Message from Confessional Number 2

The confessionals line the walls of the great cathedral of Santiago. The very size of the building seems to make them small. Like confessional boxes in a doll's house if there were such things. The priests inside are no less diminutive, their heads glow like those of saints as the single light above shines on both bald and silver. These are the canons of the cathedral. The "canonigos" who make up the cathedral chapter led by the Dean who is appointed by the Archbishop. This way of  running cathedrals is universal in the church. The canons are the venerable, the experienced. Hence traditions are carried on. In Santiago the canons sing the 9.30 mass every morning starting with Laudes. Then on a rota they go to the confession boxes and sit like statues waiting for the faithful to kneel for the sacrament.

Every day the light goes on in confessional number 2 and the same priest as always takes his place. A pile of books on which he rests his arm gives a hint as to how quieter moments are spent. He is dressed in a long black cassock bearing the red sword of St James. Around his neck is the purple stole. The symbol of his priesthood first placed on him at his ordination. From a distance he looks austere but up close and in conversation his eyes twinkle with life and his face breaks into the broadest of smiles. When he isn't hearing a confession pilgrims and locals who know who he is stop to chat. They usually talk about the Camino because this modest, almost anonymous priest who sits here everyday is Don Jenaro Cebrian, canon delegate in charge of pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela. This man is the Chief Executive of the Pilgrims' Office which this year has broken all records and issued over 180,000 compostelas. He is the one who arranges the botafumeiro, special masses for pilgrimage groups and during the busy season single handedly runs a daily evening service for pilgrims who have arrived on foot, on horseback or by bicycle.

I learn later as we chat in his room in the Pilgrims' Office that the confessional in which he sits every day near to the tomb of  St James is only a few metres from the house in which he was born just off the Plaza Quintana. His early years were very happy and he enjoyed his primary education at the Colegio de los Remedios. In those early years he wasn't aware of pilgrims. There really weren't very many arriving in Santiago. But from as early as he can remember he was aware of St James. His older brother went off to seminary to train for the priesthood and at the age of 10 the young Jenaro wanted to follow him. His mother however wanted him to finish his education before considering seminary. Perhaps understandably she wanted to keep her youngest son at home for a while longer. This was not to be and the vocation of the youngster prevailed and off he went making the journey of 50 yards from his home to enter the Seminary at San Martin Pinario. Despite the proximity of his home, like the other boys, he lived in the seminary. These were happy days and he smiles as he relates the story. For one who hadn't travelled very much from home to cathedral and to seminary his favourite subject was geography.

He sighs as he describes how the church was different then. From his year alone 130 priests were ordained. He was ordained at the age of 21 with more than 20 others from his class. In his final year of studies he had been secretary to the assistant bishop of Santiago and after ordination he spent some time in the local parishes of San Benito and then Santa Maria del Carmen before becoming a member of staff in the cathedral. His first appointment there was in 1961 and his job was to organise two main services each day - Laudes in the morning and Vespers in the evening. He worked at this and various other administrative tasks for the next 27 years before being made a canon of the cathedral in 1988. In that role he taught religious studies in a school in Santiago and increasingly became involved in the education of young people.

Although he had been aware that the previous Director of the Pilgrims' Office, Don Jaime Garcia, had become ill he was genuinely astonished when on the fateful day of the terrorists attacks in Spain, the 11 March 2004, the Archbishop appointed him to be in charge of  pilgrimages and de facto CEO of the Pilgrims' Office.

"Why did the Archbishop pick you for this job above all of the other canons?" I asked. I could see him deciding how to answer the question when the moment was lost as his mobile phone rang with an incredibly jazzy ring tone which seemed strange emanating from the pocket of the priest. With a nod of apology he answered and conversed in a stream of Gallego, the language of the region.

I tried a different tack..."How does it feel to be in charge of the pilgrimage and this office?" I asked. "With so many people arriving" he replied, "it is a huge responsibility, we have to welcome pilgrims properly, we can't keep them waiting too long. I have to deal with the press, do interviews. But I am helped a great deal by two permanent assistants, Eduardo and Mari who help run the office, but we only ever have temporary staff. Such is the nature of the way we are funded. But we do it and this year more records have been broken. This is a good team."

He went on to describe the changes he has seen in the pilgrimage over his years in Santiago. It has always been a special place, he says. "We have the relics of the Saint and so people have always come here. But in the 1980's the town started to change as pilgrim numbers slowly increased. By 1992 around 10,000 pilgrims arrived. However in the Holy Year in 1993 this number expanded 10 fold when almost 100,000 compostelas were issued in addition to all of those who came by bus or car." 1993 says Don Jenaro was the turning point. "Everyone started to take notice: central and local government, the Chamber of Commerce. People saw the tourism possibilities. Some of us also saw the potential of the Camino as an expression of religious devotion and spiritual exploration. The network of albergues expanded as organisations such as the Confraternity of St James stepped up to the plate." For this he says, "pilgrims should always be grateful."      

In his analysis and reflection his religious convictions are always to the fore and he speaks of the rise in secularism and the selfishness of the 1990's to which faith in his view is the only antidote. He sees the Camino and all pilgrimage experience as part of the spiritual thirst he sees in the world as people strive for another way to live. People are looking for more meaning than money and material success. He is concerned that as numbers grow the spirit of the Camino, as essentially the search to come closer to God, will be devalued. It may simply become "something that is done for sport, for fun, because everyone is doing it." However as if to reassure himself he immediately related that only that very morning he was talking to some young people who had been deeply moved by their Camino experience.

"What of the future?" I ask, "Will the Camino continue to grow?". "Only God knows the answer to that" he replies and this eyes twinkle mischievously, "but I think it will, we have not yet reached the plateau if that day will ever come."

"And at this time of the year when Santiago and the whole world is preparing for Christmas a final word to pilgrims and members of Confraternities and Amigos groups who support them?"

"I want to wish all pilgrims a very happy and Christmas and a peaceful New Year. I want to express our gratitude to those who support pilgrims and to exhort them to maintain their efforts in the future."

"Will the Pilgrims' Office be closed for Christmas?" I ask. "Only on Christmas Day but I will have the stamp of the cathedral and the compostelas if any pilgrims arrive."

Pilgrims arriving on Christmas Day should report to confessional number 2.

John Brierley and the Inner Journey

John Brierley author of best selling Camino Guides is one of the most well known names in the Camino world. In the last seven years over 40,000 of his guides to the Caminos Francés, Portugués and the route to Finisterre have been sold. His books are guides to what he calls the “inner and outer journeys” and as well as route information they contain notes on the “mystical path” and encourage self review and reflection. This aspect of John’s work is not universally popular among pilgrims many of whom simply want information on where to walk and where to sleep and so I was very
interested in meeting the man behind the book cover.

