Me in Saint Jean Pied de Port, France on Sunday 14th of April 2013.
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Climbing the Pyrenees from Saint Jean Pied de Port, Monday 15th of April 2013.
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This is the countryside that unfolded around me as I ascended the French side of the Pyrenees on Monday 15th of April 2013.
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Going on Pilgrimage
For all of recorded history and for uncountable years before any history was ever recorded, human beings have been going on pilgrimages. Pilgrim routes stretch their way right across the world.
What is a pilgrimage? A pilgrimage can be defined as a journey to a holy place by an individual human being. A pilgrim is someone who undertakes a pilgrimage.
Sometimes, the focus of a pilgrimage is to go to the holy place and pray. In this type of pilgrimage, the emphasis of the pilgrim is usually placed on the prayers offered at the holy place at the end of the pilgrimage.
Sometimes the focus of the pilgrimage is not so much on prayers offered at the holy place, but on the journey to the holy place. In this type of pilgrimage, the experiences of the journey play a central role in helping the pilgrim to become a better person. The prayers at the holy place at the end of the journey are usually seen as more effective than they would otherwise have been – because of the experiences during the pilgrimage.
The world is crisscrossed with holy places and pilgrim routes and the Camino De Santiago de Compostella is one of the best known Christian pilgrim routes. The Camino de Santiago de Compostella has been a pilgrim route since at least 813 AD when the tomb of the Apostle James was "discovered" in what is now the city of Santiago de Compostella. The Camino de Santiago de Compostella is usually seen as finishing at the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostella.
The word "Camino" is a Spanish word meaning "the Way" or "the Route". The Camino de Santiago de Compostella – meaning the Way of Saint James of the Field of Stars - gets its name because it finishes in the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostella. The tomb of Saint James was "discovered" by a shepherd in a field lit up by the light of stars.
The Camino de Santiago de Compostella finishes at Santiago de Compostella, but it has many starting points scattered across Europe. The most common starting point for the Camino is Saint Jean Pied de Port in France. I began my Camino journey in Saint Jean Pied de Port.
Most pilgrims make their Camino journey on foot. When I walked the Camino in 2013, it was about 790 kilometres in length. About 200,000 pilgrims start their Camino journey in Saint Jean Pied de Port. Although it is hard to estimate how many pilgrims complete the Camino de Santiago de Compostella in one unbroken journey, my guess is that less than 50% do so. Walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostella is very hard and it is exhausting.
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What made me become a Pilgrim?
I have loved walking for most of my life. When I first walked part of the Camino de Santiago de Compostella in August 2009, I told myself that I was simply doing a very long walk. I told myself that there was no particular spiritual element to the fact that I was walking part of an ancient pilgrim route.
On that earlier occasion, I had two weeks available for my walking in Spain and I knew from the start I could not possibly walk from Saint Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostella in the time I had available. On that occasion, I walked from Saint Jean in France to Logrono in Spain and then got a bus to Santiago. The walking was very hard even for such a short period as two weeks – but I still told myself afterwards that I hadn't really been a pilgrim but simply someone doing a long walk for the enjoyment of walking.
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After I returned to Australia, I was determined to walk the whole Camino but I could not return to Spain until April 2013.
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Late in the afternoon of Sunday 14 April 2013, I finally found myself once again walking the streets of Saint Jean Pied de Port. I commenced my second attempt at walking the Camino on Monday 15 April 2013.
Initially, I was still convinced that I was not "really" a pilgrim.
It took a few days but eventually I accepted that of course I was a pilgrim. A pilgrim is simply someone who hopes to unearth some previously hidden inner truths.
During my Camino, I met many pilgrims who - like me when I first started - had no idea they were genuine pilgrims. That lack of conscious awareness didn't affect the validity of their experiences in any way. They were pilgrims because like me they were seeking an inner truth - even if they never became consciously aware that they were seeking any inner truth.
I arrived in Santiago de Compostella on Monday the 13th of May 2013 after an uplifting experience. Part of that uplifting experience was the joy of continually meeting wonderful, intelligent, kind people. Some of these wonderful, intelligent people were fellow pilgrims. Some of them were the Spanish people who live along the Camino route. My overwhelming impression was that the people of Spain are amongst the kindest, gentlest and most wonderful people I have ever met.
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Saint Jean Pied De Port, France; photo taken on the 9th of August 2009.
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