Codex Calixtinus manuscript stolen from Santiago's cathedral

The Guardian and other World News reported this week on the shocking theft of the 12th century manuscript known as the Codex Calixtinus - stolen from a safe in the Cathedral.
The Santiago Cathedral Archive describes the The Codex Calixtinus–or Liber Sancti Jacobi / Book of Saint James as a jewel in medieval bibliography, one of the richest medieval sources for historians, geographers, musicologists, sociologists, ethnologists, art historians and linguists. Due to its heterogeneous and composite character, this codex is believed to be the work of several authors and compilers. It is known as Codex Calixtinus not because this Pope had been one of its authors but on account of the extraordinary influence that he, his secretary and the people of Cluny had in the gestation of the work.
Codex Calixtinus is a marvellous witness to the political, social, cultural, religious, musical and intellectual fabric of the medieval world. "The Guide of the Medieval Pilgrim", offering vivid descriptions of the different towns and people, their customs, habitat, character, organization, linguistic manners, and its unique fusion of franco-hispanic elements, is a beautiful ethnographic lesson.
The music in the codex is a topic in itself and offers a wonderful snapshot of the state of music composition in the 12th century: the texts for St. James along with their accompanying monophonic tropes and sequences clearly illustrate how the liturgy was expanded and embellished for a new great feast day. The musical highpoint is its repertoire of polyphony; it includes the first known composition for three voices and serves as a vital bridge for the Notre Dame School. Without this repertoire our understanding of the birth and evolution of polyphony in the western world would be completely distorted.

When and how was it stolen?

"The Codex Calixtinus, which was kept in a safe at the cathedral's archives, is thought to have been stolen by professional thieves on Sunday afternoon. Archivists did not notice its disappearance, however, until Tuesday, when the cathedral's dean was told it was missing."

Jose Maria Diaz, dean of the cathedral, called the police after he and the archivist carried out a thorough search for the priceless manuscript.

According to a source who is familiar with the security in the cathedral, there were 3 keys in circulation one  key to the door which was left in the lock all day long. The Codex itself was kept in a wooden box on the table and covered with an embroidered cloth.

Urban legend

Almost every reference to the Codex, or the chapter in the manuscript known as the Book of St James, refers to it as the first Guide Book every written. The Guardian writes: " The manuscript, apparently commissioned by Pope Calixtus II, helped popularise a pilgrimage that still attracts tens of thousands of people every year."

Was it a guide book used by pilgrims over the ages?  No - it was not, but this hasn't stopped the it from becoming an urban legend.
Fox News: 
"The most well-known and most frequently translated of the five volumes is the last, which served as a guide for the medieval Way of St. James pilgrim and describes the route, its towns and cities, its people and customs and shrines that should be visited."

The stolen Codex, an original 12th c manuscript extolling the virtues of Saint James and Santiago was never used as a pilgrim guide and very few copies were ever made.

Jeanne Krochalis, an associate professor of English at Penn State’s New Kensington campus and an expert in paleography (manuscript study) worked on the original. The Santiago cathedral was rebuilt in the early 12th century by Bishop Diego Gelmírez, whom Krochalis and her coauthors call "the main proponent of Santiago’s glory. It was all Compostela propaganda, a statement that this was an important place. We assume that the design was to make lots and lots of copies of the Codex and disseminate them all over Europe. And that didn’t happen."
On the Road to Compostela” by: Nancy Marie Brown (Research/Penn State, Vol. 20, no. 2 (May, 1999)

Wiki will tell you that it is,  ' ...  a 12th century illuminated manuscript formerly attributed to Pope Callixtus II, though now believed to have been arranged by the French scholar Aymeric Picaud. The principal author is actually given as 'Scriptor I'.

It was intended as an anthology of background detail and advice for pilgrims following the Way of St. James to the shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great, located in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia. The codex is alternatively known as the Liber Sancti Jacobi, or the Book of Saint James. The collection includes sermons, reports of miracles and liturgical texts associated with Saint James, and a most interesting set of polyphonic musical pìeces. In it are also found descriptions of the route, works of art to be seen along the way, and the customs of the local people."

For a more accurate a description visit Peter Robins' site at:
http://pilgrim.peterrobins.co.uk/santiago/lsj.html
Peter Robins:  Only 12 copies are known, most Spanish (a complete copy of the Codex, as well as a fragment including chapters I-VII of the Guide, are in the British Library). None of these copies is in France, which seems to be the country it is primarily aimed at. Moreover, at no time does Book IV/V seem to have been copied separately from the rest of the Codex, which would have been the case if it were to have been used on a pilgrimage. After being compiled, it seems to have been taken to Santiago, where it was filed away and, apart from these dozen copies, forgotten about for 750 years when Father Fita produced his Latin edition, around the time of Leo XIII's Apostolic Letter confirming the identity of the recently excavated relics of St James. So, although it seems to have been written as a guide for pilgrims, it does not appear to have been used as such, and appears to have been completely unknown in what we now know as France until the 19th century."

Only one copy of the Pilgrim’s Guide was made during Gelmírez’s lifetime; it was sent, along with a bone from St. James’s jaw, to Bishop Atto in the North Italian city of Pistoia. The original was kept in Santiago for 200 years before being copied. The others were laboriously copied in the late 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The original was 'lost' once before, for centuries, and was rediscovered by Father Fidel Fita in 1886 - at the same time that the relics of St James were 'found' and authenticated after being lost for 350 years.