I wrote to John asking if I could talk to him and he readily agreed, stopping off to meet me on his way to lunch with a relative. It was just like meeting another pilgrim on the Camino. Within seconds the social niceties were over and we were into deep conversation. John was animated from the start, his eyes alive with an evangelical conviction for what he says. His life story is vivid and he told it in a soft voice still coloured with the accent of his native Dublin where almost 40 years ago he practised as a chartered surveyor. By the mid 1980’s he was to all appearances successful. He was married with 2 children, lived in a detached house in the suburbs, ran his own company and was in his own words, “materialistic and chauvinistic”. In 1986 at the age of 39 John became increasingly aware of an emptiness in his life as he asked himself the question, “what is all this for?” He described a recurring daydream, his very own “ghost of Christmas Yet To Come” which showed him the meaninglessness of his life.

To prepare for my conversation with him I had read some of John’s story on his website and I was even more intrigued. I put it to John that many people at the age of 40 have these feelings of restless emptiness but that is a world away from up-rooting the family, selling everything and living in a camper van. How did it come about? John described a year of having the daydream but was so “spiritually blind” he didn’t know what to do about it. He decided to follow the fashion of the day and have a sabbatical. He wanted to make it a real break so they sold the house and set off travelling. He described it as just like going on pilgrimage and the act of “taking time out” was what grew into a lifelong spiritual search. On the last day of his year out he resigned from his firm. He realised that the journey he was on was not geographic but spiritual and for the last part of the year he and the family and settled down in the spiritual community at Findhorn in Scotland.

When they were on their travels they parked the camper van in the car park at St Jean de Pied Port and looking out they saw pilgrims starting the Camino over the Pyrenees to Spain. Wanting to find out more about the Camino they drove along the Way stopping in Roncevalles, Pamplona and other places en route. When they stopped they spoke to pilgrims and got some sense of what it was about. This was the first time John had heard about the pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela. The seed was sown but it was to be another two years before he packed a rucksack and walked the Camino Francés for the first time.

I couldn’t resist asking, “When you set out from St Jean that first time, did you have a guidebook?” “I did” he said, “but it was full of inaccuracies particularly wrong distances and at the end of the day an unexpected extra two or three kilometers is a nightmare when you are exhausted.” That’s why in John’s Guides the distances are deadly accurate. “I measure them on maps and wear a GPS device on each wrist,” he said proudly.

As we talked I could see in John’s eyes that he was taken right back to that first pilgrimage. “I got a sense that I was searching for something. I spent a week in silence, avoiding contact with others. Lost in thought as I walked the route. There was a lot of rain and I was soaked through most days. I climbed the mountain to O Cebreiro and I went into the little chapel. I was cold, confused. I was aware something big was happening to me but I didn’t know what it was. I knew that the parish priest of this church, Don Elias Valina Sampedro, had been responsible for much of the modern revival of the Camino and as I knelt beside his memorial I got a huge sense that I was being called to write Guidebooks to the Camino routes for future pilgrims. In that moment a rare ray of sunshine shone through the little window in the wall high above me and bathed me in sunlight. In floods of tears I committed myself there and then to write the Guides.”

“I spent more days in silence but when I stopped in the rain at an ancient cross outside of Portomarin I met two pilgrims I had encountered much earlier on the route. We embraced each other and there was a wonderful sense of joy. I had friends. I had a new sense of purpose. Above all I had a great sense of affirmation that everything was going to be ok.”

At this point in our conversation John enthused about this discovery then caught himself in midsentence and apologised for rambling. “I’m Irish” he explained with a smile. I was interested in everything he had to say but I wanted to know what he felt like entering Santiago for the very first time. John focused. “It was so disappointing,” he said. “I couldn’t cope with the crowd, it was so oppressive, I retreated from the cathedral in tears. In that moment I decided to keep walking and so I immediately set off for Finisterre.”

John said that although he had walked 33 days to Santiago, “one day for each year of the life of Christ”, it was on the 3 day journey to Finisterre, “I got an overwhelming sense of death and resurrection.” He explained that on the way up the hill to the end of the world at Finisterre he realised with utter conviction that the spiritual journey he was on would not end but would continue for the rest of his life.

John decided that he needed to explore this “inner journey” and that this exploration would be an integral part of the Guides he would come to write.

I was confused. “What is this “spirituality” you are propounding John?” I asked. “For some people the Camino is God centred, for others it is simply a walk, for some people there is meaning in crystals, for others it is the Cross. Under the new- age-speak what does John Brierley believe?” I apologised for being intrusive but John continued with absolute honesty. “I am on a journey of enquiry” he explained.”I accept everybody and what they believe. I can sum up my philosophy as being trying to find what connects us rather than what separates us.” He talked about his traditional upbringing in the Church of Ireland, “but it never became an important part of my life.” In contrast the spiritual awakening he experienced as a pilgrim has led to a lifelong search for understanding of the nature of “God, Jesus and the Trinity.” As we talked further the jargon of self help psychology fell away as John spoke about his developing relationship with Jesus Christ. He described him as his brother, an older brother who he can depend on. Just for a moment the simplicity of what he said hung in the air then in a rush like a descriptive chapter in one of his Guides he was off again describing the self help book a Course in Miracles which he uses as a framework for life. He quoted the book verbatim, “Words are just symbols of symbols, and therefore twice removed from reality.” He explained that he is conscious of the limitations of language and that what he tries to do in his Guide books is not simply give directions and information but “like a brother to the pilgrim, I try to walk the spiritual journey with them”.

John is clear that he sets out in his books to give people “permission to talk about the Camino as a spiritual journey” - the concept of the inner and outer journeys is inherent to the design of the Guides and he will not change that approach. “Will there be more Guides?” I asked. The loquacious Irishman was short of words in answer. More routes are being considered. Perhaps the route from Granada, perhaps the route from Montserrat above Barcelona. We’ll have to wait and see.

“What I do,” he concluded with total conviction,  “is write Guide books which point people to an empty space which they can then fill with their own journey”.

“Do you have the best job in the world?” “You bet I do” he answered without a hint of smugness.

We talked for a considerable period more, the conversation reinforcing my impression of John as a man without guile, successful in what he does, energised by the Camino and planning more adventures. Before I met John I had wondered about the whole “inner journey” thing. At the end I realised that although we may question whether a Guide book is best place to promote the concept, his sincerity in doing so cannot be doubted. He is a very nice man.

