other than that one poster writes that he saw an offer of €15 for a stamped credencial. Another poster asked for the link to either of these offers but nobody provided it.

So these are the facts as far as I can tell: A group of 8 people came to the Lalín Info point for pilgrims with credentials without personal data and wanted to have them stamped. The Info point people refused to do so.

Independent of this there are appear to be online offers of pre-stamped credentials for €30 and possibly €15 but I've not yet seen a link to such offers. And there is no information about how much this market flourishes or whether this is an emerging business sector that is struggling to establish itself. No buyer has been interviewed so far. And if they do indeed sell them also in person on the Praza Obradoiro - has anybody ever been approached by a seller?

 

[Anhalter]

It's funny how news travel, i read this first on facebook, then on a german pilgrims forum... now here. I'll say it again: I find that this is a good thing. It solves a problem with the, arbitrary, rule of "walking 100km" to get a compostela. Now the people that have no interest in actually doing the walk and just want the piece of paper for their wall don't need to bother the others. For me it's a win-win situation.

Maybe if we're lucky the cathedral will someday join the bandwagon and offer print at home compostelas in return for a donation to the church...

 

[Kathor1]

The Lalín FB group posted the screenshot shown below. Can anyone identify the platform?
View attachment 176787

Found it, I think. The screenshot of the offer of a stamped credencial for €30 looks like it is from the Spanish website Wallapop where signed-up members can buy and sell stuff. I can't find a current offer for such a credencial on it but there was at least one such offer in the past. Unfortunately, the web crawling bots did not see it and did not save it so there is no trace of it on the WayBack Machine. But I am now willing to believe a significant part of the recent news article.

 

[Kathor1]

Now the people that have no interest in actually doing the walk and just want the piece of paper for their wall don't need to bother the others.

I am trying to put myself into the shoes - or rather the minds - of potential buyers. Who would buy such a credencial and why? For €30? You have to be physically present in Santiago because you have to register on the Pilgrim Office website and then march there to get your Compostela.

Just imagine it: You've not walked the 100 km and you've not been on a 5-day bus trip or taxi trip either because if you had done so you would have gotten the 10 stamps yourself (or asked the driver to get them for you) if you can combine this with your own personal moral and ethical catalogue. So is the target group run-of-the mill tourists in Santiago? Tourists who have a large choice of buying any kind of souvenir of Santiago? Or, as someone pointed out already, fabricate a convincing copy of a Compostela on their computers themselves or ask their kids or grandkids to do it for them if they want it as wall decoration?

 

[MarkEveleigh]

https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/notic...ompostela-camino/0003_202408S24C2991.htm[/URL

[QUOTE="El Cascayal, post: 1286829...ostela-camino/0003_202408S24C2991.htm[/QUOTE]

It's interesting to read that this still goes on. In the Middle Ages there was a lucrative business in forging credenciales (for criminals and other ne'er-do-wells who had been condemned to go on a pilgrimage). I'm amazed that people will still pay for such fakes today.

 

[Anhalter]

I am trying to put myself into the shoes - or rather the minds - of potential buyers. Who would buy such a credencial and why?

I get that it is for most people here not to understand. I personally would never deprive myself of the wonderful experience of walking the camino. But with the surge of the recent years, and lets say more "comfort orientated" approaches to doing the necessary minimum to receive a compostela... for me it's just the next logical step. We'll see if there is a market for this. I personally would not be surprised if there actually was one.

 

[Kathor1]

I'm amazed that people will still pay for such fakes today.

Not the same reasons. Not the same mindset. Nobody between the years 1000 and 1600 framed their Compostela and hung it on the wall of their living room. And I severely doubt that many peregrinos between 1990 and 2024 took their Compostela home and to their parish priest to prove that they had fulfilled an obligation imposed on them by their priest in the confessional before their departure to Spain. In particular not the potential clients of a €30 stamped credencial. They may not have seen their priest for decades. If they are even Catholic, whether practising or lapsed. The Camino of today is not the Way to Saint James in Galicia of hundreds of year ago.

 

[Bradypus]

And I severely doubt that many peregrinos between 1990 and 2024 took their Compostela home and to their parish priest to prove that they had fulfilled an obligation imposed on them by their priest in the confessional.

I was refused a credencial in SJPDP in 1990. One of the reasons given was that I had not brought a letter of introduction from a Catholic priest to verify my bona fide pilgrim status.

 

[Kathor1]

I was refused a credencial in SJPDP in 1990. One of the reasons given was that I had not brought a letter of introduction from a Catholic priest to verify my bona fide pilgrim status.

Make it "between 1991 and 2024" then . The fact is that one can get a credencial without ever having set foot into a church or the office of a priest or vicar. You can get it from the forum store. You can get a Compostela without confession and absolution - that part of the Latin text was removed from the Compostela text a long time ago. We don't live in the Middle Ages and things are just not the same as they were then.

 

[Kathor1]

we are waisting valuable disk space

Disk space ? Looking at the megabytes of the Camino photos that are uploaded to this forum every day it seems to me that server space is plentiful and cheap. Perhaps you meant to say bandwidth ... but even that I've not heard for some time. Space in one's mind? Everyone can skip this thread ... .

I know that you made a joke. It's just that of all the (perhaps) futile forum topics Credentials with All the Sellos for €30 a Pop is a lot "fresher" than Poles on Planes.

 

[LTfit]

Sounds like an urban legend, but then again I wouldn’t put it past some people. The odd thing, though, is why go through effort when it would be far easier to simply fake the Compostela itself?

It is definitely true. The original post I saw was on Facebook by the person who reported this (amigo David in Lalín). His post was subsequently reposted in every Camino group I belong to (way too many!).

 

[t2andreo]

Nothing, but NOTHING surprises me anymore. Actually, the antecedents for practices like this go all the way back to the earliest days of the Camino de Santiago.

In the beginning, like from 850 - 1100 AD (ish), one usually did not acquire a scallop shell, marking you as a pilgrim, until you arrived at Santiago de Compostela. Folks prized these tokens for the rest of their lives. In fact, there are many contemporary examples of one-time pilgrims found buried with their scallop shells. Having lived in the Antwerp, Belgium area for a few years, I can also attest to having seeing a few OLD tombstones in church cemeteries with the scape of a scallop shell engraved on a tombstone.

Not too long after the practice of bestowing the scallop shells on arriving pilgrims started to signify that they had completed the pilgrimage, unscrupulous individuals started offering scallop shells for sale farther and farther away from Santiago. The sales pitch was likely something like, "...why go all the way to Santiago de Compostela for this mere sea shell. The journey is hazardous and fraught with all sorts of dangers. You might be attacked, robbed, injured or even be killed. You might fall ill. Why take that chance? I can provide you an authentic scallop shell, marking you as a pilgrim, for ONLY "X" (amount)."

As this fraud spread, the Cathedral authorities began the process of issuing written, personalized Compostelas, similar to what we do today. However, these would have been hand-scribed by religious persons within the ambit of the Cathedral.

That seriously upped the proverbial ante. We know the rest of the story.

Hope this helps the dialog.

Tom

 

[Pingüigrino]

I agree. I read the article and I, too, tend to think that this is a made-up social media story. It's summer - in German this is called Sauregurkenzeit, and in English apparently Silly Season although I've never heard this expression. It is a period in the summer months known for frivolous news stories in the mass media because there are not many other proper news. Everybody is on holiday.

Does anyone know in which Facebook group the "responsables" from a "punto de información de Lalín" published this narrative? I just love the total anonymity of the article . Not a single name is quoted as source. Not even from the archbishopric. I'm sure, though, of course that the author asked "someone" there ...

The whole narrative hinges on the assumption that there is a demand for readily stamped credentials. There is a wide-spread belief that Spaniards need a Compostela to get a job, especially young people. I don't think that it has ever established whether this is actually a fact for the employment market in Spain.

I am not yet buying it ... I mean the story and not the credencial.

