pilgrims & pilgrimage

Memorial to the unknown pilgrim: a pair of trail runners dug in at the roadside

In times of drought take necessary precaution: Stay "hydrated"!

Vintage marker stone near Cesantes: A pair of old hiking boots painted in yellow and blue sits on top of a typical way-marker.

The unwanted: hikers on the Camino Portugues pass by a pile of shoes and boots other pilgrim's before have dumped there for unknown reasons: be it fatigue, weight or the perception of needing less.

A statue of San Caetano outside the chapel of the village of San Caetano in Galicia, Northern Spain

Cruzero at Padrón

These boots were made for walking... A monument to the unknown pilgrim who left her worn out boots in front of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela

The joy of pilgrimage: A marker stone between Fisterra and Muxia blending in between spring-flowers

Out in the woods - somewhere on the Camino Invierno

A path for those seeking solitude. Out of Monforte de Lemos near Pinheiro.

My husband and I are on our 7th Camino right now, the sparsely traveled Camino Mozarabe in SE Spain. Groups of volunteers run the different sections of the Camino and give you codes and things like that to get into the albergues since there are rarely Hospitaleros. The volunteers been helpful...

I absolutely don't want to start a hard discussion, but just share some of my thoughts. At least something to reflect on, certainly not necessarily comply to. Maybe think more of them, if you like as possible sub-goals. Each of us is free to have their reasons for making a pilgrimage, but I...

OK, a brief explanatory introduction. What follows is the thread as it first developed under the original title ¨500000 pilgrims expected in 1023¨ If you want to know the answer to the question posed by the new title, you could read through the whole thread - it is well-worth the effort because...

We are starting another thread on this specific rule, because it did provoke some questions and concerns when it was first announced (as Rule 14, but it’s still pretty much the same now that it’s been moved to Rule 3). Ivar is going to delete all of the comments in the general rules discussion...

Several news sites today have reported on a meeting of the Camino Francés Federación in Saint Jean Pied de Port. Amongst other business the member Amigos associations have decided to ban suitcases in the 11 albergues under their direct control. A proposal which @Rebekah Scott posted here some...

Sharing a piece from this months Harper's Magazine about the enduring allure of pilgrimage and the mendicant pilgrim Ann Sieben, https://harpers.org/archive/2023/04/numinous-strangers-pilgrimage/

Hello, I am a newbie to the forum and plan to do my first Camino this summer (2023). I have done a lot of research (YouTube channels, articles, websites, books) and I am sort of surprised that I read/heard nothing about the spiritual side of the Camino. Not that that would preclude me from...

I walked the Frances in 2017 and the Portuguese in 2019. I want to walk the Frances again but I am seeing many posts about how busy it is and from 2016 to now, I can see it's gotten pretty congested. How are the repetitive walkers of this Camino trail feeling? Does it put you off? How much has...

Fr. Richard Rohr OFM is an American Franciscan priest and writer on spirituality based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was ordained to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church in 1970. In 2011, PBS called him "one of the most popular spirituality authors and speakers in the world". This is...

I'm following up on an American Pilgrims on the Camino webinar I enjoyed a few weeks ago. John Brierley said in his presentation that there were hundreds? thousands? of established routes across Europe that could be considered Caminos. I'd like to pass along that statistic, but I don't...