A life in the day of Piers Nicholson - the Precise Pilgrim

It is the mark of an educated mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness where only an approximation is possible. -Aristotle

Piers Nicholson is the owner of the popular website http://www.santiago-compostela.net/ which I visited many times while preparing for my first pilgrimage. This year it will probably get 2 million views of its pages. I didn’t know the name of the person behind the website but I became very familiar with its contents. Then through a coincidence I met the man who created what has become one of the most popular Camino resources on the internet.

One day I was chatting to one of my colleagues on a committee on which I serve. She was very interested in what I had been doing and when I mentioned the pilgrimage routes to Santiago she said, “Oh,the Camino!, I know someone who has done that. And he has a website about it.” She scribbled down the name of the website asking, “Perhaps you’ve come across it?” “Come across it?” I thought, “I’ve virtually been living in it for months”.

She told me the story. She had taken over the company she worked for when the previous owner decided to retire. To mark his retirement he had walked the Camino and then developed a website which she said, “had taken over his life.” She brought us both together for dinner in her house and I met the most fascinating Piers Nicholson, husband, scientist, researcher, pilgrim, businessman and designer of sundials and websites. That evening I knew we would meet again.
On his return from walking the Camino del Salvador with my friend Rebekah Scott he invited me to lunch at his London Club, the Athenæum. I was familiar with the place and his chosen venue gave me a clue to more of the man behind the bowtie. Some would consider the Athenæum as the most prestigious club. Originally for gentlemen it now thankfully also admits women. It is known as the club for bishops, cabinet ministers and members of the House of Lords. However its main characteristic is that you have to have brains to be a member and historically its membership is drawn from people who gained success or prominence through their intellectual prowess rather than inherited money or titles. Clearly that’s Piers and over that lunch and a reciprocal invitation to la Terazza his story emerged. Much of it is illustrated by his typical daily routine.

Piers and his wife are early birds and usually they get up at 5.45am so that his wife can go swimming. As if in sympathy Piers sometimes goes to the gym. Breakfast is usually muesli with grapefruit juice and a boiled egg which Piers takes from the fridge and boils for 8 mins exactly. No more, no less. It is always cooked perfectly. By 7am he is at his computer. The precise timings involved in his daily routine perhaps come from his scientific background and career where he developed a small company researching the whereabouts of rare minerals and metals used in complex industrial processes. Walking the Camino was very much a rite of passage from that when he retired. However with Piers the use of the word retired doesn’t seem appropriate. Booting up his PC at 7am every day he quickly becomes busy on a number of fronts. In one e mail account there may be orders or enquiries about sundials. Since giving up his company Piers has developed a business designing sundials. He has a lifelong fascination with them which he describes on one of his sundial websites http://www.sundials.co.uk/ Click the sundial to see his other website and examples of his work.

When Piers stepped out on his first Camino he had no idea that he would be inspired to start a pilgrim website which would become so popular, that his sundial business would flourish or indeed that one day he would be asked to give a lecture in Pamplona entitled, “The Sundials of the Camino to Santiago” in Spanish!

All of these things came to pass. When he returned from walking the first section of the Camino Francés to Logroño Piers started his website with a few of the photographs he had taken. He was surprised when he discovered people were visiting the site to look at the photographs so as his pilgrimage continued he posted more. And got more visitors. After the Camino Francés came the Camino Aragonés, the Via de la Plata from Salamanca, the Camino Portugues and the route to Finisterre. With each trip the web based photograph collection expanded. Piers is now proud that very soon people will be able to see photos of every main route on his website. All of this keeps him very busy and in fact the very day I met Piers at La Terazza he had been meeting local government officials from Catalunya to seek their support for his web site.

So between dispatching two or three sundials a week to customers in various parts of the world and spending around 2 hours a day on his pilgrim website Piers’ day whizzes past. He fuels this with a coffee at two hourly intervals accompanied by a ginger biscuit and lunch is often two sticks of celery, one with humus and the other with taramasalata, peppered mackerel and salad. This is followed by 2 pieces of chocolate. “Never three?” I enquire. “Always two” came the reply.

Most afternoons are punctuated with a 1 hour walk and Piers looks forward to his wife arriving home from work as he avidly avoids cooking. One other hand his wife is an excellent cook and he enjoys nothing more than when she cooks his favourite Steak au poivre. Piers reads a lot and proudly produces he E Book on which he can store several hundred books. He is currently reading short stories by H G Wells and recently read the Last Crusaders by Barnaby Rogerson. Whereas his wife relaxes by watching period detective mysteries such as Poirot and Sherlock Holmes it isn’t surprising to find that scientist Piers prefers programmes about Natural History. Nor is it surprising when Piers tells me that he goes to bed at 9.55pm and is asleep by 10pm.

Piers’ seemingly meticulously worked out daily routine apart our conversation over lunch touched on the nature of pilgrimage and the way it seems to get into the blood. We both reflected on our contact with established religions Piers having been brought up in a Jewish household. Then on the question of faith we both agree that we will be astonished but delighted if we meet each other in an afterlife. Several times in that conversation we touched on the impact of pilgrimage on believer and non believer, on the rational scientist and incurable romantic. Piers shares about the poem he was inspired to write on his pilgrimage. Here it is. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did talking to this fascinating pilgrim:

The Camino

When we started, we did not know - exactly - why we were doing it

We had lives which were - more or less - satisfactory

We had friends known much of our lives

We had children - changed from chrysalis to butterflies

We had things:

things like machines

things like music

things like pictures

things like shelves full of books

things like money and pensions and security

We did not have one thing - and maybe that was why we started

When we started, we put one foot in front of the other

We still did not know - precisely - why we were doing it

The miles passed - many of them pleasantly

Our feet blistered and were slow to heal

Our ankles turned on loose stones

The rain beat its way through our clothes

The cold chilled the marrow of our bones

Some nights, refuge was hard to find

Some days, miles of hot dust had no fountains

When the first few of many long days had passed

We found - without words - that we no longer walked together

That together we spoke in our own tongues

- and often of things we had left behind where we began

That together we shut out new experience with the wall of our togetherness

That alone we spoke in other tongues and of our common experience

That alone we were open - open with interest and curiosity.

