page_title: Camino de Santiago
section_title: As penance
hierarchical_section_title: Camino de Santiago / History / As penance
caption_attribution_description: English: St.James' shell at a well of the Way, Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, Languedoc-Roussillon, France
context_page_description: The Camino de Santiago, known in English as the Way of St. James, is a network of pilgrims' ways or pilgrimages leading to the shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the saint are buried. Many follow its routes as a form of spiritual path or retreat for their spiritual growth. It is also popular with hiking and cycling enthusiasts and organized tour groups, and can be seen within the context of Christian colonization and Christianization.
  The French Way and the Routes of Northern Spain are the courses listed in the World Heritage List by UNESCO.
context_section_description: The Church employed a system of rituals, known as penance, to atone for temporal punishment due to sins. According to this system, pilgrimages were a suitable form of expiation for some temporal punishment, and they could be used as acts of penance for those who were guilty of certain crimes. As noted in the Catholic Encyclopedia:
  In the registers of the Inquisition at Carcassone...we find the four following places noted as being the centres of the greater pilgrimages to be imposed as penances for the graver crimes: the tomb of the Apostles at Rome, the shrine of St. James at Compostella [sic], St. Thomas' body at Canterbury, and the relics of the Three Kings at Cologne.
  There is still a tradition in Flanders of pardoning and releasing one prisoner every year under the condition that, accompanied by a guard, the prisoner walks to Santiago wearing a heavy backpack.
caption: Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert
exif: {}