Of course, none of this matters - the Codex Calixtinus is a priceless medieval jewel and its loss is critical.

E.O. Pederson: 
Whatever its status and history as the first European travel guide, loss of the Codex is a cultural tragedy. One of the most important extant collections of medieval music, the Codex Calixtinus is a key document for students of musicology. Other materials contained in the stolen document are equally important for scholars in various fields of medieval studies. This theft is at least on a par with the theft of a first folio of Shakespeare from Durham University (see the fascinating display currently on view at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC) or the art works taken from the Gardiner Museum in Boston as one of the great crimes against the human patrimony committed against an institution devoted to preservation of that heritage.
One must hope the Codex Calixtinus is returned to the cathedral archive quickly and undamaged, and that it is not broken into pages then sold to unscrupulous dealers who in turn sell them to unethical collectors in a vast and, one hears hideously lucrative, illicit market for purloined works of art. Once in that market, documents tend to disappear forever. Should the document be irretrievably lost, there are at least good quality reproductions for scholars and pilgrims to see, though those can never convey the thrill of examining the original nor contain the possibility of discovery some new scholarly examination may uncover. Meanwhile the Cathedral needs to evaluate its security precautions, for its archive and treasury contain numerous other items of potentially great value in the illicit art market.

You can buy an English copy of the Bookj of St James from www.csj.org.uk  or a replica of the Medieval manuscript from http://www.omifacsimiles.com/brochures/calix2.html

New Adventure - new blog

I decided to start a joint blog for our amaWalkers group of 15 people who will start walking from Roncesvalles on Monday 30th May.  If you would like to follow us on this asventure, you will find it here:
http://www.amawalkerscamino2011.blogspot.com/ 

An Ode to the amaWalkers Group

We had two married couples who got on really well and who were a great delight.


Our senior citizen was Roy, a musical chap who carried and played his large and small organs (which were often the butt of risqué jokes and innuendos!) He even entertained us and other diners in Santiago by playing the grand piano in the Casino Restaurant – once the domain of gentlemen only.

His wife Kay is a bubbly, happy, cheerful Aussie who enjoyed her beers and even a Spanish version of a frosty, slush-puppy Guinness.

Charles was quieter but became the story teller in the group and after a Brandy and coke responded to the pleas of the younger ladies by regaling them with tales of his shipwreck off the Seychelles and his many canoeing escapades.

His wife Barbara was our poet and mystic who spread calm and serenity and off the road. Excepting one night when Charles suggested they share a top or bottom bunk. (She put his daring suggestion down to the number of beers he had that day!)

Linda was our wild child – setting the pace by walking alone from St Jean Pied de Port the day before we arrived in Roncesvalles and also doing a solo hike up to O Cebreiro when we all got the taxi up the hill for breakfast.

Janet – the only US member of the group – was our invaluable translator of menus and notices stuck on doors, and telephone-whizz who was able to call hotels, taxis and transfer companies on our behalf. She learned the 12 South African slang words given to her and delivered an amusing speech all about ‘kak hills’ and ‘vrot rocks’ ‘blerry blisters’ and ‘lekker’ food. She is an Honorary South African with a badge to prove it.

Kim Francis was our morning song bird who woke up singing a Yoga tune, laughing and smiling like a breath of fresh air all along the Camino.

Sally, her roomie, was the quieter one, often comparing herself (mostly her aches and pains) with everyone else’s. Sally proved to herself that she is stronger than she thought she was.

Kathy was our girl scout, always in front, forging up or down the mountains and arriving first at the town or village, sussing out the easiest route to our overnight accommodation and then sending directions ahead.

Rayna, her roomie, was the carer on the team, always ready with a travel sick pill or a blister plaster when a pilgrim was in need.

Carole and Kim – our Jo’burg girls – skipped and ran, hopped and giggled their way across the Camino often surprising us by dashing past us and leaping into the air just ahead of us like Springboks!! They trekked an extra 70km up and down the Cebreiro hills like two gazelles and sent an sms to Syl, “Thank you for giving us our wings (angel wings) for this wonderful walk!”

Eugenie, Syl’s roomie, went from walking 0km to hiking 30km and surprised everyone (including herself) by setting the pace, often leaving the younger women behind in her dust.

Syl was the planner and organiser who made sure everyone had a bed at night, a meal and someone to help cart their heavy baggage to the next overnight stop. She was often the sweeper and made sure that no-one was left on the road.

Pami spent 9 days on the Camino with the group. Unfortunately she had to leave us to return home when her sister became critically ill in Cape Town. But, she left us with her deep spirituality and love of the Camino, making sure that she was in our thoughts and hearts as we continued on without her.

The Rise, the fall and the Revival of the pilgrimage to Saint James …… and the Rise of 'The Camino'

Pilgrimages to the different Christian shrines in Europe today are perceived differently - although I'm sure this was not the case originally.  In the early middle-ages the three most important pilgrimage destinations were Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago de Compostela. Only the latter has had any great success at reviving it as a 'walking/riding' pilgrimage trail although work is being done to find the old paths along the Via Francigena to Rome and the pilgrimage route to Jerusalem. (See web links at the end of this post). 

This comment on a Camino Forum set me thinking. 

"The tradition of the Santiago pilgrimage is of walking there along a Camino - or, rather, travelling there along a Camino. The traditions of other shrines is to go there, or to be there."

What he saying is that the tradition is to walk to Santiago but not to the other shrines.  Of course, there was no difference in the middle ages - pilgrims had no option but to walk to all the shrines of Europe (unless they could afford a horse).  Until about 40 years ago, 99% of pilgrims to Rome, Jerusalem and Santiago travelled there by boat, bus, train or car. There was no difference in the means of travel and very few pilgrims walked to any of them. 

'Walking' to Santiago is a fairly recent 'tradition' in the modern era (as recent as the 1980s) and the perception that there is a centuries old tradition of pilgrims walking to the tomb of Saint James in Spain in a continuous stream for a thousand years is inaccurate, historically. The pilgrimage to Santiago saw about 300 years of glorious hey-days from the 10th century (reaching a peak in the 12th and 13th centuries) until its sharp decline from the 14th century.  It went through about 400 years of extremly lean days and virtual extinction!

When the relics of the saint were ‘lost’ in 1589 the pilgrims stopped coming in any number and stayed away for almost 400 years. (I doubt pilgrims have ever stopped journeying to Rome or Jerusalem.)
By the Holy Year of 1867 St james' shrine was all but forgotten and only 44 pilgrims attended mass on his feast day. (Cordla Rabe)

Only after the remains were relocated and authenticated in 1884 did the masses start returning to Compostela – this time by boat, bus, train and car. (It would take another hundred years for pilgrims to start walking to the shrine).

The old paths were long abandoned and forgotten and it wasn't until the late 1970’s and into the 1980’s that the pilgrimage trail itself was restored and revitalized. For the first time in history, the pilgrims were split into those who walk or ride to Santiago and those who arrive by other conveyances.
A new pecking order has developed amongst those who walk, an implied hierarchy that depends on how far one walks, for how long, how heavy the pack, how meager the accommodation, how frugal the meals. Taking a bus or car to Compostela to visit the Saint is considered passé - almost unworthy. Walking the Camino has become its own status symbol.

The Rise and Fall of the Pilgrimage ... and the Rise of the Camino de Santiago.

814 - The beginning: The story of the discovery of the burial site of Saint James the Greater around 814 is well known. From the time the remains were authenticated by the church, an ever growing stream of pilgrims started trekking to his tomb. In those early days, before the introduction of indulgences for the remission of sins (circa 1095), people travelled by sea and land to visit the tombs and shrines of the saints out of curiosity, respect, and to be in the presence of something holy.  No real thought of rewards.

The Rise and Fall - 12th to 14th centuries: Once earning an indulgence for the remission of sins and time spent in purgatory was thrown into the mix, pilgrimage became all the rage which soon led to corruption and fraud with shrines competing to attract pilgrims with false relics and outrageous indulgences of thousands of years. The heydays of the Santiago pilgrimage reached their peak in the 12th and 13th centuries but by the 14th century pilgrimage began to decline all over Europe due to wars, a growing split in the church and the Black Death.

1517: By the beginning of the Reformation, and the spread of Protestantism, pilgrimage and the veneration of relics became unpopular and were banned in many countries. Many churches and cathedrals were destroyed or abandoned.

1589: The relics of Saint James were moved and hidden to prevent a possible attack by Frances Drake – and were forgotten for almost 300 years! It’s not surprising that the number of pilgrims to Santiago dried up almost completely. With no body to venerate it would be almost 400 years before they started to return in any numbers.

In 1590 the Castilian parliament proposed that St Teresa of Avila become co-patron saint of Spain with Santiago. It seemed St James’ star was on the wane and pilgrimage to his tomb slowed to a trickle.

1759: “The mid-18th century again saw a marked decline in the number of pilgrims [to Santiago]. The scientific and industrial revolution in the 19th century also rendered the pilgrimage obsolete in the rest of Europe.” Antti Lahelma

1820: “The Spanish Civil war of 1820 – 1823 further prevented pilgrims from visiting Santiago and, in whole of the 19th century less than 20 000 pilgrims visited Santiago - most from the areas around Santiago, and the majority of those arrived in the Holy Years.” Don Jose Ignacio Diaz Perez

1867: “In the Holy Year of 1867 just 40 pilgrims turned up for the celebrated mass on 25th July.” (Cordla Rabe)

1879: Something had to be done. A search for the relics was launched in 1879 and they were eventually found between the walls of the apse.

1884: A papal bull from Pope Leo XIII declared them to be genuine (which silenced the sceptics) and there was a growing revival in the number of visitors.

1886: P. Fidel Fita rediscovered the Codex Calixtinus (a copy of the so-called Pilgrims’ Guide that never was) after it had been lost for centuries. This was fortuitous timing as it spurred historic research into the pilgrimage routes to Santiago just when interest in the shrine was being revived.

The revival of the St James Pilgrimage - 1900: After the re-discovery and authentication of the saint’s relics, pilgrim visitors started flocking to Santiago once again and there was a steady rise in the numbers especially in the Holy Years. But, the old trail routes remained overgrown and forgotten and the number of people walking to Santiago was so insignificant that no records were kept of their arrival. (The following numbers of visitors to Santiago in Holy Years is from de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heiliges_Compostelanisches_Jahr)
1909 - 140 000
1915 - 103 000
1920 - 112 000
1926 - 90 000
1937 - 134 000
1938 – 8 000
1943 - 200 000

1948 - 500 000

1954 - 700 000

1965 - 2.5 million

1971 - 4 million (491 Compostelas)

1976 - 4 million (243 Compostelas)

Recording the numbers of pilgrims who arrived on foot, horseback or bicycle was resumed in Santiago de Compostela from 1953 but the records from before 1970 have been lost. The late Don Jaime of Santiago’s cathedral found an old record book kept by his predecessor which showed that in 1967 there were 37 pilgrims and in 1971, which was a Holy Year, 491 pilgrims.

An article in the New York Times (dated August 16, 1965) about the 1965 Holy Year describes the atmosphere in the cathedral as thousands of pilgrims, who arrived from all over Europe in buses and cars, lined up to kiss the stone sculptured head of the apostle at whose tomb they had come to pray. The 50 miles of road between La Coruna and Santiago was crowded with huge tourist buses and cars.

(No mention of people having walked there.)
There were always a hardy few, nostalgic Catholics, medievalists and other academics, who tried to find the old pilgrimage trails to Santiago and reach it by means other than by car or bus.

In 1917 Georgiana Goddard King completed ‘The Way of St. James’ a three-volume work tracing the pilgrimage trails to the shrine of St. James, based on her journeys on foot, donkey cart, mule and other transportation

Dr Walter Starkie made the pilgrimage through France and Spain on foot, by car and bus four times from 1924 to 1952. In his classic book ‘The Road to Santiago’ he makes many references to the work of G.G. King.

Nancy Frey – Pilgrim Stories wrote: “Beginning in the 1950s and the 1960s the pilgrimage developed as a touristic and cultural way called the Camino de Santiago based on political reconstruction and a budding nostalgia for preserving medieval European patrimony. During the portion of its current revitalisation performance of the journey was not paramount.”
This observation is supported by the pilgrim figures which show that in the 1965 Holy Year the number of ‘visitor pilgrims’ more than doubled (2.5 million) compared with 700 000 in the 1954 Holy Year, but walking to Santiago was still not an important criterion (the journey was not important) but the destination was. This still holds true for the other great Christian shrines like Jerusalem or Rome and the more modern Marian shrines of Lourdes, Fatima and Guadalupe (the most visited shrine after Rome).

The Rise of el Camino – late 1970s: The resurrection and promotion of the old trails to Santiago can be attributed mainly to Don Elias Valina Sampedro of O Cebreiro parish - a dedicated priest and scholar who devoted over 30 years of his life to the restoration of the Camino as a pilgrimage trail. In 1967 he wrote his doctoral thesis on - The Road of St James: A Historical and Legal Study.

Linda Davidson and David Gitlitz walked to Santiago 5 times between 1974 and 1996 accompanying groups of college student-pilgrims on academic medieval study programs. On their first trek in 1974 they did not meet even one other pilgrim. In 1979 the only other pilgrim they encountered was an elderly Frenchman who was fulfilling a vow made in the Second World War. They wrote in their book The PIlgrimage Road to Santiago "To most people in the 1970s the pilrimage road was hardly more than a vague memory of a historical relic - "You know, in the medieval times...."



1982: Don Elias published his guide for walking the Camino trails to Santiago. 1,868 pilgrims received the Compostela, but this was mainly due to the visit of Pope John Paul II.

1985: This was a pivotal year for ‘The Camino’ pilgrimage trail. At a gathering in Santiago in 1985 Don Elias was entrusted with the co-ordination of all the resources for the Camino. “Refugios” were established and he was the first to mark the way with yellow arrows, begging for yellow paint from the departments of roads. Also in 1985 UNESCO declared the city of Santiago de Compostela a World Heritage site

1987: El Camino de Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage trail is named the first European Cultural Itinerary.

1989: Pope John Paul II visited Santiago again (and sadly, Don Elias passed away) 5,760 Compostelas were issued.

Exponential growth: From then on there was an exponential growth in the number of pilgrims walking and riding to Santiago, and those earning the Compostela certificate - a junp from 5,760 in the 1989 Holy Year to 88,436 in the 1993 Holy Year.  (The pilgrim office estimates that only 1 in 5 pilgrims walking the Camino actually walk to Santiago and request the Compostela).
1986 – 2,491
1989 – 5,760
1993 – 88,436
1999 - 154,613
2004 – 179,944
2010 –272,000

Saint James pilgrims and Camino pilgrims
Reconstruction of 'The Camino' as we know it today only began in the late 1970s. It took a dedicated priest, a group of hard working volunteers with a few tins of yellow paint, and the formation of Camino interest groups in the 1980s - coinciding with the advent of Internet and the World Wide Web in the 1990s - to see it explode with exponential growth into the 21st century.
Millions of Saint James pilgrims still journey to Santiago de Compostela every year - an estimated 12 million in the 2010 Holy Year.  The focus and goal of these pilgrims has never changed, to venerate the saint and obtain a plenary indulgence.
Unlike their medieval counterparts, today's walking or cycling pilgrims rarely say 'I am makng a pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint James of Compostela'. 
Most say, "I am doing the Camino".  Furthermore, they say, "Its not the destination that counts, it the journey."
Doing the "Camino" has become the destination!

Watch a video of the 1915 Holy Year here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsnB1mLZwlQ

For information on the Via Francigena - the pilgrimageg trail to Rome: http://www.pilgrimstorome.org.uk/

For information on the pilgrimage to Jerusalem visit: http://sites.google.com/site/pilgrimstojerusalem/Home

YOUR CAMINO

Your Camino – on foot, bicycle, or horseback – in France and Spain.

After years of answering frequently asked questions on Camino forums, the Internet, Camino workshops and on this blog, I have written a book with the answers to thousands of FAQs in a book called ‘Your Camino – on foot, bicycle or horseback, in France and Spain’.

Besides providing information and maps on the many different Camino routes in France and Spain (with links to Jacobean routes in other countries) it offers advice on the best time to go and how to get there, planning daily stages, budgets and accommodation, pilgrim and trail etiquette.  Last year I enlisted the help of Greg Dedman (Camino pilgrim and backpacking expert) to help with chapters on technology, weather, food and language. Many other experienced pilgrims have shared their expertise on subjects as diverse as disabled pilgrims, cycling, trekking with children, horses, donkeys and dogs.

There are chapters on clothing and equipment covering boots, shoes, backpacks and sleeping bags, as well as medical matters, relics, Santiago Holy Years and pilgrim statistics.

Illustrated with delightful pilgrim characters by Sandi Beukes, this 280-page reference guide covers everything from learning about the Camino on the Internet, books and DVDs, Confraternities and Forums, to taking a donkey on the trail, and how to ‘go’ in the woods!

This will be a must have book for anyone planning their first, or second or third Camino and an invaluable resource for organisations that offer advice and help to pilgrims planning their Caminos.

‘Your Camino – on foot, bicycle, or horseback – in France and Spain’ soon to be published by Pilgrimage Publications.  http://www.pilgrimagepublications.com/

Looking forward to being a 'touro-grino"!!

Having walked long Camino routes in 2002 , 2004, 2007 and 2009, I think I've earned my stripes as a 'real' pilgrim.  I've had horrible blisters, black toe nails, aching back, bursitis, worn out shoes, gypo tummy and a funny summer tan. 
And, I've tried to encourage hundreds of others to have the same experience!  I've organised Regional St James Feast Days since 2003, annual practical pilgrim workshops for hundreds of wanna-be peregrinos since 2004, and  I've trained 120 South African pilgrims to be hospitaleros.

I've queued day after day with all the other 'real' pilgrims for a bed, for the loo, a shower and a wash tub to wash my clothes. I've slept on the floor on numerous occasions and have eaten frugal meals and gone to bed hungry.

Like any 'real' pilgrim, I've slept in up-market, college-dorm-like pilgrim hostels and in basic shelters with no beds, no electricity, running water or toilets.  I've worked as a hospitalera in a 20 bed pilgrim albergue, scrubbing floors, showers, and loos and cooking meals for pilgrims every night.   Over the years I have evolved as a pilgrim.

In 2002 my backpack weighed over 10kg. I sent 3kg on to Santiago after three days walking and struggled on with a 7kg pack. I swore never to carry such a heavy load again. In 2004 my pack weighed 6kg and I still got bursitis swellings on my collar bones and aching feet at night.

By 2006 (on the Via Francigena) I managed to get the pack down to 5kg. By 2007 it was still  5kg and that's where it stays. No luxuries, no perfumes, no day and night creams - 2 shirts, 2 shorts, 3 panties, bras and socks. Everything lightweight, wash 'n wear.

Now, in 2011, I'll be doing a completely different Camino, as a touro-grino! Tourogrinos are those people you see walking with little daypacks while their large pack is transported from one place to the next. (Mine is a nifty little 20 litre Sea-to-Summit pack that weighs nothing - well, everything weighs something and this one weighs 2.4 oz / 68g).)

Tourogrinos can't stay in traditional albergues because they have their backpacks transported.  They have to stay in small hotels, inns, casas, pensions and private albergues.

They book these ahead of time so that they don't have to scramble for accommodation, especially in the height of the summer crowds. They sleep in a bedroom (instead of a dormitory) in a bed (instead of a bunk), with sheets, blankets and pillows (instead of a sleeping bag). They have a bath or shower en suite (most of the time).

Even though I know that I might still have horrible blisters, black toe nails, aching back, bursitis, worn out shoes, gypo tummy and a funny summer tan, I  am really looking forward to this new Camino experience. I'm looking forward to sleeping in late and having a leisurely breakfast.

I'm looking forward to ambling along the paths, stopping for tea, taking time over lunch, maybe enjoying a siesta under a tree if it is a hot day; having time to wait for a church or museum to open or doing a detour off the Camino path - all because I know that there is a bed waiting for me at the end of the day.  I might even send my pack ahead on some sections. Whoopee! I'll be able to pack a few extras this time! Shampoo AND soap instead of an all-in-one body, hair and clothes wash. I might pack a little number for evening meals!

Wow - imagine that!! Its going to be a very different Camino experience for me.

I anticipate a few disapproving looks and maybe even a few disparaging comments from the first-timer, pilgrim fundamentalist! But, hey - I think I can live with those!

Most of all, on this Camino I'm looking forward to walking with a wonderful group of like-minded people who are all just as excited about this Camino as I am. We are going to take our time, share good food and wine, go on a few side trips - lunch at a typical Basque restaurant in St Jean, visit the castle at Clavijo, Las Medulas World Heritage site and watch the sun go down over the Atlantic at Finsiterre snacking on a basket of Galician Regional pinchos and wine - what a pleasure!!  I can't wait! 

A Spiritual Experience on the Camino

Many pilgrims, most with no religion, recount having had a ‘spiritual’ experience whilst walking the Camino even though the majority find it difficult to describe the experience. As a non-theist, I too have found it difficult to explain the spirituality of walking the Camino, leaving aside the history, the religion, the traditions, and the folk-lore. It’s more than all of that.