Often we met - with gladness - at the end of the day

To know our paths went on together was enough

When we got to the cathedral we sat down

We saw - through the eyes of those long before us

The blinding faith, the crucial thirst for salvation

The tower slowly closing off the sky

And we counted our blessings - several hundred of them

Starting with the kindness of ordinary people on the way

And with the warmth of other travellers on the road

Travellers not at all like us - not in age, not in origin, not in interests

But warm across all these distancings

And ending with the friendship and love

We had left behind where we began.

When we got to the sea at the end of the world

We sat down on the beach at sunset

We knew why we had done it

To know our lives less important than just one grain of sand

To know that we did not need the things we had left behind us

To know the we would nevertheless return to them

To know that we needed to be where we belonged

To know that kindness and friendship and love is all one needs

To know that we did not - after all - have to make this long journey to find this out

To know that - for us - it certainly helped

Written near Sanguesa, Navarra, September 2003

Sundays on the Camino

A couple of years ago I compiled a series of articles about pilgrimage which were published in a weekend magazine. The project raised about 1000 Euros for the Confraternity of St James. One of the contributors was Marion Marples the Secretary of the Confraternity. Here is what she wrote.
Sundays on the Camino
My second day walking was a Sunday. I left the pilgrim town of Puente la Reina, over its beautiful bridge, before dawn and with barking dogs, crowing cockerels and the morning star for company. I felt brave and cool as I strode out, but the stoney path soon started to climb. The yellow arrow waymarks disappeared for a while in new roadworks but I followed the bootprints in the dust. At Villatuerta I caught the end of Mass and later the priest came to greet us. After a picnic lunch I joined two Brazilians for the walk to Estella where we stayed the night.

By the second Sunday I had walked about 100miles. As we set out before dawn we met the teenagers returning from their discos and were thrilled by a huge orange harvest moon. By 10am we came to a bar for a welcome coffee and then started the steep climb up the Montes de Oca, which in the Middle Ages were feared on account of the wolves and bandits. In the lonely forest we came with relief to the spartan monastery of San Juan de Ortega. Here the priest served garlic soup to all pilgrims.

My third Sunday was the best walk of all. After 2 days off to heal my blisters I felt refreshed as I set off alone from Castrojeriz. I climbed a steep track to regain the higher plateau as the sun rose dramatically behind me, catching the bright quartz in the path. The path levelled out but soon descended to a broad valley, full of stubble fields, with a distant view to a tree lined river. Villages and church towers punctuated the glorious landscape spread before me. After the open plain the path followed the Canal de Castilla, which felt like walking through a painting with deep green water, golden cornfields, blue sky and sparkling poplars.

By the fourth Sunday I had reached the great city of León. After Mass in the beautiful Cathedral we shared a pilgrim’s birthday drink at the San Marcos Hotel bar. I helped my new companion Anne reduce the weight of her rucksack by disposing of some surplus items. In the evening we indulged in heavenly hot chocolate at the Hotel Paris before returning to our very basic 5th floor hotel around the corner.

During the next week we had rain or showers most days. We also reached Galicia, a land of small hamlets and eucalyptus forests, very different from the rest of the walk. Arriving in Melide before lunch we found the pulpo (octopus) festival in full swing. However, we enjoyed an excellent plate of local cheeses and cold meats, washed down with local cider.

The guide book said the ‘last 50 kms are surprisingly arduous’, with which we concurred and were pleased to arrive eventually at a riverside converted 16th century pilgrim hospital. Everyone went to bed early. Only two more days to Santiago

It was wonderful to arrive in Santiago, stand before the great cathedral and contemplate all that had been achieved. I climbed above the High Altar and hugged St James, thanking him for my safe arrival and all those who helped me get there. The next day’s Pilgrim Mass was the emotional climax, as I stood among those who had made the journey with me. I’d arrived but I felt it was just the beginning of a new stage of my life!

A Life in the Day of Joaquin Barreira Pereira- Organist of the Cathedral Church of Santiago de Compostela

"I usually wake up at 8am in my flat which is about 10mins walk from the Cathedral. I turn on the radio and the coffee maker. I listen to the news and drink my café con leche, sometimes with my eyes still closed. I usually have just toast for breakfast. Then I get ready and set off for the first appointment of the day which is almost always the Mass of the Canons at 9.30 in the Cathedral. Often I’m nearly late and have to rush into the Cathedral and up the narrow stone stairs to the organ gallery to play for the entrance procession. I find this first mass of the day the most satisfying and interesting. It is the principal daily celebration when the Chapter of Canons sing Lauds, a mixture of Psalms and other scripture readings then they sing the Mass. I play for the Canons as they sing the Office of the Church and then at the Offertory and the parts of the Mass. I play a voluntary at communion and then again at the end of the service. During Holy Years, when the Feast of St James falls on a Sunday the order of things changes a little at this Canons Mass and they sing the great prayer, the Benedictus, towards the end of the Mass.

I love this job and I am very happy to be playing in this great Cathedral. The last full time organist was a priest in the cathedral and he had been playing for many, many years. When he retired the Cathedral authorities called a meeting of a number of musical advisers. They began the search for a new organist. Eventually they had 5 candidates to consider, 4 from Spain and 1 from France. But decisions are taken slowly in the Church and by the Holy Year in 2004 the matter had still not been resolved. My friend, Manuel was playing part time to fill in and he asked me to help. The Cathedral authorities liked the arrangement and asked me to stay. Manuel and I still share the playing to this day.

I have many wonderful memories of events in this Cathedral. Fabulous weddings. Royal occasions like the Feast of St James in a Holy Year when the King and Queen of Spain attend Mass. Sometimes there are huge, complicated processions and at other times such as Midnight Mass at Christmas the atmosphere is much more intimate.

Every day of the year at 12 noon I play for the Pilgrims’ Mass. There are few pilgrims in January but by the late spring the Cathedral is bursting at the seams. Pilgrims sit everywhere. On steps, on the floor. They come with their rucksacks if they have just arrived in time for Mass. Priests who have walked the Camino walk in the procession and you can see their boots under their vestments. My fondest memories are not of when the King was there, or Cardinals but rather Pilgrims’ Masses. I remember one in May a couple of years ago when there were an enormous number of Germans. When Sister Maria Jesus the nun who sang at that time intoned the Kýrie eléison at the start of Mass the response from the congregation was so loud it was as if everyone was singing at the top of their voices. There is a telephone just behind the pulpit which links to a telephone on the organ. Maria Jesus telephoned me to suggest that we use the rest of the same musical setting of the mass as for the Kyrie, the plainchant Missa Orbis Factor. Everyone sang everything. It was magical.

