Compostela

[nycwalking]

This question has before been posted but I never cemented information into my memory bank.

How do I request a Compostela in another’s name?

Also, is it possible to receive two, one in my name and the other one?

 

[Lindsay53]

I don't know about receiving two compostelas, but you can have someone else's name added if you request 'vicare pro' when you arrive at the desk. The compostela will already have your name on it and the other name is added by hand at the bottom.

 

[Kathor1]

vicare pro

A frequent spelling mistake, unfortunately also sometimes found in the handwritten addition on a Compostela.

It is vicarie pro - note the letter “i” following “r”.

vicarie - Latin is Simple Online Dictionary

Find vicarie (Adverb) in the Latin Online Dictionary with English meanings, all fabulous forms & inflections and a conjugation table: vicarie, vicariius, vicariissime

www.latin-is-simple.com

 

[Kathor1]

How do I request a Compostela in another’s name? Also, is it possible to receive two, one in my name and the other one?

@nycwalking, although I know the correct answer I will leave the reply to a knowledgeable and competent volunteer of the Pilgrim Office in Santiago. Perhaps @Flog or another volunteer with actual knowledge sees this thread?

Apologies for pointing out the correct grammatical form of the Latin phrase. If it is misspelled on a Compostela it is no big deal. It is the thought that matters and the recipient (if there is one) will probably not know or remember enough Latin vocabulary and grammar to notice.

However, I feel that we should strive to avoid repeating the wrong form, especially since people have now started to add this phrase themselves. I've explained the correct form several times but there is one forum member in particular who repeats the incorrect phrase over and over again without paying any attention to posts with the correct form, including in the same thread.

 

[natefaith]

Also, is it possible to receive two, one in my name and the other one?

Just met another pilgrim recently who had this wish, but it ended up that the Pilgrim's Office issued one Compostela with both his name and his friend's name on it, in Vicarie Pro. Receiving two different Compostelas wasn't possible. This pilgrim was going to give the Compostela to the other person's family (in memory of the other person) once he got home, and before he left Santiago he wanted to return to the Pilgrim's Office and get a Distance Certificate for himself.

 

[Kathor1]

The text of the Compostela, in Latin, announces and confirms that the person whose name is written on it, has visited the tomb of the apostle James in Santiago de Compostela.

Replacing this name with the name of a deceased person or a person who is too ill to travel on foot (bike, horse, sailing boat, wheelchair) to SdC would make a mockery of this text.

The handwritten addition vicarie pro (no "in", nothing else, just these two words) followed by a name - that they do not Latinise by the way - is a nod to earlier times when people went on pilgrimage on behalf of another person and reaped the spiritual benefits on behalf of this other person who did not go, could not go or did not want to go.

This handwritten addition is a modern invention. I've never seen it on a copy of a Compostela that predates the current revival (since the 1980s/1990s).

 

[Kathor1]

Below are two examples published on Twitter. This is what it ought to look like - obviously without the red frame that the poster added digitally to emphasise it.

Make sure that you use the correct Latin phrase when you present it, at the desk in the Pilgrim Office, written on a piece of paper together with the name of your chosen person. More often than not the volunteer will simply copy word for word what you had written on your paper.

 

[Blister Bill]

Kind of looks like the sort of thing (spelt correctly) one could do one's self Given the spelling mistake on the second example me thinks someone may have had the same impulse.

 

[Kathor1]

Given the spelling mistake on the second example me thinks someone may have had the same impulse.

Stop, stop, stop !!! I don't see a spelling mistake in the second example. If so I would not have posted it! I have embarked on a mini-mission to eradicate this mistake once and for all in our collective and visual memories.

It is VICARIE PRO in the second example. Capital letters and the A looks perhaps similar to the R but they are written as two different letters.

 

[Blister Bill]

Kind of looks like the sort of thing (spelt correctly) one could do one's self

Stop, stop, stop ! I don't see a spelling mistake in the second example. I would not have posted it!

It is VICARIE PRO in the second example. Capital letters and the A looks perhaps similar to the R but they are printed as two different letters.

I didn't like to mention that you were now responsible for continuing the erratum! Have you become the second forum member ignoring your advice?

 

[Flog]

@nycwalking, as others have said, the compostela can only be written out to the pilgrim who has actually walked and presented their credencial, but it can be dedicated by Vicarie Pro to another who is either deceased or unable to undertake a pilgrimage. You cannot claim two compostelas.

The spelling mistake on the second example isn't with the Vicarie Pro.