Pilgrimage – travel for transformation – is one of the most universal efforts of those who believe in some form of transcendence and in humankind’s potential to approach the sacred on its own turf.

Modern pilgrims are often uncertain about their faith and hesitant to declare themselves best examples of any one church, but many do believe in the potential of travel to change them from within as well as to expose them to new foods, cultures and creeds. In an age of jet travel, the rhythms of walking make pilgrimage a refreshing experience, body centered and soul centering.

The Camino de Santiago has led travelers for over a thousand years to the shrine and relics of St. James the Apostle in Galicia, the northwest corner of Spain. The crypt of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, titled for James’s common Spanish name (Sanctus Jacobus, Sancti Yagüe, Santiago), has long been one of Christianity’s premier pilgrimage sites, only surpassed in popularity during the Middle Ages by Rome and the Holy Land, and outstripping them in forging celebrated trails such as the Camino francés (the French Route from the Pyrenees), the Ruta mozárabe (the Mozarabic Route that skims the north of Portugal) and the Vía de la Plata (the Silver Route that starts in Seville). The cry of “Ultreya” or “Go beyond” rang out along a thousand corridors of hope.

During the height of its popularity from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries, the trek to Santiago attracted perhaps as many as a hundred thousand pilgrims every year. Travelers sought a chance to pray in the living presence of one of Christ’s closest friends and the first apostle to be martyred. They also came to beg for cures for illness or affliction, to ensure blessings for their families or communities, to repent of their sins, and to overcome their doubts and the weakness of their faith. A rosary of sublime monuments, folksy secondary shrines, and hospitable monasteries and refuges were created to welcome vulnerable travelers who added their good will, artistry and labor to the Camino as they passed by.

Pilgrimage fell from favor in the early modern period in the wake of the stiffening of national identities and national borders. Protestant reformers pointedly denounced the abuses of casual pilgrimage and its often carnivalesque trappings. Even the once choked roads to Santiago lapsed into silence, lonely travelers making their own shelter in increasingly abandoned structures while in others the footsteps of aged guardians echoed along crumbling corridors. The Route of St. James became a trail smudged by time and eroded by the indifference of a less religious age.

But in the later twentieth century, for reasons that remain unclear, intrepid scholars and spiritual seekers began to thread their way along the nearly forgotten byways to Santiago once again. Spain undertook the mission of recovering the Camino as part of its national heritage, publicizing the ancient routes and investing in a simple infrastructure of well marked scenic trails. Town councils, parishes and local associations of Friends of the Camino equipped simple refuges (albergues or refugios) to provide a night’s shelter at minimal cost. The universal goal was to provide safe passage for those hoping to breathe the same air, experience the same landscapes, and rest in the same cool churches that inspired an age of faith.

The tide of modern pilgrims now approaches a quarter of a million souls every year who retrace at least portions of the various Caminos in Spain, starting from their homes within Iberia, or from nearby France, or trekking from Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany or Italy – and thousands of others coming from Brazil, Canada, Mexico, the United States, South Africa, and even Israel and Japan.