Description
The original Pilgrim’s passport (Spanish: Credencial del Peregrino) is a must-have for pilgrims on the Way of St. James.
If you want to spend the night in a pilgrim hostel, you need a pilgrim’s passport. In these, at the end of the day’s trek, you collect a stamp of the respective hostel, together with the added date. Without a pilgrim’s passport most of the hostels will not accept you as a pilgrim.
Once you arrive in Santiago de Compostela the stamped pilgrim’s passport is valid as a confirmation of the pilgrimage. If you can prove with the pilgrim’s passport that you have made at least the last 100 kilometers on foot or 200 kilometers by bike or horse, the “Compostela” certificate will be issued in the pilgrim’s office for you.
Background:
The pilgrim’s passport has a long tradition: in the Middle Ages the pilgrims have received an issued confirmation by the ecclesiastical institutions at home, with which they could prove that they were “real” pilgrims on the way to Santiago de Compostela.
Nowadays, most of the pilgrim passports are issued by the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. The Cathedral then sends them out to several Jacobus societies, so these can hand them over to the pilgrims in exchange for a nominal fee. In addition to the Cathedral of Santiago, some countries and Jacobus societies have their own edition of the pilgrim’s passports (e.g. Canada, Italy, the St. James Pied de Port James Association).
The pilgrim’s passport that you can purchase at Pilgino, was published by the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela and is obtained from us via the Jacobus association in Astorga. From the total of 3.70 € – 2.00 € go directly to the Jacobus association in Astorga, which in turn shares a part of it with the Cathedral in Santiago. The money is used to support the work of the Jacobus association with its hostel in Astorga and thus, in the end it will benefit the pilgrims again. The remaining € 1.70 consist of VAT and a include a small amount for our efforts.
We are selling the pilgrims’ passports of the Astorga Jacobus association, because Pilgino founder Ansgar Möller has close contact with many members of this association and has worked as a volunteer at the Pilgrims hostel in Astorga frequently. For more information about the work of the association and the pilgrim hostel in Astorga visit: www.caminodesantiagoastorga.com.
If you yourself are interested in serving as Hospitalero in Astorga, feel free to contact us, so we can send you the appropriate information.
Please note: Only order as many pilgrim passports as you really need, and please treat this “document” with appropriate respect. This document has become very cherished and important to many pilgrims during their pilgrimage. On the Spanish camino de Santiago, el Credencial is THE proof of a serious pilgrimage.
