History & Legend 

The first millennium of Christianism has known three sacred routes, which would bless whoever crossed one of them. One of those roads would lead to the relics of Jack the apostle, buried in a sight of the Iberic peninsula where, a certain night, a shepherd had seen a star shine over a field. According to the legend, holy Jack and the Virgin Mary herself passed by after the death of Jesus Christ, carrying the word of the gospel and  exhorting the populations to convert themselves.  The sight took the name of Compostelle – the star of the field – and soon a city was built which would attract voyagers from all of the Christianity.  To those who where crossing this third sacred route, we gave the name of ‘pilgrims’ and they took as a symbol, a shell.

At its golden age, at the 14th century, more than one million people, coming from all of Europe, crossed each year the ‘milky way’ (which owes its name to the fact that, at night, the pilgrims oriented themselves by that galaxy.)  Now days still, the mystics, the religious and the researchers go by foot the seven hundred kilometres which separates the French city of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port from the cathedral of Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle, in Spain. Taken from the book of Paolo Coelho, The Pilgrim of Compostelle.

The pilgrim of today, if he doesn’t meet the difficulties or basic comfort of then, finds on  « its path » the spirituality of the place filled with history, the sharing of friendship, tolerance and respect, serenity.

Testimony of Bernard - "A pilgrim in the light"

« In two years, I have walked around 2 000 kilometres without being able to speak even once of a discomfort or a tension between pilgrims and that, even with the fatigue and the sufferance ! ! ! I live which is for certain a nice utopia, although, the road of  Compostelle leaves sight for which could be a society based on Fraternity. » www.chemins-compostelle.com

Notice: I have  discovered that the 6th of  may 2006 took place a walk around  l’Isle-aux-Coudres, in Charlevoix.  201 pilgrims from all over Quebec walked between sky and river! This march of 26 kilometres gives a one day taste on the camino.  quebec@duquebecacompostelle.org