Years ago I was volunteering like hospitalero at Samos monastery's albergue. Two buses full of tourists arrived and till they were massively herded to the churh, two of the guides come to me carrying maybe a hundred blank credentials asking for the "sello". I told them I couldn't stamp those credentials because there where not names on them and because I knew that the tourist would walk for five klmtrs and taken again by buses in two hours to go to Sarria, have lunch, visit the town and keep going by bus to their hotel.
(I had heard a woman telling to a group of her friends).
The guide offered me a "donation" of fifthy euros for the use of the stamp, but when I told him no, he said "OK, your choose. I'll find some place less purist than you.
Yes, there are ways and ways of "walking" the camino.
And yes, there are ways of buying and selling credentials. Since many years ithat is the way many tours companies guarantee to theirs customers that they will obtain the "oficial certificate".
Now call me judgmental.

 

[Kathy F.]

Walking the Camino to get a credencial full of stamps so you can sell it for 30 euros sounds like the worst business model I've ever heard of.

 

[JerryStroebele]

After one Camino I came home and promptly washed all my clothes in my backpack. My credencial was still inside my pants pocket. So was my passport. The passport and the credencial (from American Pilgrims on the Camino) survived just fine but some of those sellos are pretty smudged. I don't read Spanish very well. Where do I send the 30 euros? Buen Camino

 

[JustOneGuy]

I don't know if this story is true, but it reminds me of a very old comic strip I read years ago.

I don't remember exactly, but the story was something like this: a guy invents a fishing rod that automatically reels in the fish. The next version pulls the hook in by itself. Later, it also set the bait. Some time later, he develops a later version that releases the fish from the hook and puts it in the basket.

Eventually, the system is developed to the point where it can drive the boat by itself, go out to sea, fish, and come back to shore.

The inventor then sets up a demo in front of potential buyers, and it works perfectly.

Except at the end, one of the potential buyers asks him, "Now, could you please ask the system if I had fun?"

 

[Silencio Por Favor]

Denuncian la venta de credenciales en Lalín para obtener la compostela sin hacer el Camino

El Arzobispado de Santiago pide que los puntos de sellado estén alerta ante estas prácticas

www.lavozdegalicia.es

Thanks, gives me a idea how to earn a few Euros. Seriously, my thoughts like everyone else, why?

 

[Kathor1]

The guide offered me a "donation" of fifthy euros for the use of the stamp, but when I told him no, he said "OK, your choose. I'll find some place less purist than you.
Yes, there are ways and ways of "walking" the camino.
And yes, there are ways of buying and selling credentials. Since many years it is the way many tours companies guarantee to theirs customers that they will obtain the "oficial certificate".
Now call me judgmental.

Thank you for sharing your experience, sad as it is. I would not call you judgmental, I would call your account very credible. The managers of these tour companies ought to be ashamed of themselves. The system of awarding a Compostela is based on honesty and these people are dishonest. I would not necessarily say the same about the people on the bus, they may not even be aware of the finer details of who is entitled to a Compostela and who is not.

What I find a bit more difficult to believe or to understand is the fact that pre-stamped credentials are sold to individual tourists visiting Santiago or perhaps to disappointed pilgrims who could not finished the last 100 km due to injury or - perhaps more commonly - due to not enough time left because they did not plan enough time for their pilgrimage. In the latter case, this would not only be dishonest, it would also be stupid. If somebody is really so desperate to earn a Compostela, he or she can always come back and walk the part they did not walk. An unfinished credencial does not expire.

 

[mattythedog]

I agree. I read the article and I, too, tend to think that this is a made-up social media story. It's summer - in German this is called Sauregurkenzeit, and in English apparently Silly Season although I've never heard this expression. It is a period in the summer months known for frivolous news stories in the mass media because there are not many other proper news. Everybody is on holiday.

Does anyone know in which Facebook group the "responsables" from a "punto de información de Lalín" published this narrative? I just love the total anonymity of the article . Not a single name is quoted as source. Not even from the archbishopric. I'm sure, though, of course that the author asked "someone" there ...

The whole narrative hinges on the assumption that there is a demand for readily stamped credentials. There is a wide-spread belief that Spaniards need a Compostela to get a job, especially young people. I don't think that it has ever established whether this is actually a fact for the employment market in Spain.

