A group of intrepid women, on a journey with Women's Own Adventure will be departing for the Northern part of Spain this week and I will be accompanying them. The Pilgrim’s Way to Santiago - the Camino de Santiago as it is called in Spanish, or “Way of St. James” is a journey of the soul and spirit, that takes the traveller in the footsteps of millions of others over a millennium, who sojourned from all over Christendom to this green and misty spot in the northwest corner of Iberia to venerate the tomb of the Apostle St. James - Santiago as he is known in Spanish. The site, now known as Santiago de Compostela, came to be Christianity’s 3rd Holy City, along with Rome and Jerusalem, and Santiago became the Christians’ patron saint and inspiration in their long struggle to reconquer Spain from the Moors.
Today, the Camino - “One of the world’s 2 or 3 great journeys”, according to American writer James Michener - is undergoing a renaissance unlike anything known since the 13th century peak of the pilgrimage. Modern-day ‘pilgrims’, like their forerunners, come from all over, but nowadays those with purely religious motives are joined by lovers of adventure, art, history and legends, all with a desire to take part in an experience that is unique in the modern Western world.
Our destination is the cathedral in Santiago’s fabulously preserved medieval centre, which has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in its entirety. We follow the ancient pilgrim’s way through storybook-beautiful landscapes and tiny stone-built villages where time seems to have stopped, visiting Gothic cathedrals and Romanesque chapels, and a profusion of art of all kinds created throughout the centuries in honour of St. James. Over the 1000-year history of the pilgrimage, various principal routes to Santiago evolved. These days most pilgrims follow the so-called Camino Francés or “French Way”, and this is our journey through the most picturesque parts.
Our group will commence walking from Leon on 17th May and end the journey 173kms later when we walk into Santiago de Compostela on the 27th May to collect our stamped Camino Creditionals proving to ourselves and to the world that we have completed our pilgrimage.
Our journey will be documented along the way (with photos) on this blog, so please keep coming back to read about it.
signing off - Marika Martinez , Women's Own Adventure www.womensownadventure.com.au
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment