What Do You Call This Pilgrimage, Anyway?

One of the interesting things about walking the Camino de Santiago is discovering how many different names exist for the same pilgrimage route. Depending on who you speak with, it may be called the Camino de Santiago, the Way of Saint James, the Jacobean Way, the Xacobean Route, or even the Norse Jakobsland. Each name reflects a different layer of the history and traditions surrounding the pilgrimage and understanding why requires a little background. According to tradition, the apostle James traveled to Hispania to spread the gospel before returning to Judea, where he was martyred under the orders of Herod Agrippa. His disciples are said to have carried his body by sea back to Hispania, landing on the coast of Galicia. From there, they transported his remains inland to an oak forest where he was buried. Tradition also holds that some of his disciples remained to guard the tomb and were later buried nearby.Over time, the location of the burial site was forgotten until the beginning of…