I am not yet buying it ... I mean the story and not the credencial.

"There is a wide-spread belief that Spaniards need a Compostela to get a job, especially young people. I don't think that it has ever established whether this is actually a fact for the employment market in Spain."

I established it is not a fact, because I know Spaniards who have a job and never walked a Camino. However, I have also queried several Spaniards, and they agree that having walked a Camino can make it easier to get a job. I.E. If two people with similar experience, qualifications and education levels apply for a job, and one has walked a Camino, the Pilgrim will likely get the job over the other.

 

[henrythedog]

On reflection, two thoughts.

1. It’s inevitable.

2. Does it matter?

Other than ‘vicare pro’ I stopped collecting a compostela quite some time ago. Whatever value -or none - I ascribe to the certificate is mine alone, if it were a competition I’d have a half-dozen more.

If you fulfilled the man-made criteria and were given a piece of paper for it, that’s good. If you actually made a pilgrimage, why does the documentary evidence matter? If you did it, you did it.

 

[Tincatinker]

Make it "between 1991 and 2024" then . The fact is that one can get a credencial without ever having set foot into a church or the office of a priest or vicar. You can get it from the forum store. You can get a Compostela without confession and absolution - that part of the Latin text was removed from the Compostela text a long time ago. We don't live in the Middle Ages and things are just not the same as they were then.

Years ago (April 2016) I was volunteering at Samos albergue. One day, two buses full of tourists arribed, all of them carrying a very small yellow pack with theirs picnic. They massi

Years ago I was volunteering like hospitalero at Samos monastery's albergue. Two buses full of tourist arribed and till they were massively herded to the churh, two of the guides come to me carrying maybe a hundred blank credentials asking for the "sello". I told them I couldn't stamp those credentials because there where not names on them and because I knew that the tourist would walk for five klmtrs and raken again by buses in two hours to go to Sarria, have lunch, visit the town and keep going by bus to their hotel.
(I had heard a woman telling to a group of her friends).
The guide offered me a "donation" of fifthy euros for the use of the stamp, but when I told him no, he said "OK, your choose. I'll find some place less purist than you.
Yes, there are ways and ways of "walking" the camino.
And yes, there are ways of buying and selling credentials. Since many years it is the way many tours companies guarantee to theirs customers that they will obtain the "oficial certificate".
Now call me judgmental.

Somehow, for some reason, I can’t quite shake a vision of a nicely dressed, clean booted, sweat free, pilgrim stood at the Gate clutching their Compostela and hearing St Pete bellow “You are ‘aving a giraffe son!”. “See you next time, and try a bit harder…”

 

[Bradypus]

“See you next time, and try a bit harder…”

Reincarnation? A whole new can of worms....

 

[bullingtonce]

It makes you wonder who buys these and why?

With so many people pouring into heaven I am sure God does not have time to notice that my Camino credentials are fake as I will be looking as pious and humble as possible as I go by Him. Chuck

 

[Tincatinker]

‘Sfunny innit. The cruellest, the harshest, curse that my grandmother ever taught me was “may [they] live many lives”. I’ve only ever used it twice but I’ve carried the burden of that lay ever since

 

[Jeff Mayor]

I agree. I read the article and I, too, tend to think that this is a made-up social media story. It's summer - in German this is called Sauregurkenzeit, and in English apparently Silly Season although I've never heard this expression. It is a period in the summer months known for frivolous news stories in the mass media because there are not many other proper news. Everybody is on holiday.

Does anyone know in which Facebook group the "responsables" from a "punto de información de Lalín" published this narrative? I just love the total anonymity of the article . Not a single name is quoted as source. Not even from the archbishopric. I'm sure, though, of course that the author asked "someone" there ...

The whole narrative hinges on the assumption that there is a demand for readily stamped credentials. There is a wide-spread belief that Spaniards need a Compostela to get a job, especially young people. I don't think that it has ever established whether this is actually a fact for the employment market in Spain.