If we look at the word ‘spirit’ it might help to explain the state one reaches when on a long-distance hike. I have often explained my own spiritual state, after a week or so on the Camino, as being in the ‘Zen-zone’ – when mind separates from the body and the whole becomes one with nature. (This is especially so when walking on the wide open plains of the Meseta).

Spirit (n) L. spiritus

My large, heavy Websters gives at least 18 different meanings of the word ‘spirit’.

1. Breath, courage, vigour, the soul of life.

2. The thinking, motivating, feeling part of man as distinguished from the body, mind, intelligence.

3. Life, will, consciousness, thoughts etc, regarded separate from matter.

What does this mean, “.. the thinking, motivating, feeling part of a person as distinguished from the body and intelligence?”

I remember reading the Pulitzer Prize winning book by Professor Carl Sagan, the well-known scientist, called “The Dragons of Eden - Speculation on the evolution of human intelligence.” Although it was written over 30 years ago, the information, suggestions, speculations and assumptions he made then are just as relevant today.
In the chapter on the development of the human brain he focuses on the differences between the left (mostly rational) and right (mostly intuitive) hemispheres, suggesting that our pre-verbal, pre-ambulatory ancestors relied on their ‘intuitive’ non-verbal perceptions and cognitions to survive in the world.
“Intuitive knowledge has an extremely long evolutionary history: if we consider the information contained in the genetic material, it goes back to the origin of life.
The other of our two modes of knowing – the one that in the West expresses irritation about the existence of intuitive knowledge – is quite recent evolutionary accretion.”

Sagan says the people in the West have made so much contact with the left-hemisphere functions of our brains and very little with the right, that we find it difficult to connect with our intuitive brain. The scientist Robert Ornstein compares this to the stars being invisible to us during the day, despite the fact that they always there, day and night. ‘The brilliance of our most recent evolutionary accretion, the verbal abilities of the left hemisphere, obscures our awareness of the functions on the intuitive right hemisphere, which in our ancestors must have been the principal means of perceiving the world”.
He suggests that in the meditative state of many Oriental religions the left hemisphere of the brain is suppressed which allows the ‘stars to come out’.

Isn’t this what meditation and spiritual ‘awareness’ is all about? An Eastern guru said, "Enlightenment flowers when individual consciousness merges into universal consciousness. It is an experience beyond mind.”

Spirit - the thinking, feeling part as distinguished from the body and intelligence.

You can pick out pilgrims who have been on the road for a long time. They have calmness about them, serene and laid-back they don’t rush to be the first to leave the shelter in the morning; they are never the first to arrive, they don’t get caught up in the rush for beds. They don’t judge other pilgrims. They don’t complain about the shelters, or the food, or the paths or even the weather. They have become the Camino – the Way – they are in the Zen-Zone.

Is adrenaline? Endorphines? Is it Seretonin that induces that feeling of emotiona wellness? Is it Zen?
“Zen emphasizes experiential wisdom in the attainment of enlightenment. As such, it de-emphasizes theoretical knowledge in favor of direct realization through meditation and dharma practice.”

Walking-Zen is the exquisite state you reach when you walk without awareness. You are no longer aware of the pack on your back or the blister on your heel or the sun on your head. You are one with everything around you and although you see everything, you do not think about them in words, they just are. You just are. You are just walking.

You are in the Zen-zone – having a spiritual experience.

1999 - 2010 : REFLECTING ON 10 YEARS OF WALKING THE TALK

In 1994 I started walking for leisure and fitness.  In 1996 I did my first long walk, a two-day 90km charity walk on the famous Comrades Marathon route from Pietermaritzburg to Durban.  Things progressed from there and I was soon looking for other long walks to do but I never, in a million dreams, saw myself walking multi-day half marathons in different countries!

Its amazing how becoming a Camino pilgrim opened up a whole new world of trails and travel, traditions, history, folk-lore, art and architecture and other pilgrim friends and pilgrimages. I never imagined in 1999, when I was researching the possibility of walking from Leon to Santiago, that I would still be walking and talking el Camino 12 years later! Until then I'd never heard of 'The Camino' and was more interested in doing different marathons to long distance walks.

I did the London Marathon in 1998 with Clare and heard about the 'Coast to Coast' walk across England so in July 2001 I organised for a group of 10 local walkers to do the CtoC from St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay.  That was my first experience of walking with a group.

As things turned out, I didn't get to walk the Camino until 2002. By then I'd read Shirley Maclaine's rather frustrating book 'The Camino' and Paolo Coelho's metaphorical (metaphysical?) account of his search for his sword in 'Pilgrimage' - neither of which I found very inspiring! I wanted the nitty-gritty bits about walking a camino - trail conditions, distances, accommodation etc, - not stories about previous lives or masters of the universe.
My first Camino was in May/June 2002 with two walking buddies who belonged to the same athletic club. Clare was a career woman and could only be away from her job for 30 days so I planned a 27 day walk, averaging 28km per day from Roncesvalles to Santiago.  We did it - every inch of the way - but even though we did it fairly comfortably (I had trained a year earlier to run the gruelling 90km, Comrades ultra-marathon and kept up the level of fitness after the marathon) it was a bit of a slog and there wasn't any time for detours or rest days.   We sometimes walked up to 40km and had a 'rest' day by walking a shorter distance the following day.

