‘El Camino’ is the pilgrim’s route across northern Spain to reach the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. This was built on the site where the body of the disciple St James was buried after he was martyred in Jerusalem in 44AD. His remains lay unmarked and unknown for eight centuries until a miraculous light led a shepherd to discover the bones in a cave. A cathedral was built over the spot where the bones were found and it became one of the prime destinations for pilgrims in the medieval era. But the way to Santiago de Compostela was fraught with danger for those pilgrims, with the notoriously bad weather in the Pyrenees, warring kingdoms in the north, civil war and the ever-present danger of invasion from the Muslim Moors who controlled the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula. This book is a long-distance trek through the countryside, culture and history of the area: from St Jean Pied de Port on the French side of the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela, then onwards to the Atlantic coast of Spain, and finally to Finisterre – or ‘the end of the world’, as it was known in the times of the Roman Empire. It is a journey of over 900 kilometres. But what is the route like today for the modern pilgrim?

The Camino de Santiago is an ancient path from St Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, walked by ten of thousands of pilgrims since medieval times. Also known as the Way of St James and the Camino Frances, it covers a distance of almost 800km. To absorb the history, to touch the old stone of the buildings and bridges, to walk the path built over the centuries, to see the variety if architectural styles, from Roman and Moorish to medieval, to Gothic and Renaissance, and to be immersed in some of the most breathtakingly beautiful landscapes - is a journey for heart and soul. For many, the Camino is undertaken with a clear purpose, whether personal, emotional or spiritual. To others it is a challenge in terms of fitness and stamina, to achieve a goal. For experience trekkers Kim and Malcolm Wells, it became a powerfully spiritual journey, and the common bond of peace and friendship formed amount the many pilgrims they met was one of the most rewarding aspects of the experience.

A day-by-day account of the author's five-hundred-mile solitary pilgrimage on foot to Saint James's legendary burial place in Spain includes his reflections on religious sensibility and other observations along the way. UP.

Experience the powerful prose and poetry of Joyce Rupp with the beautiful full-color art of Mary Southard.

Displaying her "real talent for conjuring far-flung times and places," Kathryn Harrison tells the mesmerizing story of her 200-mile pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. In the spring of 1999, Kathryn Harrison set out to walk the centuries-old pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela. "Not a vacation, " she calls it, "but a time out of time." With a heavy pack, no hotel reservations, and little Spanish, she wanted an experience that would be both physically and psychically demanding. No pain, no gain, she thought, and she had some important things to contemplate. But the pilgrim road was spattered with violets and punctuated by medieval churches and alpine views, and, despite the exhaustion, aching knees, and brutal sun, she was unexpectedly flooded with joy and gratitude for life's gifts. "Why do I like this road?" she writes. "Why do I love it? What can be the comfort of understanding my footprint as just one among the millions? ... While I'm walking I feel myself alive, feel my small life burning brightly." Throughout this deeply personal and revealing memoir of her journey, first made alone and later in the company of her daughter, Harrison blends striking images of the route and her fellow pilgrims with reflections on the redemptive power of pilgrimages, mortality, family, the nature of endurance, the past and future, the mystery of friendship. The Road to Santiago is an exquisitely written, courageous, and irresistible portrait of a personal pilgrimage in search of a broader understanding of life and self.

Unlike the religiously-oriented pilgrims who visit Marian shrines such as Lourdes, the modern Road of St. James attracts an ecumenical mix of largely wel.

Father Dave Pivonka recounts the experiences he had on his five hundred mile journey hiking the Camino, the ancient path to the tomb of Saint James the Apostle in Santiago.

An inspiring, 800-kilometre journey along the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain, Grab Your Pack is an intimate, first-hand account of one man's search for adventure. Tackling the hike with his younger brother, the two navigate through large cities and small villages, mountain passes and muddy fields all while encountering dozens of interesting characters from across the globe. The Camino is challenging, uplifting, and ultimately life-changing for those hearty enough to hike the entire stretch. It's about the journey, not the destination. So grab your pack and come along on this trip of a lifetime!

"I am about to share here a story about stars that dance. . . . If the very thought of seeing stars dance piques your curiosity at some deep level of your soul, then pay attention to what follows, for the walk to the Field of Stars, to Santiago de Compostela, is a journey that has the power to change lives forever." -- from the introduction "Pilgrimage" is a strange notion to our modern, practical minds. How many of us have walked to a distant holy place in order to draw nearer to God? Yet the pilgrimage experience is growing these days in various parts of the world. Seeking to take stock of his life, Kevin Codd set out in July 2003 on a pilgrimage that would profoundly change his life. To the Field of Stars tells the fascinating story of his unusual spiritual and physical journey on foot across Spain to Santiago de Compostela, the traditional burial place of the apostle James the Greater. Each brief chapter chronicling Codd's thirty-five-day trek is dedicated to one or two days on the road. Codd shares tales of other pilgrims, his own changes of perspective, and his challenges and triumphs along the way -- all told with a disarming candor. Seen through the eyes of a Catholic priest who honors the religious worldview that originally gave rise to these medieval odysseys, "pilgrimage" comes to life and takes on new meaning in these pages.

In college she was an American in Spain, spending a year studying abroad in Madrid. Thirty-five years later-after sending the last of her children off to college-55-year-old Meg S. Maloney decided it was time to fulfill a long-held dream: complete the legendary Camino de Santiago. In May of 2019, Meg left her home in Northern California to set off alone on the challenging, inspiring 550-mile walk across Spain, not knowing what she'd find or who'd she become. This is her story.