Luke Jeffery - Camino de Santiago

Recently, I've been studying about pilgrimage and have wondered at the concept and how it has been changing over the centuries. Our most recent class on the Camino de Santiago was eyeopening in the way that it approached pilgrimage in general. Historically, in Ireland and other Catholic nations, pilgrimage was used as a punishment for people who committed sins against the Church, particularly for clergy. They were sentenced to be a pilgrim in the land for a certain amount of time, sometimes for the rest of their life. This punishment is similar to what is seen in Genesis 4 as Cain wanders the earth after killing his brother. Many times, they were told to visit certain shrines or holy places and perform rituals. If they completed these rituals, they were given a certificate which they could then show to those who sentenced them and receive freedom. However, the pilgrimage that we looked at in class seemed much different from this. First of all, it was voluntary, which in all respects changes the experience for the pilgrim. Secondly, the pilgrims are able to stop at cafés and enjoy the surrounding culture and cuisine. As we were studying the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, I thought to myself, "There is a dynamically different understanding of pilgrimage now than there was years ago." And I wondered what the similarities and differences are, as well as the shifting perspective on pilgrimage over the centuries.