 In 2003 I joined the newly formed Confraternity of St James of South Africa and soon became the contact person for local pilgrims, arranging St James Feast Day celebrations at my home and annual practical pilgrim workshops.

In March 2003 I really walked-the-talk when I joined the Open Door Crisis Centre's 'Breaking Free' team of 16 people from Durban and walked from Durban to Cape Town (± 1800km) in relays for 2 weeks to raise awareness of abused women and children. There were four teams of four walkers and each team walked 15km in the morning and 15km in the evening or at night.

There was a team on the road every minute of the day and night. When we weren't walking, we drove the camper van or seconded the wealking team.  We only had 6 hours sleep a night but rarely managed to sleep that many hours. It was a long, hard walk with very little sleep but the purpose and the goal made it worthwhile.

In May/June 2004 I walked from Paris to Roncesvalles on the Via Turonensis with my friend Joy and then from Sarria to Santiago (so that she could earn a Compostela).

That was a groot trek! Long, flat days, lots of walking on roads and, until we reached the south of France and Spain, not much pilgrim type accommodation. 2004 was a Holy Year but only 40 pilgrims started in Paris that year.

In June/July of 2006 I arranged a walk on the Via Francigena from Lake Lausanne to Rome with Marion and Val, my Coast to Coast companions, and Kathy and Rayna from our Athletics Club.  Some

days were scary (like hanging on chains in the rock face whilst perched on a ledge above a precipice on the way to the Gr St Bernard Pass) and some days it reached 40°C - in the shade.   It was a very scenic walk and I'm pleased I've done it but I don't think I'll walk it again soon.

In August/September 2007 I organised another walk on the Camino Frances with Marion, and Anneliese a Dominican Nun from the Holy Trinity Church in Durban.  It was a new season for me and I loved that it was harvest time and not as crowded as in spring and summer.  Many places on the Camino had changed in the 5 years since I'd walked it, new cafe-bars and shops had opened, some albergues had closed and lots of new private hostels opened.  Finn met us in Sarria and walked the last section with us to Santiago thus earning his first Compostela. We hired a car in Santiago and spent a week after the walk driving back to Pamplona, staying over in Lugo, Oviedo, Castrojeriz, Roncesvalles and Pamplona.

In June/July of 2009 I oragnised  a walk with Marion and Val from Lourdes to Somport and on the Aragones route to Pamplona.  Val had to leave us in Pamplona and fly back home but Marion and I continued on to Lugo and el Ferrol where we started the Camino Ingles to Santiago.  Marion left me in Santiago and I walked on to Finisterre where I met with Bejo and spent two days at the Fistera albergue learning the ropes of registering and showing pilgrims around. 
From 1st July to 15th July I served with Isa, a young Basque woman from San Sebastian, at the San Roque albergue outside Corcubion as hospitalera for two weeks.  It was an amazing experience to be on the camino, but not as a pilgrim, and I loved serving the pilgrims from all over the world who stayed at our albergue.

March 2010: In March I was invited to spend a long weekend with Camino pilgrims Pam and Franklin Stern in Cape Town. We had corresponded via email and spoken on the phone but had never met. It was a wonderful weekend and whilst there, we discussed the possibility of taking people on the camino who did not want to walk alone or who needed someone to organise the walk for them. We decided that if we did this we would do it properly so that people could have the best possible experience of their Camino walk.

amaWalkers Camino was formed and a three week, 19 day "Best of Both" walk on the best three sections of the camino was planned.  12 people quickly signed up for the walk and Pam and I are now looking forward to walking the Camino with them from Roncesvalles to Logroño, a night each in Burgos and Leon, walking from Astorga to Villafranca del Bierzo and then from Sarria to Santiago.  We will top it off with night trip to Finisterre to watch the sunset over the Atlantic.  I can't wait!!

NOTES FROM THE UNIVERSE

For the past year, I have subscribed to receive 'Notes from the Universe'.  Every day I receive a special message - some just a few words, others a few lines, but always meaningful, always positive and they always make me smile.  Some even seem to have been written just for me!

Today's note was:

Don't be afraid to go where you've never gone and do what you've never done, Silvia, because both are necessary to have what you've never had and be who you've never been.

Be the ball,   The Universe

The other day I was obsessing about whether I'd taken on too much when I received this note: 

The more you do, Silvia, the more I can do for you.
Don't worry that your baby steps are small, mine cross continents.
And don't worry when you can't yet see what I'm doing... soon everyone will.
Look out world,   The Universe

Last week someone left a nasty message on the amaWalkers' Facebook page.  This note arrived.

Isn't it your triumphs over adversity, surprise rebounds, and stellar comebacks that you look back on with the most fondness, Silvia? Far more than the easy, cake for breakfast and pajamas in the afternoon, kind of times?
Fondly, The Universe

And this happy, frivilous, cheerful note made my day:

In many ways, Silvia, time and space are where the irresponsible learn to become responsible.
Yeah... well, it's also where supercoolhappylovethings learn to get their groove on.
Sitting pretty, The Universe

And, when I was waiting, anxiously, to hear back from a publisher about a project I had sent to them:

Ask not, Silvia, for what is already yours.
You know.
Whoot, The Universe

I love all the notes, especially this one:

They bring me to tears every single day, Silvia.
They're almost too much to bear.
Sometimes, I even wonder how it's possible...
Of course, I'm talking about your supernatural resilience, your steely courage, and your gritty determination. YOU WILL MOVE MOUNTAINS, and they shall say THANK YOU, DUDE.
Thy kingdom come, The Universe

You too can receive a Note from the Universe. Spiritual but not religious, inspirational without commitment, empowering yet caffeine-free!

http://www.tut.com/resources/notes/
"The Notes are designed to shed light on your own inner path: to spark your memory, attract like thinking, and awaken the slumbering deity within. They contain the truths I've come to know and live by about who we are, why we're here, and the magic at our disposal. Everything I've discovered is neatly tucked between the paragraphs, and for the eager, earnest reader, far more meaning will be found therein than will first meet the eye."  Mike Dooley author of the Notes.

