Starting Point Question for registering for Compostela

[slmoser]

On the website it asks your starting point. We started in St Jean, however for various reasons, had to skip a stage here and there but will be walking Sarria to Santiago. Do I put St Jean as my starting point or should I put Sarria?

Thank you!

 

[Tincatinker]

For the purpose of claiming a Compostela it is only required that you walk from Sarria ( or it’s equivalents ). I’ve no idea what might happen if you post USA as your starting point but it might be fun. That was where you started your journey to Santiago’s bones wasn’t it?

 

[henrythedog]

On the website it asks your starting point. We started in St Jean, however for various reasons, had to skip a stage here and there but will be walking Sarria to Santiago. Do I put St Jean as my starting point or should I put Sarria?

Thank you!

Sarria

 

[C clearly]

Sarria

NO! I think it should be SJPP. It has no relevance to qualifying for a compostela, but is more accurate in terms of the statistics that they are collecting about pilgrims.

I hope someone who really knows (I am only guessing here) will come along and answer the question with more certainty..

 

[Flog]

it isn't always straightforward..

What folk put as the starting point on the form isn't critical as the staff can manipulate the details and the distance on the database after looking through the credencial and chatting with them (though of course, and with some thought, you should be as accurate as you can). In this particular case, if you the pilgrim wanted a distance cert, and we established there were just one or two short breaks, I would put SJPDP as the starting point and subtract the couple of bus trips. But if it looked like you were on and off buses all across Spain with lots of missing stamps but started walking in earnest from Sarria, then I'd put Sarria, plain and simple, 115km. Once the certs are printed, that information gets logged automatically as a statistic. In other words, nobody is a statistic until their certs are printed.

The online form can be confusing and you can't always put what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need..

 

[henrythedog]

NO! I think it should be SJPP. It has no relevance to qualifying for a compostela, but is more accurate in terms of the statistics that they are collecting about pilgrims.

I hope someone who really knows (I am only guessing here) will come along and answer the question with more certainty..

If the OP were to ask for a distance certificate then would that not be based on the point from which a continuous evidenced journey started, and is that not therefore the starting point? (That is a question not a statement).

 

[trecile]

If the OP were to ask for a distance certificate then would that not be based on the point from which a continuous evidenced journey started, and is that not therefore the starting point? (That is a question not a statement).

See @Flog's post right above yours.

 

[dougfitz]

On the website it asks your starting point. We started in St Jean, however for various reasons, had to skip a stage here and there but will be walking Sarria to Santiago. Do I put St Jean as my starting point or should I put Sarria?

Thank you!

My wife and I faced a similar situation a few years ago, well before the current system was introduced. If you walk from Sarria, then it will make no difference to your Compostela. The more difficult problem is the distance certificate.

My wife went to the emergency department at Burgos Hospital, and was diagnosed with an allergy to wheat pollen. This was in May, and the prospect of walking the meseta was not appealing. We took the train to Leon, where she stayed for a couple more days while I walked on. Later, we took the bus from Fonfria to Sarria.

When we arrived at the Pilgrim Office with this more complicated walking history, one of the Pilgrim Office supervisors carefully calculated the distances that would be acknowledged on our distance certificate, presumably based on the authorised distances from each of the towns where we had stopped and re-started. This took a little time, but we really did appreciate the effort that was made to do this.

 

[slmoser]

For the purpose of claiming a Compostela it is only required that you walk from Sarria ( or it’s equivalents ). I’ve no idea what might happen if you post USA as your starting point but it might be fun. That was where you started your journey to Santiago’s bones wasn’t it?

Technically yea but I’m certain they mean once we arrived to walk our Camino…

 

[Bradypus]

I’ve no idea what might happen if you post USA as your starting point but it might be fun.

The last time I asked for a Compostela I named a starting point in Galicia which was not on the office database or an officially recognised Camino and was told that I would be listed as having started from Neda - the first point at which my walking route met a designated Camino.

 

[Kathar1na]

I see that @slmoser has received an authoritative answer from @Flog who has quite a bit of practical and recent experience as a volunteer at the Pilgrim Office in Santiago. With that out of the way ... :

Their system of providing certificates for pilgrims and certainly their design of the webpages for requesting such certificates provides a number of reasons to be annoyed or amused or both but in general it provides joy. On the whole, pilgrims enjoy getting their Compostela and/or Distance Certificate, certainly when they are first-time Camino peregrin@s.

Obtaining and processing their statistical data does not correspond to rigorous professional standards. But it is their system and it has presumably grown out of a handwritten list that someone started one day. It presumably serves their purposes. It is not their fault when the data are used by us, by the news media, by numerous authors, whether writing popular articles and guidebooks or more serious "papers" that these data get interpreted in a way that does not reflect a reliable picture of reality, like when it is wrongly assumed that they reflect the whole population of those who walk and arrive or pass through Santiago for example while it is only those who are motivated to go to the office and be counted in the process.

 

[slmoser]

I appreciate very much all the responses! Buen Camino!!

 

[Sueski]

it isn't always straightforward..

What folk put as the starting point on the form isn't critical as the staff can manipulate the details and the distance on the database after looking through the credencial and chatting with them (though of course, and with some thought, you should be as accurate as you can). In this particular case, if you the pilgrim wanted a distance cert, and we established there were just one or two short breaks, I would put SJPDP as the starting point and subtract the couple of bus trips. But if it looked like you were on and off buses all across Spain with lots of missing stamps but started walking in earnest from Sarria, then I'd put Sarria, plain and simple, 115km. Once the certs are printed, that information gets logged automatically as a statistic. In other words, nobody is a statistic until their certs are printed.

The online form can be confusing and you can't always put what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need..

 

[Vince Rollason]

On the website it asks your starting point. We started in St Jean, however for various reasons, had to skip a stage here and there but will be walking Sarria to Santiago. Do I put St Jean as my starting point or should I put Sarria?

Thank you!

On my second Camino I walked from SJPDP to Pamplona where I got very sick. I had to come home and have two weeks of antibiotics and another week of recovery. I then returned to Spain and walked from Sarria to SDC. I presented my credential and explained this to the person issuing the Compostela. They also issued me with a Certificate of Distance Walked. They calculated the distance and noted the two sections walked on it for me. Hope this helps.
Buen Camino
Vince

 

[Camino Chrissy]

I have finished the second half of the Norte last week, but when it finally joined up with the Frances at Arzua I decided to take a bus in to Santiago to avoid the conga lines, as I was not planning to get another Compostela.
A bit off topic, but since I have been staying exclusively in private rooms in pension's, etc, I have been very disappointed in the majority of stamps I have collected for memories as they seem to have no artistic quality and are very generic. The bars are the same, too, but I guess they are all better than nothing.

 

[mustang2actual]

This has been a helpful post. When I arrive in Madrid, my plan is to trek around town before taking the train to Leon that same day. My Camino will be presented Leon to SDC for the Compostela, if all goes according to plan.