By William Crooks

Local Journalism Initiative

Pilgrimages can be a source for deeply human interactions, says Dr. Jennifer Cianca, Bishop’s University Classics Professor. Cianca recently completed two routes in Spain and France, the latest in a series of pilgrimages spanning 10 years.

“I’ve done a bunch of them,” Cianca said, referring to her penchant for European pilgrimages. The most recent was a return to two separate routes that she has done before, one in 2013 and one in 2019. “I just wanted to revisit them.”

The first route was through the Pyrenees mountains, from France into Spain. The second was through the Cantabrian mountains in Spain’s mid-western region. The routes are not connected; she took a bus in between.

On her pilgrimages, Cianca walks an average of 30 kilometers per day. The distance varies depending on the elevation and difficulty of the day’s path. Along the way she stayed at “albergues”, inns primarily designated for those travelling these venerable routes by foot, bicycle or even horseback.

Upon starting one of these routes, one receives a “little passport”, she explained. Every night one receives stamps proving one has been walking the route, which allows one to sleep over at the next location.

The inns are either run publicly by the church or the local municipality, or privately. All are relatively inexpensive (10-20 euros a night), the public ones even more so. Some church-run inns are by donation only.

Every sixth or seventh day she stays in a private room, “because I’m old,” she said with a chuckle. Normally, the inns are communal with rows of bunks. People snore and it can be hot, she noted.

Since only pilgrims can stay in the inns, it’s a great place to meet and socialize with others doing the same thing. There are often communal dinners, and you can meet people from around the world. “Nobody who is boring decides to go do [this],” she insisted.

Pilgrims are there for different reasons. Some are running away from something, some are retired, some are facing demons, and some just got divorced or lost their job, she explained. Many younger people do it in between years of study. It is one of the least expensive ways you can travel, so it is a very accessible option.

The “Pilgrim Office”, she continued, has already reported 400,000 pilgrims this year as of August. “It’s growing and growing and growing… it’s totally bonkers.” And these are only the ones that walk at least 100 kilometers and report in to get their certificate.

What makes it “really special” is the brief interactions you have with people, she said, but many also form deep, pseudo-familial bonds with each other on their travels. Cianca tends to walk faster than most, and likes to walk alone, so her socializing tends to take the form of brief meals or shared cups of coffee. It is overall a very supportive group, she said, and you get to see a lot of “humanity, when everything is stripped away”.

People tend not to talk much about politics, except for Americans, she joked. English and Spanish are the common languages. Knowing Spanish allows you to talk to the locals. Pilgrims are a large part of these regions’ economies.

Cianca speculates that a still sizable number of pilgrims do it for religious reasons, but many are “post-Christian”. Every town you pass through has a church or fountain of religious or historical significance. Some people stop at all of them, some at none. She always stops at the cathedrals because she loves their architecture.

One of the routes she recently followed has been in existence for over 1,100 years. Along it you can find ruins of hospitals and historical hideouts. Pilgrims were walking it during the times of the Spanish Inquisition and the Crusades. Anyone interested in religion or history can run into something of relevance nearly every day, she insisted.

“The Pyrenees are spectacular,” she said, speaking on the landscapes she hiked through. “They have a lush… green tree-cover that make them really wonderful.” There is a “particular flavour” to how the Basques region is settled. Imagine red and white tiled houses dotted up the hills with lots of terracing surrounded by pastures. The Cantabrian mountains in the west are different, she said. There are some rolling foothills, but also jagged outcrops.

The middle of Spain, on the other hand, is very flat, and famous for making pilgrims “lose their minds”. In the summer, the landscape is brown, the horizon endless.

There are paths over the peaks of the mountains, but the main routes take the easiest way between two points. There are nearly no climbs or dangerous cliffs involved.

On an average day, she would wake up and leave her inn by sunrise. She was slower than most, but her motto is: “Leave last, walk fast.” Usually, you begin near somewhere you can find something to eat, like a coffee and a muffin. If you are not, a guidebook has likely told you to prepare beforehand.

Pilgrims tend to take a break around 11 a.m. and eat something and rest a bit, then continue on for a few hours. Cianca does not tend to stop much if she can help it; she does not like walking on a full stomach. An average day involves six to eight hours of walking for her.

At the end of the day, you do your laundry and hang everything up, then look around for a place for dinner. The public inns normally have a “lights out and silence by 10 p.m.” policy. The doors are locked, and you cannot come back in if you are late. Sometimes, if everyone knows the next day will be hard due to terrain or weather, the upwards of 15 people all sleeping together will agree on a time when everyone will officially awake.

Cianca’s pilgrimages have taken place in May, June, August, and September. June and August can be very hot, while May and September are normally more temperate. This time, she had three days of rain. She has a rain jacket and cover for her pack and keeps walking. The only thing that stops her is lightning, which is uncommon, she said, except in the mountains.

There is nothing much you can run into that will phase a Canadian, she said with a laugh. You can find a lot of Quebecers on the trails, mostly retirees.

She has “whittled down” how much she carries with her in her pack over the years. It is never more than about 12 pounds, minus food and water.

Cianca has walked more than 3,000 kilometers in Spain alone. She feels like she may be done there for a while, maybe forever. “I feel like I’ve got maybe what I have needed.” There are routes in southern Spain that she has not walked, she admitted, so “never say never”. She is looking forward now to other places, such as Iceland next year.

She does not think that there is really any better way to “divest of everything else that is going on in life”. She finds the encounters she has had with people on her travels precious in a way that she has not found anywhere else. “There’s a purity of spirit”; exhausted people meeting vulnerable heart to vulnerable heart.