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Compostela if you split Frances?

Panka

returning pilgrim
Time of past OR future Camino
2016 sept. 4 - CF
2019 sept. 2 - CF
Hi pilgrims,

I am wondering if you walk the camino frances or any other camino route partially during the year and ultimately you do it in 2-3 years and you collect the stamps during this trips in the same pilgrim passport, will you receive the compostela for the whole route or only for the last trip you make?
Eg. you can only take a break for a week or two during the year so you start in St Jean and go until you can. Than the next year you continue from where previous year you finished and you go further and so on.
Will they consider as you fulfilled the whole frances or not? (Because you can choose from standard compostela and the one which includes also the amount of distance you took)

Thank you,
Anikó
 
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As far as I know there is only one Compostela offered and the minimum requirement is that you walk the final 100km to Santiago. Anyone who qualifies for a Compostela can then request an additional distance certificate from the pilgrim office. I believe that this would show the total distance of all your stages combined, not only your final stage.
 
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I think a lot of local Spaniards do it in segments over 2-3 years. The pilgrim's office doesn't care. No matter what, you get a compostela for walking from at least Sarria to Santiago.
cheers
 
There is only one compostela, not one with distances and one without. The document that includes distances is called the Certificate of distance.

For the Compostela, only the last 100 km count, and there is nothing that says that they have to be done continuously. It does not mention where you started or distance, nor the Camino you walked. After all, the Compostela is about you arriving in Santiago to visit the Saint's tomb. Take a look at what the Pilgrims' Office says on the topic:

https://oficinadelperegrino.com/en/pilgrimage/the-compostela/

For the certificate of distance it has starting date, end date, and Camino walked with distance.

I don't know the answer and would like to. I guess that if you walk the Frances over a period of three years it could either only take into account the last section or say you covered the whole thing with a starting date of three years ago, ending this year. Take a look here:

https://oficinadelperegrino.com/en/pilgrimage/certificate-of-distance/
 
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Oh, and in my opinion there are "whole Caminos". For example, the Primitivo starts in Oviedo. Not in Santander. If you walked from Santander to Oviedo no one would say you had not been walking on the Norte. I am also sure the association of this or that Camino are quote sure of where their responsibilities start and end. Also, no one will say that if you are walking from Pamplona to Burgos that you are on the Puy en Velay just because you started you walk in Le puy.

What is true is that your pilgrimage starts where ever you started to head towards Santiago. Your whole pilgrimage may have been from Sarria to Santiago, even if that is only a small portion of the Frances.
 
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well I got a distance certificate for the whole length of the frances and I only did the first week from sjpdp to los arcos one year and then tricastella to sdc the following year!!! Only noticed it afterwards...! I don't think they are too atickey about the distance one. But are more rigorous about the compeatella
 
If you walked from Santander to Oviedo noone would say you had not been walking on the Norte.
You mean, everyone will agree you did walk the Norte. Am I getting what you mean? If yes, nice! It took me a bit to get there :oops:

I am also sure the association of this or that Camino are quote sure of where their responsabilities start and end.
I agree with you, they do! They even cut whole Caminos into bits and pieces ;) We know it too, when signs, posts and other marks change on the way...

Also, noone will say that if you are walking from Pamplona to Burgos that you are on the Puy en Velay just because you started you walk in Le puy.
You mean, everyone will say the you are walking and the Frances, because Le Puy route ended in SJPdP and is behind you now. Again, did I get it? Took me another bit to get there :oops:

I agree with you, there are different sort of "whole" Caminos. Depends on one's perspective :)


full
 
There are not too many pilgrims in continental Europe that think SJPdP is the starting point. HaPe Kerkeling started there, and may have set a standard for Germans, but half the pilgrims are from Spain, and they start there only if they want a Pyrenees crossing.;)

For a discontinuous pilgrimage in the last 100 km, get a second dated stamp when you restart.
 
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There is only one compostela, not one with distances and one without. The document that includes distances is called the Certificate of distance.

For the Compostela, only the last 100 km count, and there is nothing that says that they have to be done continuously.

I had always thought that the last 100 km must be done continuously and the CSJ site states that is the case but the page which Anemone refers to seems to contradict this? :confused:

Or does, in one stretch, just mean without gaps?
 
For a discontinuous pilgrimage in the last 100 km, get a second dated stamp when you restart.
To add to this, it is important to get a stamp at the place you leave the last 100km, and get a stamp there when you recommence This demonstrates that the distance is continuous when the time isn't.
 
Having started walking the Camino Frances in 2012 and completed it in September 2016 I can tell you it is perfectly acceptable to walk it in stages. You definitely need the sello / stamps in you credential to prove you've walked the final 100km to reach Santiago. I had very few spaces left for stamps in my credential by the time it came to walking the final 100km but made sure I had one per day at each overnight stop and sometimes two per day. I had no problems getting my compostela and I also received a certificate for the distance . This showed my start point and start date. For the walk on to Finisterre I got a new credential from the tourist office in SdeC. The office in Finisterre checked this for stamps and gave me a certificate for that walk.
 
