Certificate in Fatima?

[Martijnx98]

Next summer I will walk from Lisbon to Fatima, take train to Porto and then walk from Porto to Santiago. Does anyone know if it is possible to get a certificate in Fatima as well?

 

[Tincatinker]

If you need a prize this website may help: https://caminhosdefatima.org/en/information

 

[Martijnx98]

Yes, I found that website this evening. It is very usefull to collect information about the route, but it does only say something about the credential and about collecting stamps. But not about a certificate. Maybe someone on this forum has walked to Fatima, and expercienced something like recieving it or not.

 

[Tincatinker]

Yes, I found that website this evening. It is very usefull to collect information about the route, but it does only say something about the credential and about collecting stamps. But not about a certificate. Maybe someone on this forum has walked to Fatima, and expercienced something like recieving it or not.

I thought the website was quite explicit: the credencial and the stamps are the certificate. There is no equivalent or substitute of the Compostela. That remains unique to the pilgrim to the bones of Santiago. For the pilgrim to Fatima Fatima is the prize.

 

[jungleboy]

I don’t believe there is a certificate. We walked Lisbon-Fátima this year and had a Fátima credential but never heard any mention of a certificate.

 

[David L]

I walked from Nazaré to Fátima in the spring of 2023 (on a highly modified CP). In Fátima, there was a stamp only, no certificate. The office at the sanctuary had no idea of one.

 

[JabbaPapa]

That remains unique to the pilgrim to the bones of Santiago.

There's a similar certificate for pilgrims to Rome.

 

[Bradypus]

There's a similar certificate for pilgrims to Rome.

Indeed. Known as the Testimonium.

The Testimonium - Via Francigena

The Testimonium is a document that certifies the completion of a pilgrimage to Rome undertaken in a religious spirit. This is the counterpart of the “Compostela”, which is obtained on […]

www.viefrancigene.org

 

[Tincatinker]

Thank you for the enlightenment gentlemen

 

[Gearóid]

Next summer I will walk from Lisbon to Fatima, take train to Porto and then walk from Porto to Santiago. Does anyone know if it is possible to get a certificate in Fatima as well?

Yes, I got mine in Fatima this year ….. there’s an office near where outside mass is celebrated ….. on the left, looking at Cathedral. Compostellas are issued there.

 

[Tincatinker]

Yes, I got mine in Fatima this year ….. there’s an office near where outside mass is celebrated ….. on the left, looking at Cathedral. Compostellas are issued there.

@Gearóid, you've probably surprised most of us. Any chance you could post a photo or a scan of that "compostela"?

 

[Gearóid]

Yes, I got mine in Fatima this year ….. there’s an office near where outside mass is celebrated ….. on the left, looking at Cathedral. Compostellas are issued there.

My apologies!! I got a stamp there…… I didn’t get a Compostella…….. but a got a blister crossing the hills from Santarem to Fatima .

 

[The Yukon]

My apologies!! I got a stamp there…… I didn’t get a Compostella…….. but a got a blister crossing the hills from Santarem to Fatima .

Perhaps the second greatest prize is the Fatima shirt, opposite colours and arrow direction, and extremely rare on the streets of SdC.

 

[Perambulating Griffin]

I understand that the pilgrimage to Fatima does not have a history of requiring “proof” to any authority that the pilgrimage was made. Perhaps because it is relatively new as a shrine and so foot travel to it has not been common or quasi necessary as the means of conveyance. The certificates for Rome and Santiago suggest a need to settle any doubts that the destination was achieved (in the face of long distances required over very difficult roads and in perilous circumstances; i.e., without certification folks at home might doubt the objective had been made.
Fatima, by contrast, arrives *pretty much* with the car… and the shrine is easily accessed by car and by bus, in large groups, often shepherded by a parish priest from home, and a Marian shrine tour operator.
It makes a certificate of achievement of the objective, which is to visit the shrine, unimportant.
As people note here, the credenciale and stamps are your keepsake to remember the walk, but the walk is not a material/circumstantial necessity (whether one “walks” by means of conveyance on horse or donkey being a well-understood probability when these other, antique pilgrimages were established).

 

[Bradypus]

The certificates for Rome and Santiago suggest a need to settle any doubts that the destination was achieved (in the face of long distances required over very difficult roads and in perilous circumstances; i.e., without certification folks at home might doubt the objective had been made.