I am not yet buying it ... I mean the story and not the credencial.

I was speaking with a veteran Camino walker in Oloron St Marie the another day and he mentioned that young people in Spain want a credential on their resume. I was surprised as I had never heard of that before.

 

[Jeff Crawley]

Where is Martin Luther when we need him?

I remember seeing, in Santo Domingo de la Calzada I think it was, copies of the older (early 2000s) version of the credential Compostela that had been scanned, the Latin text removed and replaced with a message in <insert language of your choice> extolling the virtues of being a Pilgrim. €5 a pop IIRC.

 

[trecile]

Where is Martin Luther when we need him?

I remember seeing, in Santo Domingo de la Calzada I think it was, copies of the older (early 2000s) version of the credential that had been scanned, the Latin text removed and replaced with a message in <insert language of your choice> extolling the virtues of being a Pilgrim. €5 a pop IIRC.

Are you talking about a credential (with Latin text??) or a Compostela?

 

[MargieDee]

Sounds like an urban legend, but then again I wouldn’t put it past some people. The odd thing, though, is why go through effort when it would be far easier to simply fake the Compostela itself?

 

[Tincatinker]

I was speaking with a veteran Camino walker in Oloron St Marie the another day and he mentioned that young people in Spain want a credential on their resume. I was surprised as I had never heard of that before.

Anyone can get a Credencial. Whether a Compostela makes any difference to the employment prospects of a young Spaniard is open to conjecture.

If I were a prospective employer I’m not sure that a scrap of paper that certifies that the holder may have partied 100km to Santiago, even in a “sense of search”, carries much cachet. The last prospect I employed produced her Interrail log book, a book of sketches of the places she’d visited, a bunch of signed menus from various places she’d eaten at and assured me she could say hello and thank you in most European languages.

 

[Jeff Crawley]

Are you talking about a credential (with Latin text??) or a Compostela?

Good catch! A Compostela! No doubt people bought them and proudly display them at home.

 

[Silencio Por Favor]

Is it possible the people who buy these are tourists who really do not know the genuine reason for deserving a Compostela?

The tourist thinks "I have paid 30 euros therefore I can get meaningful souvenir along with a fridge magnet".

 

[falcon269]

Is it possible the people who buy these are tourists who really do not know the genuine reason for deserving a Compostela?

Deserve? I have always thought it was more about complying with some rules than merit. The rules are scaled, making 100km on foot equal to 200km on a non-motorized cycle and 100 km on a horse/mule/donkey/boat (no elephant or bull criteria yet, and rollerblades have yet to be debated in the Forum). Pietatus causa seems to be about 40% of pilgrims, so the rest may be less "deserving" of a compostela??

 

[Molly Cassidy]

Is it possible the people who buy these are tourists who really do not know the genuine reason for deserving a Compostela?

The tourist thinks "I have paid 30 euros therefore I can get meaningful souvenir along with a fridge magnet".

Given where these are advertised I think the market is probably from Spaniards who can easily take a train up to Santiago and be home the same day.

 

[Mr BWE]

I was refused a credencial in SJPDP in 1990. One of the reasons given was that I had not brought a letter of introduction from a Catholic priest to verify my bona fide pilgrim status.

 

[Pingüigrino]

Given where these are advertised I think the market is probably from Spaniards who can easily take a train up to Santiago and be home the same day.

Do you think any Spaniard would pay thirty euros for a credential? Why?
Are you one of those who think that in Spain a compostola counts in anybodys currícula?
Thats is a mith.
Probably the potential employer would have the laugth of his/her life if somebody try to gain laboral merits whith that.

 

[Molly Cassidy]

I think what is important on your CV depends on circumstances. If you are a young person with minimal qualifications and no experience, yes, I think the Compostela might be a useful addition to your CV.

I don't think any tourist would be likely to pay for it.

 

[Kathor1]

I think what is important on your CV depends on circumstances. If you are a young person with minimal qualifications and no experience, yes, I think the Compostela might be a useful addition to your CV.