Maria Jesus has now moved to Madrid cathedral and I miss her a lot. She started singing at the Pilgrims’ Mass 10 years ago. Before 2004 there was only an organist at the mass when the Botefumeiro was in action. Traditionally whoever is singing chooses the musical programme. I tend to arrive no earlier than 5 minutes before mass begins and the nun calls me on the telephone to tell me what to play. I then turn on the organ and the little television that sits on top of it. On that I can see the procession so I know when to begin playing.

Like most other professional organists I pick up other jobs to earn a living. Sometimes I have a few pupils but I don’t really like teaching. Playing and performing is my thing. Anyway the daily commitment to the Cathedral makes it difficult to take on other work. After the first mass I generally go to the Hotel Costa Vella to have coffee and read the newspapers. Then back to the cathedral for 12 noon. At 1 pm I try to eat something, but I’m not a big eater. I try to practise on the organ or on a piano every day. Sometimes I’m in the cathedral late into the night when the cleaners have gone home. Then it is peaceful and I can have the place to myself.

There has always been music in my life. My father sang really well and played the classical guitar. I was also very lucky that when I went to junior school at the age of 5 in my home town of Caldas de Rei on the Camino Portuguese. We had a superb music teacher who was also a church organist. From the age of 9 – 13 I went to the Escolania, the Music School of the Cathedral. There were 28 boys. We had normal schooling and lots and lots of music. I then went to the Conservatoire in Santiago for piano lessons and then to Barcelona for organ tuition. At first I went there for 20 days at a time. Then they enrolled me full time for 4 years organ study.

I love the organ in the Cathedral. The present instrument is the result of 300 years of evolution. It looks Baroque and has Baroque features. It also has some later Romantic elements. The rest is 20th Century. Until 1947, when there was a huge renovation, there were two organs, independent of each other on each side of the Nave. It then became one organ with two bodies. From 1947 only one organist was needed! Some of the organ is original. The Cornetta stop with its 5 ranks of pipes dates from the 1780’s.

This Holy Year we are having 4 Pilgrims’ Masses every day to cope with the huge numbers expected. There are Masses at 10am, 12 noon, 6pm and 7.30pm. The King will be here on 25th July and there are rumours that the Pope will also come to Santiago. Funnily enough traditionally the biggest and most important feast is not on the 25th July but rather it is the Feast of the Translation when the arrival of St James’ body is commemorated.

In the evening I might have my most favourite meal which is fried eggs and rice. I’m currently re-reading George Orwell’s 1984. I frequently dream and a recurring dream is me sitting in a flying chair visiting places all over the world. I have few wishes. I suppose I would wish for health, music always in my life and peace in the world. Strangely enough if I could only have one piece of music it wouldn’t be on the organ it would be the Missa Papae Marcelli by Palestrina which for me encapsulates everything that is wondrous in music.


I often don’t go to bed until very late. Sometimes 2am. Currently I’m working on a secret project. Last year I played for the 25th Anniversary Service of the Confraternity of St James in London. It was a wonderful visit and it had been arranged that I would play the organ in Westminster Abbey. At the Confraternity Service they had a re-enactment of the Botafumeiro and everyone sang the Hymn to the Apostle or what is known as the Botafumeiro Music. Afterwards I told my friend Johnnie Walker the history of the piece. The tradition used to be that every Holy Year a new Hymn to St James was composed to accompany the Botafumeiro. That stopped in 1920 when people liked the new hymn so much it is still being used today. Inspired by this he suggested that for this Holy Year I compose an organ voluntary for pilgrims incorporating melodies from many countries. So far I’ve worked out 15, but he has now set the target at 25. It is driving me crazy. But maybe it will be unveiled later in the year… "

With a little help from his friends - Eirik's story

WALKING THE CAMINO WITH PARKINSON’S.

This spring in April – May I walked my third Camino, the Via de la Plata from Sevilla, and I promised Johnny Walker to tell him how it was.

I don’t know how many among the pilgrims walking to Santiago suffer from handicaps or serious diseases, and how that affects them. Maybe that was more common in the middle age than today. Myself, I have Parkinson’s disease, trying ever harder to cripple me since I got it 17 years ago, involving me in an increasing struggle to control my own life. And then I got something called GBS 4 years ago.

When I left the hospital July 2005, it was with a wheel chair. The doctors had told me that my nerve cells, destroyed by the rare Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) would repair themselves, but it might take a year. Further, they could not in any case guarantee my recovery because of Parkinson, there was little or no experience with the combination.

There and then, I estimated that I had about 15% strength. I could not eat on my own, somebody had to feed me, I could not lift the toothbrush to my mouth, I could not raise from a chair or bed, I needed assistance at the toilet, and a row of other problems. I could not walk properly. I had no balance, if someone came closer to me than half a meter, I was sure I was going to fall.

I got home from the hospital with a comprehensive training program, the doctors having said that recovery could take an additional year or two after the repair of the nerve cells. But I suffered “muscular atrophy”; if muscles get the idea that there is no use for them, they start disappearing. So there was not much left to train. And bodybuilding at the age of 61 is in any case difficult.

I needed strong motivation to train 26 hours a week, starting each day before 0700. Then in the spring of 2006, Norwegian Television showed three programs from the Camino. That was tempting, and at a party, when I still needed assistance to get up, I told about my decision to walk the French Route early spring 2007. They excused me by probably having too much to drink. However, I had a year for training, planning and preparations. I soon fixed the starting date to April 28th 2007 from St.Jean, I planned to walk the French Route to Santiago de Compostela.

First thing I realized was that I needed a companion. Mainly for minor things, which most people don’t understand can be a problem. Like coordinating my fingers for tasks like doing up my shoelaces, or picking up something, like coins. Or for support if crossing a stream or passing through rough terrain. Friends and family were very helpful, but as they had their jobs to attend, they could only be away for a short time. I therefore used five of them, changing “crew” in Logrono, Burgos, Leon and Ponferrada.

For a Parkinson’s patient, control of your two legs is a major issue, for a Camino walker, good legs are essential. It is not easy to combine those two, but a lot of daily walk training over long time makes a remarkable difference. Still you frequently risk getting stiff legs and using much more energy than other people, also by reduced length of step. I struggled a lot with this on the French Route, and I was especially anxious for the mountains after Ponferrada, with Alto Pradela at 930m and O’Cebreiro (photo) at 1300m. But following several days with stiff legs and strenuous walks, and some experiments with the medication (eight times a day), the stiffness was as “blown away”. After Ponferrada it felt like I was “flying” and able to walk any distance. As for Parkinson, I almost forgot his presence. I remained “flying” the rest of the way to Santiago, where I enjoyed my own triumph and the incredible atmosphere of the city for a couple of days.