I think the Testimonium in Rome is a fairly direct attempt to follow the lead of the Caminos and the Compostela. Even the conditions are effectively the same - walk the final 100km and produce a stamped credencial as evidence. The Via Francigena was not really re-established as a walking route until the late 1990s and until the past 10 years or so numbers walking the route have been tiny by Santiago standards. The same is true for the various Olavsleden routes in Norway and Sweden which are recent developments and where the conditions for receiving the Olavsbrevet are much the same. The vast majority of pilgrims to Rome arrive by plane, bus or train. Those of us who turn up on foot are the peculiar exceptions!

 

[Perambulating Griffin]

I think the Testimonium in Rome is a fairly direct attempt to follow the lead of the Caminos and the Compostela. Even the conditions are effectively the same - walk the final 100km and produce a stamped credencial as evidence. The Via Francigena was not really re-established as a walking route until the late 1990s and until the past 10 years or so numbers walking the route have been tiny by Santiago standards. The same is true for the various Olavsleden routes in Norway and Sweden which are recent developments and where the conditions for receiving the Olavsbrevet are much the same. The vast majority of pilgrims to Rome arrive by plane, bus or train. Those of us who turn up on foot are the peculiar exceptions!

No doubt... but I don't think it changes the point I was making. Dates and popularity of certifications, as well as their putative necessity seems to shift over time.
But the "grand tour" is not new... indeed, was the herald of a 'properly educated' member of more privileged classes going back at least to the 16th Century as *established". To become established requires that it had some feasibility and popularity prior to its being an established thing. That is: prior to making significant enough an impact to enter the official record, people are usually creating and "doing culture".

And yes, a significant piece of my point is that arriving to most shrines happens by the easiest conveyance mode possible. "On foot" -- as I noted in my post -- even for Santiago might be on the feet of the animal carrying the pilgrim...

I have little patience for the modern imposition of "walking meditation" onto the way of St. James (or any other). Yes, walking a pilgrimage route can be health restoring, but walking the whole distance and *refusing* to visit the pilgrimage site (as happens often enough), or casting the site(s) as "Disneyland for Catholics" (graffiti on a wall in Santiago approaching the stairs down to the Plaza Obradoiro, and a refrain I've encountered often enough in casual conversation) seems to miss that *the destination* is the point. For me, a lapsed Catholic, it took three arrivals in Santiago to meet the destination. Timing... catastrophe... distraction... but on the third arrival, I made it to the destination. To get *there* changed everything for me, and a certificate from the office cannot speak to that (though I do display some of them quite proudly, especially the 2 Vicarie Pro compostelas.

Where I think the certification matter comes in with Santiago has to do with the use of the routes as a sometime ejection method for punishing criminals. But there is a historical record to indicate that one could not head out on the road without some sort of permission (from one's parish priest, from a magistrate).

The matter of certificates in their modern/present iteration really confuses purposes, IMHO. And I find the idea of a certificate for walking to Fatima to be.... mmmmm.... *troubling*. How one arrives there, building an economy of tourism along the way... that does not bother me. I think that's great. Follow the blue arrows! But turning the arrival into a quest for a completion document does seem to miss the point of the sacred nature of visiting *the shrine*.

 

[Bradypus]

But there is a historical record to indicate that one could not head out on the road without some sort of permission (from one's parish priest, from a magistrate).

I was refused a credencial in SJPDP on my first Camino. One of the reasons cited was that I was not a member of a confraternity and did not have a letter of recommendation from my local parish priest.

 

[Tincatinker]

Ah, the famous Madame Debril? Lovely lady; great sense of humour...

 

[Bradypus]

Ah, the famous Madame Debril? Lovely lady; great sense of humour...

Disturbing her at lunchtime didn't exactly improve my chances! She had a very clear personal idea of what pilgrimage and pilgrims should be. And defended that concept. I don't think that she was arbitrary or capricious in her judgements. She dedicated a great deal of her time and energy to the Camino. I consider myself fortunate to have met her even if I didn't receive her full approval.

 

[Perambulating Griffin]

I was refused a credencial in SJPDP on my first Camino. One of the reasons cited was that I was not a member of a confraternity and did not have a letter of recommendation from my local parish priest.

Amazing! How the ‘rules’ have changed…