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oficinadelperegrino.com
oficinadelperegrino.com
Or ride a bike for the last 200kms
Hi Stuart - I was in the Pilgrim's Office and Santiago on the 6th & 7th oct. I was told by one pilgrim that she was refused after doing the Francés for not getting 2 sello a day on the last 100 km. For the rest of her Camino she had plenty, just not those two daily required, and was refused. It had been her first Camino. She told me of another pilgrim she'd met who experienced the same problem, and that the Office was now far more strict. I don't know if that is the case, but that is the rule. Its good to inform people, especially inexperienced first-timers, of the requirements and rules. Perhaps the requirement should be printed on all Credentials (?) as standard information.
Stories like this abound, and it has happened to me that I haven't the requisite two sellos per day. But I would never recommend that anyone deliberately avoid getting two sellos a day when (a) the rule is so clear, and (b) on most routes it is so easy to do.
This requirement is now part of the standard text for credentials, and has been for some years. I don't know that results in every pilgrim association that issues credentials using it, but it is certainly there on the three credentials that I have used most recently.
Just finished it starting from Leon. One albergue told me you should always try to get a stamp from the church 1st when entering a town. But other people said it doesn't matter. I tried to get at least 2/day. When you get to Sarria it's required 2/day. I don't think they scrutinize it very closely though.
I wonder if some of these "mistakes" were actually the Latinised versions of the name which is usually used on the Compostela?
You are obviously very fortunate, Dougfitz, with your credentials. That's good. But having just completed two official camino routes - using credentials from official and internationally respected and recognised sources, I find that they have no 'standard' evidence/text/information printed on them as to the required amount of sellos, especailly for the last 100 km, to obtain my Compostella, in Latin or any other language. I did, fortunately, have the required amount of sellos. I would suggest that no one 'deliberately' avoids obtaining sellos along their Camino, that we are all human and can overlook these things or not even no the rules - especially first-time Camino pilgrims, and I know that one of the pilgrims I've mentioned had a lot of difficulty on her particular route in finding sources for sellos open and available on her last 100 km.
I understand - there has been some discussion here recently about whether or not various credential issuing associations replicate the recommended text from the Cathedral. I know my very first credential from SJPP wasn't clear at all about this.
Yes, you're right. The day and timing for her was not good. She didn't want to hang around but preferred to continue her Camino rather than wait for places to open (a couple of hours wait, she said). But she was not aware of the rule either. All associations should check/issue that they have essential information on their Credentials. She had been on the Norte, picked-up the Francés as you do for the last stretch. I believe the other pilgrim mentioned had been on the Francés - a first-timer too.
Unfortunately the cathedral are not very pro-active in publicising changes to their rules for the Compostela. I received an official cathedral credencial by post from Ivar a few weeks before walking last November. On arriving at the pilgrim office I was told that it was now mandatory that the final 100km be walked on an officially recognized route. And then was shown a newer version of the credencial which stated this clearly. I regularly search Spanish and international news websites for Camino and pilgrimage stories to feed into a number of Facebook groups. I also read posts on this forum most days. Even so until my own arrival in the pilgrim office I had heard nothing of this change in the rules which still does not appear even on the pilgrim office's own website almost a year later.
As qouted by some very experienced and dedicated volunteers & pilgrims on this forum, the Catholic Church has a big, bureaucratic machine running it. Cogs take time to turn - take the new number system for queing for a credential as an example, ie things take time to work, be fine-tuned and fed through the system. New rules and systems take time too, to become effective and broadly known. Associated infrastructures could help - our associations and confraternities, by feeding information to their members and into their documentation/credentials. This forum is an excellent example for informing and discussing such issues. And as fellow pilgrims we should help by passing on newly gained information to all (even if it is sometimes a bit late in the day), whilst along the Way too.
Until fairly recently there was no requirement to walk on any designated route to receive a Compostela. Of course most people do just that but those few who wished to walk a route of their own devising were free to do so and the only stipulation for receiving a Compostela was that the distance walked was over the 100km threshold. It is typical of the confused situation at the moment that there is no easily located list of the officially recognized routes. It has been suggested that they are the routes printed as sketch maps on the current credencial but I have seen no confirmation of that from the cathedral. If there is to be such a rule then it would be useful to make it quite clear how one complies with it.
From other posts on these forums, it is a choice - just not one that is promoted. If instead of waiting in line for the Compostela you go up to the security guard and tell them that you only want a stamp and don't need the Compostela, they will expedite this and you will get the final stamp in your credencial and the one at the front that closes it off as complete without having to wait in the line. If you only want the former and not the latter because, for example, you are continuing along the Finisterre/Muxia circuit and will close it off after that, then you need to let them know before it is stamped.