It sounds convincing ... until you think it through: You are 18 years old, you can walk 20 km on 5 consecutive days and as proof of this achievement you add a copy of a colourful piece of paper in Latin to your CV ... is that really such a brilliant idea?

I am not convinced and I note that we have at least two Spanish forum members who have told us that it is a myth that employers or university admission boards regard a Compostela as a great asset in a CV.

 

[Kathor1]

Reality check:

So far I have not managed to find an online offer where I could buy a ready made credencial with sellos that I could use to apply for a Compostela for myself. Some promising links turned up in Google Search but when I clicked on the links the offer was not available.

On one Spanish Sell & Buy platform I found an offer for €15. On further inspection, however, it was a credencial with sellos where the name of the pilgrim and the other usual personal details had already been filled in and the stamps were dated in the year 2010. So that is more a collector's item, I'd guess, that nobody has picked up yet.

I have no doubt whatsoever that some travel agencies - not all! - have dishonest practices and provide fully stamped credentials to guests who did not walk the whole last 100 km, either by having such credencials stamped by a guide or other agent working on their behalf or by buying them with stamps already in them. A brand new empty credencial is often sold for a fee, or offered against a donation, of €2 anyway. Paying €50 for a pack of 25 stamped credencials or even just for 12 such credencials when you already have clients for them - nothing would surprise me there.

But €30 for a single credencial that you have to hawk online or where you have to find a willing tourist on the Praza do Obradoiro ...? Hmmm .... I remain skeptical and have my doubts that this is a wide spread practice.

 

[Kathor1]

And another thought on the CV narrative/potential myth: In 2024, walking the Camino from Sarria is a popular school trip. Secondary school classes do this. And even when it is a single young student who has just finished university: these students are not on an adventurous trip far away from home in a foreign country where they may not even speak the language. They walk in their own country, and within a few hours on a train or bus they would be back in their parents' home.

I would guess that Spanish employers are aware of this.

 

[Kirkie]

Reality check:

So far I have not managed to find an online offer where I could buy a ready made credencial with sellos that I could use to apply for a Compostela for myself. Some promising links turned up in Google Search but when I clicked on the links the offer was not available.

On one Spanish Sell & Buy platform I found an offer for €15. On further inspection, however, it was a credencial with sellos where the name of the pilgrim and the other usual personal details had already been filled in and the stamps were dated in the year 2010. So that is more a collector's item, I'd guess, that nobody has picked up yet.

I have no doubt whatsoever that some travel agencies - not all! - have dishonest practices and provide fully stamped credentials to guests who did not walk the whole last 100 km, either by having such credencials stamped by a guide or other agent working on their behalf or by buying them with stamps already in them. A brand new empty credencial is often sold for a fee, or offered against a donation, of €2 anyway. Paying €50 for a pack of 25 stamped credencials or even just for 12 such credencials when you already have clients for them - nothing would surprise me there.

But €30 for a single credencial that you have to hawk online or where you have to find a willing tourist on the Praza do Obradoiro ...? Hmmm .... I remain skeptical and have my doubts that this is a wide spread practice.

The last line of this post strikes true. I have hesitated to engage, but I have heard - note, not verifiable - that it is useful for young Spanish people to include on their cv that they have walked some km on a Camino. I imagine, somewhat similar to UK young people who have done Duke of Edinburgh adventures. Which young person would not try to impress a future employer? I doubt though that they would waste money on a false credencial or Compostela.
By the way, I am real. Not an AI impersonator.

 

[Kathor1]

I imagine, somewhat similar to UK young people who have done Duke of Edinburgh adventures. Which young person would not try to impress a future employer? I doubt though that they would waste money on a false credencial or Compostela.

I've had that thought, too. But would they actually enclose a copy of their Compostela? Do they include a copy of their Duke of Edinburgh awards in their CVs and uni applications? I don't know ... I just wonder. We speculate. We've not heard yet from an actual Spanish employer. Or two.

 

[Jeff Crawley]

I've had that thought, too. But would they actually enclose a copy of their Compostela? Do they include a copy of their Duke of Edinburgh awards in their CVs and uni applications? I don't know ... I just wonder. We speculate. We've not heard yet from an actual Spanish employer. Or two.