EVERY ONE IS SPECIAL

I think we have our final group of people for the May/June amaWalkers Camino walk. 

As I typed out the list of names to file in my amaWalkers Camino folder, I thought about them all, about how special every one of these people are.  They are not just names of people who want to walk the camino, and who don't want to walk it alone, they are people who feel called to walk a camino (one for a second time).  And what a privelege to be walking with Pam - an old soul who loves the Camino as much as I do and wants to share her passion with others.

Some of our group have been dreaming about walking a Camino for years.  One dear lady has been to all of my Camino workshops and St James' feast day celebrations since they started in 2003.  When she put her name down for the amaWalkers Camino walk she said, 'This is my chance.  If I don't walk it with you, on this walk, I'll probably never walk it." She is still nervous, unsure, anxious.  But she has booked her air tickets and she and I agree that this is her time.  I feel priveleged to be the one she has chosen to walk with. 

Another lady wanted to walk with me last year but lack of finances and committment to her son prevented her from doing so.  She was diappointed, and when she heard about this walk, she was the first person to put her name down.  Although she is nervous about being on her own, she is planning on walking solo to Finisterre when we all leave Santiago.

Some of our group will be walking in gratitude for the recovery from illness, another to heal from the loss of a loved one, or to contemplate a new era in their life as one chapter closes and another must open, or to recharge batteries run down by a demanding career or families. 

I will be doing all the planning for the three sections we will walk, booking the accommodation, arranging for transport where necessary. I wonder how else I can serve them so that they have the most wonderful Camino possible?  Perhaps it's best to just let them have their space; time for reflection and contemplation; to allow the healing spirit of the earth they'll walk on, the plants, rocks, birds, animals they'll walk with, work through them.  Perhaps I'll send them this ancient, Hasidic prayer:
“When you walk across the fields with your mind pure, then from all the stones and all growing things, and all the animals, the sparks of their soul come out and cling to you and become a holy fire in you."

This is going to be a very different Camino for me.  The first three were 'for me'.  The walk on the Via francigena was also 'for me'. I often say that I need to 'go walk-about' every now and then to restore my soul.  Last year, I walked the Aragones, Ingles and Fistera routes 'for me' - but serving as a hospitalera near Finisterre for two weeks showed me another side to the Camino.  It was no longer about me.  It was all about those dear souls 'reaching the misty land of the Dark Star' at world's end, wondering what they were going to do when there were no more yellow arrows to guide them.

This time it will be all about caring for, and caring about, 13 other people, rather than all about me.  Walking a Camino is so special, can be such fun, heartwarming, deeply spiritual and life-changing, and that is what I want for our pilgrims.  So, I'll share this Buddhist prayer with our group: 

"May we know that it is the journey that is important. May we find our own truths and the divine within ourselves and in doing so help our fellow travelers to find their own. May we see each other through spirit and not through worldly eyes. Namaste"

Patron Saint of pilgrims and guides

Bona of Pisa (c. 1156 – 1207)

Info and Photo Wiki

When I was planning the amaWalkers guided walk to Santiago, I thought it would be nice to have a patron saint for our group.  I did a search on the internet and came up with Saint Bona of Pisa, a 12th c saint who led 10 groups of pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela. 

At a young age she saw a vision of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and three saints,  including James the Greater. She was frightened by the light around these figures, and ran away. James pursued her, and led her back to the image of Jesus. Bona observed a pronounced devotion to James for the rest of her life.

After leading her first group of pilgrims to Santiago she was made an official guide by the Knights of Santiago. She went on to lead 8 more groups and despite being ill she lead a 10th group and died at the age of 51 shortly after returning home.   Saint Bona is regarded as the patron saint of travellers, and specifically couriers, guides, pilgrims, travellers, flight attendants, and, of course, the city of Pisa.

Yesterday I discovered that her her feast day is celebrated on May 29 - the day our walking holiday starts from Roncesvalles! Is that synchronicity, or what?

Plans are going well for the walk and I have such a good feeling about it! Besides walking the three sections of the Camino we will have time for extra excurisons - to see the castle at Clavijo, where Santiago was first seen on his white horse fighting off the Moors and so became known as Santiago Matamoros: we'll have breakfast at O Cebreiro on our way to Sarria and we'll visit 'Las Meduals", the remains of the most important gold mine in the Roman Empire. We are planning on doing a Nocturnal Walking Tour of Santiago's old town culminating in a visit to a club for a Queimada and a Sunset trip to Finisterre with wine and tapas to celebrate the end of our walk.

Most of the hotels, inns, apartments, private albergues have been booked or chosen and we will take the Chu-chu tourist trains in Burgos, Leon and Santiago.  We only have two places left on the walk - with 4 friends waiting for a slot for four.