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Beheading of Saint James
St James the great, brother of St John, is beheaded as a martyr in Jerusalem. St James is thought to be one of Jesus' first disciples -
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The Symbol of the Scallop
The scallop symbol has long been the symbol of the Camino De Santiago. It is said that when Saint James died his disciple’s shipped his body to the Spanish peninsula but along the voyage the ship sank, but St James’s body washed to shore covered by scallops undamaged. It is now tradition for pilgrims to bring back a scallop shell. -
814
The burial of St James
The body of St James is believed to be buried in Santiago de Compostela, the capital city of the autonomous region of Galicia in northern Spain and the final stop of the pilgrimage. The burial was supposedly rediscovered by a hermit named Pelagoius in 814. King Alfonso of Asturias and Galicia ordered a cathedral built on site. -
834
At the Battle of Clavijo
It is also believed that St James appeared and fought, long after his death, in the fictional battle of Clavijo for the Chirstian side to expel the Muslims from Iberia in 834. -
Changes of the Camino de Santiago
Since the original pilgrimage made by the people of the medieval ages, much has changed. Since the 1990's, 300,000 pilgrims (as of 2017) have made the trip. The pilgrimage now has the option to bike, book accommodation along the road and take trips along many different routes. -
Changes within the Beliefs
In modern times, a fraction of people would walk the Camino de Santiago as a walk rather than a religious journey. As such, some traditions and rituals would not be enacted as much as it may have been in the past