My younger daughter got a DoE Gold award and submitted it with her application to Durham University and was very proud of it as it included 72 hours of rain on a Welsh mountain side! (She got in)

With regards to using the Camino for nefarious purposes, back in 2001 a group of about 6 young (17/18 year olds) lads joined the Camino at Pamplona. The next day at Puenta a similar group of young women joined the trail and they were all from the same small town! What a coincidence . . .

They all behaved impeccably well.

 

[C clearly]

If two people with similar experience, qualifications and education levels apply for a job, and one has walked a Camino, the Pilgrim will likely get the job over the other.

Yes, but if the CVs are otherwise equivalent, ANY additional bit of experience, interest or hobby would be the deciding factor. The unanswered question is whether the Camino has more value than, say, a month-long experience of another type - language school, different trip, volunteering, special project, etc.

 

[Kirkie]

I've had that thought, too. But would they actually enclose a copy of their Compostela? Do they include a copy of their Duke of Edinburgh awards in their CVs and uni applications? I don't know ... I just wonder. We speculate. We've not heard yet from an actual Spanish employer. Or two.

Permit me, please! When I left school I applied for a job in a local bank. Among the various cerificates and exam results I furnished, I sneaked in one just for the hell of it. Let's just say it was in its day, when the banking population was almost 100% of the Established church.
And I was in the minority.
Fortunately, the bank manager who interviewed me had a wonderful sense of humour, and we got on very well together.
I still recall his name.
That was 1965! Imagine, all the young folk here who were not even born then!

I know this is not on topic...

 

[El Cascayal]

I know this is not on topic...

When has that stopped anyone of us???

 

[ThatIrishGuy]

When has that stopped anyone of us???

Well to continue with the tangential but not quite on topic..this got me thinking of some camino paperwork I have that’s not quite right.

I have a compostela in my name for the Primitivo , but have never set foot on it ,a closed credential for the CP was the cost for that.
Need to walk both routes to put that right.
I have a legit but dull looking Salvadorana from the cathedral in Oviedo only to later see @KariannNor (I think) post a pic of a much nicer one I could have got instead just down the road.
Now I need to walk the San Salvador again to get that one.
Just today while looking through a very nice book on Santiago donated from a deceased persons estate out fell their fully stamped Portuguese credencial. Not sure what to do about this, think I will keep it for now, might do them a nice ‘in vicarie pro’
I have a lot of walking ahead of me.

 

[VNwalking]

The unanswered question is whether the Camino has more value than, say, a month-long experience of another type - language school, different trip, volunteering, special project, etc

But would they actually enclose a copy of their Compostela?

I am trying to put myself into the shoes - or rather the minds - of potential buyers.

If walking a Camino is a premium entry on your CV if you're Spanish (just to say we dont know this, but for the sake of discussion), it'd definitely be an easy way to pad a CV without taking the time or breaking a sweat. You buy the credential with stamps, present it at the Pilgrim's Office in Santiago, get a Compostela...and hey presto.

 

[domigee]

I was speaking with a veteran Camino walker in Oloron St Marie the another day and he mentioned that young people in Spain want a credential on their resume. I was surprised as I had never heard of that before.

Yes, it is true. And the Camino (in this case) begins in Sarria. Not many people have the chance of walking more than one week…
Ps: I think you meant a Compostela

 

[domigee]

. Whether a Compostela makes any difference to the employment prospects of a young Spaniard is open to conjecture.

I was told it does make a difference. Or at least it did because I haven’t talked about it with my Spanish friends for a few years now…

 

[domigee]

I would guess that Spanish employers are aware of this.

Of course they are, but I am told it is still a good thing to add to your CV. Maybe my ‘sources’ (lol) are talking rubbish, I do not know.
I can just say that in Spain, there is a lot of respect for people who have walked the Camino (and I mean the Sarria to SdC part).