September 2008, following the same recipe, we set course for Porto, the Portuguese Route. I felt that Parkinson’s was demanding more of me. Especially I struggled with speaking, and also a little more with the balance, a fundamental skill. But it was very successful, and in fact I walked it twice, with three days in between. “Again” the receptionist in Ponte de Lima burst out when she saw me again after two weeks (I don’t know why she remembered me).

The success with two Caminos gave me the spirit to try the presumably biggest challenge, the Via de la Plata. I spent some effort trying to find out what to expect, and if I had a chance to make it. I studied the guide books and contacted the Confraternity, who handed my questions over to Johnny Walker. I got quick and relevant answers, and I was very encouraged, and promised him this report afterwards. So I stepped up my training and went ahead with the planning, also based upon five companions, changing in Caceres, Salamancha, Benavente and Ourense. We also put in amply time in the beginning, to enjoy the rich archeological and cultural treasures on our way.
We started from Sevilla April 3rd, turned west at Granja de Moreruela, (photo – Rio Esla on this section) walked in solitude the “southern route” between A Gudina and Ourense, and ended up in Santiago de Compostela May 27th.

Another personal victory to celebrate. Not only for making it, but for the remarkable effect it had on my Parkinson’s. The stiffness, which had given me trouble on the French Route, was almost non-existent. And even better, on the Via de la Plata, the effect of my medication was stretched two hours a day, which is a significant improvement, and makes my life quality considerably better. Some of this effect still remains, as I am careful to keep up training.

After this, one should think that my Parkinson’s problem is “solved”. But it is not. Even if you are able to keep it at arm’s length for a while, it comes a little stronger each year. I want to walk a new Camino in April 2010, but ought to find a way to improved control, especially for balance and speech. I’m working with it. And it is so much more fun when you can talk to people. Yourself.

If my experience can be of any help to anyone else I’m glad and anyone who wishes can write to me at eirik.naess@mail.com

A life in the day of Christine Pleasants

Christine Pleasants has worked in the office of the Confraternity of St James for the last three years. She deals with the administration: from membership subscriptions to payments to the bookshop. Christine always impresses me as the “still small voice of calm” in what can be a very busy office. I thought I should write a profile of Christine so that we could see inside the workings of the CSJ. I didn’t realise that I would discover the tale of such a committed and adventurous pilgrim. This is Christine’s story.

The day begins at 6am when Christine gets up in her home in Bedford. After breakfast she sets off by train to London. The journey lasts 1 hour. On arrival the jobs to be done are many. Dealing with internet orders for guide books and other publications, preparing cash for banking, planning the Practical Pilgrim Days which the CSJ has been running for a long time and dealing with telephone enquiries.

Although Christine’s association with the CSJ began 15 years ago her interest in pilgrimage is life long. She recounts vivid memories from her childhood of pilgrimages to Walsingham. There she learned about walking the Pilgrim Mile barefoot and felt compelled to do it. This is a re-enactment of a pre-reformation tradition when pilgrims reached the “Slipper Chapel” about one mile from Walsingham they removed their shoes before walking on.

From this start at the age of 11 the idea of pilgrimage was planted in Christine’s mind and never really left her. Like many people the idea took some time to germinate assisted by events such as having her wedding on St James’ Day then only realising it had been the Feast Day when she was on honeymoon in Spain. There she heard about the pilgrimage to Santiago, read some books and suggested to her new husband that they return the following year to celebrate their first anniversary by walking to Santiago. But they only had a week’s holiday from work so she contacted Marion Marples the secretary of the CSJ and attended the AGM in 1993 to get more information.

Christine decided to walk in stages from the Pyrenees. But she had no intention of ever receiving a Compostela. She thought of it as a sponsored walk and simply wanted to raise money for charity. Her husband accompanied her in the family car and he quickly decided that walking was not for him. The bargain was struck that if Christine continued to walk this route in future years she would do so on her own!

Over the next 2 years Christine completed the Camino Frances in 3 stages arriving in Santiago in 1995. There were few albergues and few pilgrims. However the Camino had taken further grip and with a walking friend Christine began walking in stages from Le Puy.

One day Christine heard about a sea trip being organised by a group of pilgrims in Cornwall. They planned to sail from England to Spain then walk to Santiago following the sea and land route of the medieval pilgrims. After considerable planning and preparation all was ready by 1999 for a Schooner and a Tall Ship each carrying 15 pilgrims to set off for Spain. In the footsteps of their forebears the pilgrim group walked from Padstow to Fowey on the Saints’ Way. The boat met then in Fowey, sailed to Falmouth and from there they set sail for Spain. The weather was foul but they hoped to reach A Coruña where they would disembark and walk the Camino Inglés to Santiago. However it turned out the Captain had little understanding of what pilgrimage is about and no understanding of the attraction of the destination. To him a port was a port.

They sailed over to France and then round the coast of France because sailing across the Bay of Biscay was impossible. As would have happened in medieval times after 7 days sailing plans changed and the boats docked in Santander rather than much further along the Spanish coastline at A Coruña. By a circuitous route by bus the pilgrim group eventually reached A Coruña and set off to walk to Santiago in three days of “perpetual rain”. This had become a pilgrimage of many trials and there was a feeling a huge satisfaction when they reached the Cathedral in Santiago.

Christine brings all of this experience to her job and gives words of advice to prospective pilgrims who telephone or call into the office. It is busy and lunch is a sandwich at her desk.

One of the most interesting things about the job, says Christine, is seeing the pilgrimage develop with pilgrims coming from farther afield. Over the last couple of years there has been an increase in enquiries from the Eastern European countries now she is seeing an increase in bookshop orders from Finland.

In her spare time Christine is a volunteer footpath warden with the Ramblers Association and she looks after the footpaths in her home parish. She likes to put on walking shoes at least once a week!

Christine keeps in touch with lifelong friends she made on the Camino such as an American lady and a Spanish chap she met in 1994. As it happens they walked with Shirley MacLean whose book helped to popularise the pilgrimage.

At home Christine listens to modern jazz and is currently reading the Art of Fiction by David Lodge. A favourite dinner with her husband in the evening is roast duck.


Christine still wants to walk the other arm of the Camino Inglés from Ferrol and she says she would go back anytime to walk that section of the Le Puy route around Conques.

For Christine sleep usually comes easily. If it doesn’t she simply walks a route in her head and soon drops off!

