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Are there new rules on the number of stamps needed per day to obtain the Compostela?
My recent post followed two emails from Pilgrim Associations regarding this change - one also included the new wording of the Pilgrim Credencial. However the Pilgrim Office has not updated their website with these new rules so we should wait until then to react!
NEW RULES – 2 STAMPS PER DAY WITHIN SPAIN – NO MATTER THE STARTING POINT
It is reported that the Pilgrims’ Office in Santiago has informed the world pilgrim associations that pilgrims wishing to obtain the Compostela certificate must have two stamps per day on an official credencial within Spain in addition to meeting the distance requirement– NO MATTER WHERE THEIR PILGRIMAGE STARTED.
If you start out from anywhere you should have noticed that the most commonplace credential says at the top of each page:What a weird rule. So if i start in St.Jean, don't know about that rule, find out halfway... do i have to "lose" my credential in Sarria and start a fresh one so i can follow the two stamp rule? Doesnt make sense.
If you start out from anywhere you should have noticed that the most commonplace credential says at the top of each page:
"En la casillas debera figurar el sello de cada localidad (AL MENOS DOS POR DIA) con la fecha, para acreditar so paso.
What a weird rule. So if i start in St.Jean, don't know about that rule, find out halfway... do i have to "lose" my credential in Sarria and start a fresh one so i can follow the two stamp rule? Doesnt make sense.
Fervently hoping @C clearly is correct, as I have credentials with singleton stamps from Prague to Fromista, planning to finish this September.THe wording is not clear, but I am confident that this is intended to reinforce that pilgrims need 2 stamps per day in the last 100 km, EVEN IF they have started from far away e.g. SJPP.
This is what a steel-trap logical mind like @C Clearly’s would conclude, because any other interpretation is just nonsensical. As others have pointed out on the thread, if you can get a compostela with two stamps a day starting in Sarria, what possible difference do those pre-Sarria make to your compostela bona fides? Or, as @Anhalter suggested, should I just get a new credential and start my pilgrimage in Sarria?THe wording is not clear, but I am confident that this is intended to reinforce that pilgrims need 2 stamps per day in the last 100 km, EVEN IF they have started from far away e.g. SJPP.
I agree with you. When I read it in a link posted elsewhere, the requirement for two stamps a day was under the section for “requirements to get a Compostela” and it followed the requirement to walk 100km/cycle 200. I’m reading it like I would a legal document in the USA…. So there’s that. It makes no sense to require 2 stamps in sections that aren’t even required to be walked. Although most pilgrims collect way more, but I wonder if the volunteer at the Pilgrims office will now be required to count stamps for each day walked and would deny a Compostela. There are route where two stamps are not possible every dayTHe wording is not clear, but I am confident that this is intended to reinforce that pilgrims need 2 stamps per day in the last 100 km, EVEN IF they have started from far away e.g. SJPP.
We are three quarters of our way through the Camino Norte and have been very vigilant to get a stamp each day. Sometimes it’s difficult because lots of churches are either closed or the priest hard to find. Can’t have a book full of albergue and bar stamps. It’s against the spirit the walk.EDITED TO ADD: Update just posted by Johnniewalker:
ORIGINAL POST:
Not just the last 100 km.
Reported by Johnniewalker Santiago, generally a reputable source, in a Facebook post:
View attachment 175870
I do not think so.It’s against the spirit the walk.
Don't mention the cellos! That's another thread entirely!If one start his camino in Sevilla or SJPDP he must have more than 1 credential, there is no enough space for so many cellos
On all the Caminos that I've walked that have been more than a couple of weeks, I've filled more than one credencial. My first credencial isn't coming readily to hand (I really need to clean my office!) but rest assured that there was nowhere near enough spaces for a modern Camino. I think there were about 16 named squares for stamps between Roncesvalles and Santiago. Maybe as many as 20 or 24.If one start his camino in Sevilla or SJPDP he must have more than 1 credential, there is no enough space for so many cellos
The one I received in Roncesvalles the following year did not have named squares. Just 5 blank pages. Including the final sello from the cathedral I think I had 26 sellos in total.My first credencial isn't coming readily to hand (I really need to clean my office!) but rest assured that there was nowhere near enough spaces for a modern Camino. I think there were about 16 named squares for stamps between Roncesvalles and Santiago. Maybe as many as 20 or 24.
Mine wasn't an accordion fold, just a larger piece of cardstock folded in half with, thus, four sides. It came from the Estella association and was specific to a start in Roncesvalles. I don't think there was one for SJPP, but I heard there was one for Jaca.The one I received in Roncesvalles the following year did not have named squares. Just 5 blank pages. Including the final sello from the cathedral I think I had 26 sellos in total.
View attachment 175874
Now, that's a possibility...As Johnniewalker says, I would panic or be too concerned yet. It hasn't been confirmed directly by the Pilgrim Office in Santiago. And even when it comes in, I am confident that people who have started walking before it is widely publicized won't be held to it. But, if you haven't started walking yet, and a Compostela is important to you, it probably wouldn't hurt to collect two stamps in Spain where feasible.