 

[SabsP]

I was told it does make a difference. Or at least it did because I haven’t talked about it with my Spanish friends for a few years now…

I think it is in the same line as here in Belgium where some employers also find it a bonus when a new employee has been involved as a youth in the youth organisation Chiro. Because it mostly means that he/ she knows something about teamspirit/ social commitment and spontaneous leadership / general involvement.

Chiro Flanders - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Susan Maria]

in English apparently Silly Season

I can confirm this term is used in the UK to refer to silly, although not necessarily fictitious, news stories in the summer!

 

[AnneMarie1]

Years ago I was volunteering like hospitalero at Samos monastery's albergue. Two buses full of tourists arrived and till they were massively herded to the churh, two of the guides come to me carrying maybe a hundred blank credentials asking for the "sello". I told them I couldn't stamp those credentials because there where not names on them and because I knew that the tourist would walk for five klmtrs and taken again by buses in two hours to go to Sarria, have lunch, visit the town and keep going by bus to their hotel.
(I had heard a woman telling to a group of her friends).
The guide offered me a "donation" of fifthy euros for the use of the stamp, but when I told him no, he said "OK, your choose. I'll find some place less purist than you.
Yes, there are ways and ways of "walking" the camino.
And yes, there are ways of buying and selling credentials. Since many years ithat is the way many tours companies guarantee to theirs customers that they will obtain the "oficial certificate".
Now call me judgmental.

There are all those places where there's an unattended stamp, and someone really could just stamp tons of credenciales without anyone even knowing. So maybe they do genuinely walk the Camino, but they bring 20 other credenciales and stamp them all in those places where there's a stamp available but no one around, and then sell them? Seriously? I'm skeptical.

 

[Kathor1]

Google cheating husband shoot deer and you will see that "Husband cheating while hunting" is a narrative that has been online for at least two decades. On Tik Tok. On YouTube. On Facebook. On Reddit.

Repeating this cliché on this forum does not make it less silly than it is.

Thinking that this means that there is a flourishing market on the Obradoiro Square in Santiago with married cheaters looking for a fully stamped credencial to buy and to march to the Pilgrim Office and to get a Compostela that they will show to their spouse amounts to ....... not more than what a poster is thinking.

 

[Kathor1]

I have news: I finally found an online offer for purchasing a credencial without name and without other personal details but filled with sellos. It's on es.wallapop.com. It's "New". It's from Astorga until Santiago - 250 km.

I mentioned already that I do not doubt that some Camino travel agencies may use fraudulent credencials for their customers.

I am more skeptical as to individuals buying such credencials for themselves.

In this particular case I wonder whether the seller is an experienced fraudster with an established "business" or an enterprising recent pilgrim who, in August, saw the posts about this on Facebook, got hold of a second credencial and decided to give it a go and try to "earn" some "pocket money".

Here is the screenshot:

 

[Jeff Crawley]

I have news: I finally found an online offer for purchasing a credencial without name and without other personal details but filled with sellos. It's on es.wallapop.com. It's "New". It's from Astorga until Santiago - 250 km.

I mentioned already that I do not doubt that some Camino travel agencies may use fraudulent credencials for their customers.

I am more skeptical as to individuals buying such credencials for themselves.

In this particular case I wonder whether the seller is an experienced fraudster with an established "business" or an enterprising recent pilgrim who, in August, saw the posts about this on Facebook, got hold of a second credencial and decided to give it a go and try to "earn" some "pocket money".

Here is the screenshot:

View attachment 177306

First 15 sellos in just 3 days! Either an exhausting walk or a "Camino en Coche".

 

[peregrina2000]

We’ve had a lot of back and forth about whether someone on the camino is likely to buy a forged credential in order to hide an illicit affair. Examples have been brought up to show us how this does in fact happen in real life. Ok, fine. Point has been made, but I have deleted all the unnecessary back and forth, though I admit some of it was quite entertaining. If people cannot let this go, we’ll close the thread.

 

[oursonpolaire]

And I severely doubt that many peregrinos between 1990 and 2024 took their Compostela home and to their parish priest to prove that they had fulfilled an obligation imposed on them by their priest in the confessional before their departure to Spain.

You are likely right that there are not many, but I do know one who did so.