Camino People - Rebekah Scott - The House of Welcome Moratinos

A life in the day of Rebekah Scott - The House of Welcome, Moratinos

Every year over 100,000 pilgrims walk to Santiago along one the many Camino routes. They experience a simpler way of life. Everything they need is on their backs. They carry few clothes and no luxuries. At the end of each day they enjoy simple, hearty meals often in the company of others they have met along the way. The Camino is time out of regular life into a world where needs are separated from wants by the weight in their rucksack.
In addition to hotels and hostals, pilgrims are supported by a network of albergues, which provide a bed and washing facilities. Many only ask for a donation, a donativo, or a small charge of a 3 euros. They are staffed by people who welcome and care for pilgrims. They are volunteers called hospitaleros.
Many pilgrims are envious of their way of life, living in Spain, working with and for pilgrims, doing something worthwhile.
I have yet to meet a pilgrim who hasn’t fantasised about giving it all up to move to Spain to live permanently and run an albergue.

Most don’t, but that’s exactly what Rebekah Scott and her husband Patrick did.

What's the story? Here are her answers to my questions:


Rebekah, how did you two meet? Where did the idea of living Spain come from? How did you do it?”

We both worked at The Toledo Blade newspaper in Toledo, Ohio, USA. Paddy and I both enjoyed Spain greatly, started keeping company, and vacationed in Spain together a time or two. When I made my camino in 2001, he stayed at my house and watched my then-teenage children. He saw the effect the Camino had on me, and went and walked it himself in 2002. In years since we became hospitaleros, and kicked around the idea of retiring to Spain someday... and after Patrick retired officially in 2003, (and we were married), we thought we´d look seriously at retiring to someplace on the Camino. The actual move took LOTS of courage, and years of planning, saving, and stripping away all the worldly goods accumulated over many years. In retrospect it was a perfect moment to retire from newspapers and the American economy in general! We sold the house in 2006, gave away almost everything, and came to Spain in June to start looking for a new place to be whilst hospitalero-ing in promising sites all over the caminos.

We found Moratinos via an Irish couple who were hoping to open an albergue here. We came to visit them that summer, but they weren´t home. The townspeople were still very welcoming, and invited us to their fiesta the following month... We came. And that´s when one of the families said they had a finca for sale on the edge of town. And Et Voila!

It took almost two years, a million tears and gray hairs, and many thousands of Euros to make the place into what we (thought we) wanted. It was basically a barn and sheep-fold compound that hadn´t been lived-in for two decades. Now it´s a nice, almost-American style house with room for six guests and two hermits.

How did the villagers react to you two? Was "integration" a slow process? How long will you be "outsiders"?

We were welcomed wonderfully from our first day visiting here. The story is long and touching, and I hope to write it into a book sometime soon... We continue to integrate, and are now listed as one of the town´s eight “households,” and as such have responsibilities and rights and a voice in town meetings. We provide needed services in the town, (including plenty of comic relief!), we party and are invited to parties, we are seen working hard around the place and we have a wifi access open to all. We will always be “outsiders” in some peoples´eyes. A woman from the next village who called us “foresteros” was corrected immediately, told that “no estan foresteros... ellos son vecinos!”

Could you say a little bit more about your vision for the place? If it isn't an albergue how do people get there?

Our house (aka “Peaceable Kingdom”) is NOT a pilgrim albergue. It is our home. It´s not open to the public on a daily basis, but we do have a word-of-mouth and internet-buzz presence. In Camino parlance we´re a “casa de acogida,” a “house of welcome.” Pilgrims who are worn-out, injured, hurt, lonesome, or otherwise need of a break can stop in here and stay a while. Most only have a cup of coffee and a sello. Some take a nap, or a shower. Others stay overnight. A few, usually skilled laborers in need of work, or seekers in need of stationary solitude, stay for days or even weeks! We´re donativo all the way, but we are still working out how to balance that with our limited resources. (As Paddy says, “I´m not here to subsidize European middle-class freeloaders.”)
We don´t advertise our presence beyond the listings in CSJ and Paderborn Guides, our blogs, and a sign on the church porch telling pilgrims we are here. (The neighbors send anyone to us who doesn´t speak Spanish!) So far, it´s working. We go for days without having guests, and then will have a full house for a week... pilgrims seem to come in waves. It evens out.
As for the future, we are letting the place evolve as needs arise and funds are found to meet them.

What happens on a typical day?

The time I get up varies wildly. Depends on the season, weather, noise level, who else is in the house, and how late I stayed up the night before. There are no routines around here. Every day is different. The only constant is a good long walk for Una and Tim, the dogs. And coffee.

Do you have lots of pets?

Una and Tim, said dogs; a cat named John Murphy; a canary named Bob; and five red hens. We´re now considering a goat.

What are your hobbies?

Trying to make vegetables grow; cooking ethnic meals; local history; blogging; reading Tarot; writing; horse riding; Spanish wine (we have a bodega cave!); long-distance walking; traveling around Spain; editing camino trail guides and other publications; trying to improve my spoken Spanish.

Is that all?

I've also been a hospitalera since 2003, most recently at the CSJ refuge in Miraz, but over the ages also in Rabanal, Eunate, Fuenterroble, Ourense, Ponferrada, Salamanca, and the Benedictine monastery in Sahagún. Been training new hospitaleros since last year via the Canadian Company training program.

What do you usually do in the afternoon?

Plan dinner, hoe the garden, meditate, take a siesta. I am a night person, and do most of my productive work after 9 p.m.

Tell us about a memorable dinner with pilgrims as guests - what was on the menu, who was there, why was it memorable?

One balmy evening last year I had a lovely great gang of young men stop in and decide to stay over. They´d walked from Carrion de los Condes, almost 40 km., but still had energy enough to chop a great pile of wood and move some heavy timbers for us. We then fixed a huge meal of gazpacho, fettuccini alfredo, fruit salad and yogurt (a couple of them were vegetarian, one was a Buddhist monk); much wine was taken, songs sung, etc.
They traveled together and helped one another. They were from Germany, South Africa, Australia, Italy, and USA. And as the South African was Jewish, and the following day was Yom Kippur, we all agreed to join him in his daylong fast. They spent the morning here. We sat in meditation, talked about atonement, judgment, and grace, and the Kol Nidre was sung. I blessed them all the Anglican way when they left the house. Lovely. And with fasting pilgrims, there are no dishes to wash! I felt like a part of something wonderfully international and interfaith.

And finally...you recently had a visit from your mum. What does she really think of the whole adventure?

