Students prepare for pilgrimage to Santiago
Stephanie Cook
Published On: 10/20/2009
Brimming with travelers from all backgrounds, the Road to Santiago de Compostela can be a transformational journey for all who travel it according to Dr. John Moore.
An associate professor of Spanish at UAB, Moore will take 8-10 students to travel the Road to Santiago, or Camino de Santiago, this May and June as part of the inaugural UAB on the Camino Study Abroad program.
“From the beginning, the Road to Santiago has been open to people of all religious backgrounds and to people of no faith at all, and that still holds true today,” Moore said.
The main branch of the Road to Santiago, known as the French Way, or Camino Francés, begins on Spain’s French border in Roncesvalles and ends in Santiago de Compostela in western Spain.
Classified as a world heritage site by UNESCO, the famous pilgrimage route hosts as many as 250,000 visitors each year.
The UAB on the Camino group will journey on foot the entire way, taking just over a month to make it to Santiago.
Moore chose to do the trip solely on foot rather than with support transportation: “the pace of your life changes when you’re not moving in a motorized vehicle,” he says.
Moore further notes that walking the Camino on foot will give students a greater connection with others sharing the journey: “you wind up travelling with the same group of people…there’s a sort of mobile community that develops.”
Moore has traveled the Camino once before, as a teaching assistant with the Sewanee Summer in Spain program, and reflects, “it’s taken me the past decade to process the richness of that journey.”
He says he has done so by immersing himself in the scholarship surrounding the Road to Santiago and pilgrimage.
Dr. Moore says that few leave the Camino without experiencing some sort of personal change: “the road to Santiago opens up possibilities for transformation.”
The road itself is lined with historical sites and significant monuments, and is host to legends such as that of the hanged pilgrim, whose miraculous rescue is heralded to this day by live chickens housed in the church of Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
The final destination, Santiago, is home to the Cathedral that is believed by some to hold the remains of St. James the Greater, an apostle of Jesus. But the point of pilgrimage is often the journey itself more than the destination.
This trip will take place in three phases according to how the road is divided up.
In the first phase (Roncesvalles to Burgos), students will travel in groups of 4, meeting as a full group for lunch and dinner. In the second phase (Burgos to León), they will travel in groups of 3, meeting as a larger group only for dinner. In the third phase (León to Santiago de Compostela), each student will travel the last stretch to Santiago at his or her own pace.
Along the way, students will present the results of portfolios prepared in advance of the trip, will gather data for an investigative report to be prepared in the month after the journey, and will keep an academic and personal journal.
“This program is designed in part to cultivate independence,” Moore said. “What this is is an opportunity to break away for a time…to reflect, and that’s something that’s not to be taken for granted in a society in which we lead such busy lives.”
Although students will travel the last phase of the trip at their own pace, they will make a pact not to enter the Cathedral of Santiago until everyone has arrived at the appointed daily time and gathering place outside of the building.
This will allow the group to share the final experience as a reunited community.
Moore is a co-editor of The Road to Santiago and Pilgrimage, a special issue of the journal La corónica, featuring a collection of essays concerning the pilgrimage to Santiago, its history, art, culture, literature, and legends.
Additionally, he has written articles and other works on the subject.
The trip dates are May 19-June 25, 2010. To be eligible for the trip, students must have at least a sophomore standing by the summer, have at least a 3.0 GPA, and it is preferred that they have 6 hours of Spanish language at the 200-level or higher. Course credit also is available in fields such as International Studies, Anthropology, History, and the UAB Honors program, and the possibility for other cross-listings exists, as well.
Students who are accepted into the program will complete a 1-credit hour class in Spring 2010 in preparation for the trip.
Applications are due by November 2. Visit www.studyabroad.app.uab.edu for more details and to download the application. Or feel free to contact Moore directly at jkmoore@uab.edu.
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