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I had very few spaces left for stamps in my credential by the time it came to walking the final 100km but made sure I had one per day at each overnight stop and sometimes two per day.
While there are many people here who will attest to the fact that they still received the compostela with just one stamp a day in the final 100km, the formal requirement from the Pilgrim Office is that two stamps a day are needed. If one is running out of space, it is always possible to get another credential. I faced that problem this year, and ended up having a total of three credentials when I reached Santiago.
 
Dougfitz I am aware one can obtain extra credentials but I wanted to have all my stamps on one. Obviously 2 stamps per day seems to be the formal requirement but quite honestly I knew I'd done that walk, if they gave me the certificate fine if not, not a problem. I was walking because it was a walk I wanted to complete and not walking in order to receive a certificate.
 
Dougfitz I am aware one can obtain extra credentials but I wanted to have all my stamps on one. Obviously 2 stamps per day seems to be the formal requirement but quite honestly I knew I'd done that walk, if they gave me the certificate fine if not, not a problem. I was walking because it was a walk I wanted to complete and not walking in order to receive a certificate.
I think it is great that you did finish, and get the compostela. But in the context of this thread, there are some very specific requirements set by the Pilgrim Office, both for the number of stamps required and how to demonstrate the continuity of one's pilgrimage if it has to be split in time during the last 100km. It would be a great shame if someone who wanted to receive the compostela took the same approach as you did, and then did not get the certificate because they had not observed the Pilgrim Office requirements.
 
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Dougf itz My answer was to tell the O.P that one can walk the Camino in sections, stopping for a time and then picking up the route at a later date. Yes, walkers need to prove they've walked the last 100km and should aim to have at least two stamps per day in their credential prove this. I was just posting my personal experience and had no wish to mislead anyone.
 
Hi pilgrims,

I am wondering if you walk the camino frances or any other camino route partially during the year and ultimately you do it in 2-3 years and you collect the stamps during this trips in the same pilgrim passport, will you receive the compostela for the whole route or only for the last trip you make?
Eg. you can only take a break for a week or two during the year so you start in St Jean and go until you can. Than the next year you continue from where previous year you finished and you go further and so on.
Will they consider as you fulfilled the whole frances or not? (Because you can choose from standard compostela and the one which includes also the amount of distance you took)

Thank you,
Anikó
 
I was just posting my personal experience and had no wish to mislead anyone.
I hope that I didn't give the impression that you were misleading anyone. I thought you were quite clear that you didn't get two stamps, and in your later post, why that was an acceptable risk to you. As I said, many others in this forum, including me, have found over the years that only getting one sello a day from Sarria is sufficient when we have started further from Santiago.
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
I had always thought that the last 100 km must be done continuously and the CSJ site states that is the case but the page which Anemone refers to seems to contradict this? :confused:

Or does, in one stretch, just mean without gaps?

We've been over this ground before. The Pilgrims' Office requires that pilgrims walk the entire stretch of at least 100 kms into Santiago without any gaps. However it doesn't all have to be done at the same time. Many Spanish pilgrims earn the Compostela by walking at weekends. What the Pilgrims' Office asks is that in that event pilgrims have a dated sello at the point they stop and a dated sello at that same point when they start again.

The other myth popularised by the CSJ is that pilgrims should not get sellos from too many bars. This is nonsense. The Pilgrims' Office only asks for two sellos per day in the last 100 kms - they express no strong view on where they are obtained.
 
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I would tend to disagree with Johnywalker's statement regarding stamps, as the Pilgrims' Office website says:


"Stamps from churches, hostels, monasteries, cathedrals and all places related to the Way are preferred, but if not they can also be stamped in other institutions: town halls, cafés, etc. ". A reminder this is a pilgrimage, a religious one.

A view as to which stamps are prefered, which of course doesn't mean they will not grant you a Compostela.
 
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May I ask a question about the Certificate of Distance, provided by the Pigrim's Office in Santiago? I have started walking in Le Puy about a month ago, but as a slow walker on current progress will most likely run out of my 90 day visa about a week or so before making it to Santiago. One option i'm considering is to take a bus over some of the distance to enable me to still manage the final 120 kms into Santiago. In a case such as this, how would the Pilgrim's Office regard the Distance covered? Does taking motorised transport mean the distance walked beforehand is 'deleted' or is the distance by bus simply deducted from the total distance walked? I'm not fixated on getting the Certificate, but am a bit curious. Many thanks.
 
May I ask a question about the Certificate of Distance, provided by the Pigrim's Office in Santiago? I have started walking in Le Puy about a month ago, but as a slow walker on current progress will most likely run out of my 90 day visa about a week or so before making it to Santiago. One option i'm considering is to take a bus over some of the distance to enable me to still manage the final 120 kms into Santiago. In a case such as this, how would the Pilgrim's Office regard the Distance covered? Does taking motorised transport mean the distance walked beforehand is 'deleted' or is the distance by bus simply deducted from the total distance walked? I'm not fixated on getting the Certificate, but am a bit curious. Many thanks.
Those here who have actually worked the desk (and I know there are some) can answer more authoritatively. But I don't think they are as strict with the Distance Certificates as they are with the Compostelas.
 

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