No one knows what my mom really thinks. But after an itinerant childhood, following my dad from one military posting to another, I guess the traveling got into my blood. Mom was upset when I first told her I was moving so far away. “I realised, though, I was being selfish, I just wanted you near for my own sake,” she said. “But you have to go and follow your dream. You´re just being the child I raised.”

Rebekah's Blog

Read stories of Rebekah's life and adventures in Spain on her fabulous and popular blog:

Big Fun in a Tiny Pueblo - www.moratinoslife.blogspot.com

Pilgrim People Series - Marion Marples

A day in the life of Marion Marples, Secretary of the Confraternity of St James

The more I’ve got to know Marion Marples the more titles I give her in my head: Mum, Wife, Pilgrim, Administrator, Newspaper publisher, social entrepreneur, Pastoral Auxiliary, Singer, Editor, Writer, Lover of early music – click here for her favourite. Most of all, The Boss.
So many talents in one person. Formidable.

Marion’s journey to the CSJ office is short as she lives just across the road from where it is located at the back of Christchurch in Blackfriars. This is in the district with the postcode SE1 and Marion with her husband and son also run a social enterprise publishing a successful local magazine and website called, funnily enough, inSE1.

SE1 is in the Anglican Diocese of Southwark with its beautiful Cathedral. Marion is a Pastoral Auxiliary there. This is a kind of lay ministry where her job is to make links out into the local community. For example she organises volunteers to help in the Cathedral junior school and to visit the older residents who live locally in sheltered housing. She has also been working with a number of local churches to set up facilities for homeless people in the coldest months of the year. At that point in our conversation she says, “ I want to talk to you about that project”. I realise that whatever she asks I’ll probably agree. That’s Marion.

Marion has been the Secretary of the CSJ “for about 15 years, if not more”. She doesn’t seem to care exactly how long it is because it is clear this is more a way of life than a job. Her interest in the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela started when she was at university and attended some lectures on Gothic architecture and pilgrimage. In 1972 she and a friend got a grant to make the pilgrimage. She says with a laugh,” Unfortunately we had no concept of the distances involved, there were no guide books and we just had one book, Great Pilgrimages of the Middle Ages by Hell and Hell! It had wonderful photographs and told us the names of the places we had to pass through but gave no information on how to get there.”

Marion and her friend set off with their tent from Poitiers in France (above). They managed to walk for two days before realising the tent was too heavy, so they started going forward to the places in the book by bus and train and occasionally hitchhiking. After three weeks they got to St Jean de Pied Port which is now the traditional starting point of the Camino Francés. Alas they had completely run out of money so Marion decided to phone home. In those days it took two hours to book an international phone call back to England so they decided to send a telegram. Eventually Marion’s mum sent them £5 which enabled them to get to Pamplona and then Santander where they used their tickets to come home. They never got to Santiago but if they had they would have been pilgrims 7 and 8 because only 6 Compostelas were issued that year.

Whilst the journey to Santiago was not complete, the experience inspired what has become a life long passion for the pilgrimage routes to Compostela. Some years later in 1983 her husband noticed an advertisement in a newspaper calling a meeting of people interested in the Pilgrimage to Santiago. There was a telephone number given and it belonged to Dr Mary Remnant, historian and musician who had organised the first meeting in St James’ Church, Picadilly, London. The Confraternity of St James in the UK was founded at that meeting.

By this time Marion and her husband had a child named James. Marion didn’t work then and used to telephone Pat Quaiffe who was then secretary of the CSJ to plan the many activities of the fledgling organisation.

As baby James grew so did the organisation and time passed. In 1996 Marion managed to have the time to walk with a French group from Bayonne to Pamplona and then in 1996 the rest of the Camino Francés from Pamplona. Gripped by the whole thing Marion then took 10 years to fill in all of the other stages from her home in London to Bayonne. During this time she also walked other routes such as the Camino Inglés. She is now considering what to do next!

While she thinks about it the daily routine of running the CSJ continues. Breakfast is with the family. Marion leaves for the CSJ office to arrive at 9.30. Son James and his Dad work together running the magazine.

Once in the office Marion deals with a constant stream of e mails and telephone enquiries. Most are from people who have been thinking about the pilgrimage for a long time and are now in a position to make real plans. The most common question is “where do I start” and that’s not always a place! Marion thinks that people who contact the CSJ are changing. Previously there were people who had heard a little about the pilgrimage, packed a rucksack and set off. Nowadays people seem to have thought about it for a long time. The most common question is: “How do I get to St Jean de Pied Port?” Also most pilgrims have no knowledge of Spanish.

Then most common piece of advice Marion gives people is to travel light.

A lot of the time Marion helps people prioritise their questions – how long do they have? Do they want to get to Santiago in the time they have available or are they happy to do it in stages? Then they can work back to choose a route and a starting point.
As well as all of this Marion runs the organisation of the CSJ. Much of its work is done in Committees such as the Publications Committee (above) or those which organise and run the two Albergues the CSJ provides at Rabanal del Camino on the Camino Francés and at Miraz on the Northern route.

Nowadays the membership is spread across the world with about 1400 being in the UK and approximately 400 in Europe and the rest of the world. A major task is preparing the quarterly monthly bulletin which is posted out to all members.

The best bit of the job is listening to pilgrims talk about why they want to do it. There is no single reason but people do realise it is a special time out of their daily lives. Some describe this in the language of religion many don’t. Often people ask, “How do I become a pilgrim?” and find it hard to believe when Marion answers, “Pack your rucksack, get to your starting point, and just walk following the yellow arrows.”

Marion has a sandwich lunch at her desk usually but on Thursday there is an open day and the number who can call in demanding attention is unpredictable. Some ask general questions and others are looking for very detailed answers about particular routes. Marion is modest about her ability to answer all of these but in fact her knowledge is pretty encyclopaedic. And if she doesn’t know the answer she always knows someone who does.

She also organises the CSJ’s famous and invaluable Practical Pilgrims Days around the UK. These are sessions which explain the preparation and equipment needed and provide talks about the routes. Ideal for beginners. Marion also spend time linking pilgrims with each other.

Landscape photograph of the Valée d’Aspe on the Arles Route through France - taken by Howard Nelson of the CSJ

Whilst Marion can recount visitors to the office who have been very difficult she doesn’t dwell on that. She’d rather talk about that moment on a route in France, early in the morning, alone, experiencing an immense sense of peace and joy.

Pilgrims know exactly what she is talking about.

On behalf of pilgrims every where – Thanks for all of your work Marion.