An alternate interpretation. It is possible to walk a 100 km Camino not entirely in Spain. This would be the case if one starts the Camino Ingles in A Coruña, having walked the first 26 km on an approved route elsewhere (I know there are a number in the UK and Ireland, and a few elsewhere). Perhaps this would be clarifying that for these pilgrims, 2 stamps per day only applies to the portion of their Camino in Spain (if it is true).
Au contraire!! First, the albergues are part of the spirit of the Camino, and the most reliable source of sellos. Any sello from accommodation serves the Camino Office's need to know that you were actually in that place. And in most places, the cafés are the restaurants are the bars, and the volunteers in Santiago know Spain well enough to know that you were sustaining yourself, not going on a lush and a rant. And in any case I would never raise a glass without thinking of the saint, a practice which all would do well to emulate.Can’t have a book full of albergue and bar stamps. It’s against the spirit the walk.
Buy two in advance, staple them together? My largest credential is three, I've seen two (Vienna to SdC) that were made up of five!My first credencial came from the Confraternity of Saint James of South Africa. I may have been the only American member of the CSAofSJ in 2008.
It was in a booklet form and had about 80 (not sure) spaces for sellos.
I have had many credencials from different issuing "agencies" including those in Italy and Portugal and covering most of the camino routes.
None have had enough spaces to insure one per day...for a long distance route....except the excellent South African one.
YES! Good one..."We're gonna need a bigger credencial (boat)"
I think that it was clumsily written, and agree with @C clearly that it's probably meant to reiterate that everyone, regardless of starting place needs two stamps per day in the last 100 km.
the regulations have still not been updated if this is real. However if real not a big deal..apparently lots of places have the stamps.EDITED TO ADD: Update just posted by Johnniewalker:
ORIGINAL POST:
Not just the last 100 km.
Reported by Johnniewalker Santiago, generally a reputable source, in a Facebook post:
View attachment 175870
Too funny. Fresh credential for the 100 km points?Ah, c'mon. I'd hope that seekers of the Pilgrim Proficiency Certificate were entirely capable of wobbling, in a controlled manner, around the obstacles set out by the Pilgrims Office. Otherwise why are they aspiring to the Certificate?
Meanwhile, Pilgrims to the shrine of the Apostle may like to note that the roads may be busier or quieter or even entirely cluttered by philatelists and that there is an increasing risk of ink shortages throughout Europe should you want to send a postcard home
I can understand your reasoning and no I do not know why the "two stamps" per day rule now applies to whole camino (instead of the last 100km). I would suggest that if your credential has stamps where virtually every day has consecutive day/date stamps that run in chronological order (east to west) then I strongly doubt you will be denied your Compostela. Buen Camino.What a weird rule. So if i start in St.Jean, don't know about that rule, find out halfway... do i have to "lose" my credential in Sarria and start a fresh one so i can follow the two stamp rule? Doesnt make sense.
Most of the time I don’t think they even count the stamps from the last 100km. The person who gave me my Compostela in December barely glanced at my credential.I wonder if the volunteer at the Pilgrims office will now be required to count stamps for each day walked and would deny a Compostela. y
Exactly my experience so far, but lets see how they handle it in the future. Hopefully the volunteers in the office will still hand out the certificates with some common sense. Not that important for me, i only framed my first compostela, the others are still sitting in their roll, but i would hate for someone on their first camino, having walked for weeks, being denied theirs for a technicality.I would suggest that if your credential has stamps where virtually every day has consecutive day/date stamps that run in chronological order (east to west) then I strongly doubt you will be denied your Compostela.
THe wording is not clear, but I am confident that this is intended to reinforce that pilgrims need 2 stamps per day in the last 100 km, EVEN IF they have started from far away e.g. SJPP.
Yep.. Think your dog has the right idea until we hear from an official source in writing.. best to stick our heads in the sand and waitOn reflection, I do think that @C clearly ’s interpretation is most likely to be correct.
The pilgrim reception office is - for purposes of the Compostela - only interested in sellos covering the qualifying distance, which for those on foot, lies entirely within Spain. (It does still, however, leave the anomaly of cyclists on the Portuguese routes)
Frequently when the question of ‘two stamps’ is raised on here we see comments from those who have not met the requirement, albeit they have started well outside the qualifying distance, but who have still been awarded a Compostela and I suspect it is that which might now be more rigorously enforced.
In communicating to the organisations permitted to issue credenciales perhaps the PO is asking for the requirement to be clearly stated, as it is on the ‘official’ credenciales?
At last, some sense!Every pilgrim should have their own personal stamp and we can stamp each other's credentials on the way. Ultimate solution for the introverts is to have your own set of stamps. An emergency stamp might be created from a potato.
As for now there is only a stamp, a place, and a date needed. No official guide of authorised stamps issued yet (supported with AI recognition technology at the pilgrim's office)
You're welcome
I seem to remember @t2andreo telling us that those who ask for "solo sello" are not counted in the pilgrim office statistics. Only those who complete a form and request a Compostela.I just join the queue in the office and let my final stamp tally in the statistics...
I wonder, is this one way of putting a small roadblock in the way of those that bus from point to point? (Surely not!)
I love getting the attractive sellos along the Camino and am inwardly disappointed when their ink pad is either nearly dried out, or smeared half and half. I am always pleasantly surprised when care is taken and they are sometimes near perfect.and can read those half stamps where the hospi hasn't quite got the inking right
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