Rent a Pilgrim

[peregrina2000]

Now here's something that all of us repeat offenders on the Camino should consider.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rent-pilgrim-walk-fatima-2-700-044518776.html

 

[Anemone del Camino]

I wonder how he documents having said the rosary for an additional 250€. Tapes it on an Iphone and emails it to the client?

 

[LTfit]

Now here's something that all of us repeat offenders on the Camino should consider.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rent-pilgrim-walk-fatima-2-700-044518776.html

Always said that if someone would pay me to walk I would change careers

 

[jo webber]

Interesting job.

 

[Bala]

Well, this guy could certainly ease up the bed crunch on the Frances. We could all just pay him a few thousand bucks and just stay home.

I wonder if he charges extra for Pain and Suffering ..... say, blisters, €20 per occurrence; shin splints, €50 each; plantar fasciitis, maybe €200? Hey, why not?

 

[wayfarer]

This used to happen back in the day when nobles had to do a pilgrimage to offset some great sin. They would nominate a servant to walk it for them, no €2,700 for them, just do it for the master.

 

[JulieandPeter]

I am imagining his potential clients reluctantly walking along the Camino, a message etched on the shells dangling from their backpacks:"I'd rather be (fill in the blank)."

On a more serious note, it seems anyone willing to pay someone to walk the Camino for them instead of walking it themselves must have some deep felt reason for doing so.

 

[CaptBuddy]

Capitalism reached its icy fingers into every nook.

 

[Christian Hiriart]

I don't see why not. He is offering a service where both parties benefit...

 

[JulieandPeter]

I agree. . . . Although I think his clients will be cheated out of a heart warming experience just like anyone who hires someone to do something they don't have time to do . . . like finding joy in folding the laundry or being elbow deep in warm suds while washing dishes OR . . . walking 500 miles across Spain. My sense is the people who hire this man really don't think they can do it themselves and for some reason they think they need this redemption. I hope he is a good person and not taking advantage of them.

 

[Anemone del Camino]

Another way to get paid tp walk is to accompany "at risk" youth. Minimal wage, but 24 hours a day, plus another month of pay at the end necause of tne full 24 hour "shifts".

 

[JulieandPeter]

Another way to get paid tp walk is to accompany "at risk" youth. Minimal wage, but 24 hours a day, plus another month of pay at the end necause of tne full 24 hour "shifts".

I would do that for free.

 

[Anemone del Camino]

I would do that for free.

You are not alone. I was surprised when I leanred it's a paying gig.

 

[Icacos]

I would do that for free.

That's a lovely idea.

 

[simeon]

for free????? Is it not a rule of capitalism that anything that is free has no value?? However I'm happy to do it once my expenses are paid. I wont stay in paradors every night! any takers? I'll send photos each day and a blog of what a "miserable" time I'm having.

 

[RENSHAW]

In 2003 I came across such a chap - Spanish , early 60s. He would stop for a good lunch and always went out at night for a pilgrim menu. He only slept in Albergues and was pretty serious about the pilgrimage ; one did get the impression he was doing a job. I suppose at the end of the day he would hand over his compostella and credencials to whoever paid him.
Then last year I met a French woman who was walking with a young offender. I think the state pay people to accompany problem youngsters on the camino. She said that they only had a budget of €15 per day between them which I think was farcical - they are paid quite handsomely for this work.

 

[Carlos Santiago]

Wow! I have seen paid intercessors performing variations of the rosary, the novena and the Sto. Niño candle-lighting dance&chant, the passion-of-Christ chanters during holy week, and "professional" mourners who I'm sure will eventually raise the dead with their wails. The pilgrim-for-hire ups the stakes this time.

I wonder if there are (religious) flagellants for hire too.

 

[Bala]

Well, I guess this guy can charge whatever he wants. But if he steps on a bus or uses a bag transport, we'll all know he's not a True Pilgrim!

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Another way to view the embedded video above is through this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZfXenK2fE4​

I'm posting it this way so you can copy and paste the url to use
elsewhere or maybe so you can view the video in full screen mode.

 

[Anemone del Camino]

Then last year I met a French woman who was walking with a young offender. I think the state pay people to accompany problem youngsters on the camino. She said that they only had a budget of €15 per day between them which I think was farcical - they are paid quite handsomely for this work.

It's a non profit association that organises and pays for this, with the ok of the courts, etc. They get a daily stipped'md lf 16€ each, for food and lodging. The "offender" also gets 3€ per day as pocket money, so they can buy cigarettes, or candy, depending on their age.

With 16€ a day, kt's difficult to explain that "donativo" does not mean "free".

There is also budget for visiting monuments, museums, etc. The association pays for the backpack, clothes, etc the "offender" needs. In the case lf the boy I walked along woth for a few days, it had cost about 400€ I'm told.

 

[mspath]

It's a non profit association that organises and pays for this, with the ok of the courts, etc. They get a daily stipped'md lf 16€ each, for food and lodging. The "offender" also gets 3€ per day as pocket money, so they can buy cigarettes, or candy, depending on their age.

With 16€ a day, kt's difficult to explain that "donativo" does not mean "free".

There is also budget for visiting monuments, museums, etc. The association pays for the backpack, clothes, etc the "offender" needs. In the case lf the boy I walked along woth for a few days, it had cost about 400€ I'm told.

For more information re such rehabilitative programs during the recent past on the camino see these earlier Forum threads.
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/juvenile-penitent-pilgrims.1043/

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/court-ordered-camino.42950/

 

[J F Gregory]

This used to happen back in the day when nobles had to do a pilgrimage to offset some great sin. They would nominate a servant to walk it for them, no €2,700 for them, just do it for the master.

The Israelites used goats as their way of getting rid of their sins. The would make sacrifice and put the mains on the goat and release them into the wilderness. That is where the term 'Scape goat ' comes from.

 

[KinkyOne]

Now here's something that all of us repeat offenders on the Camino should consider.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rent-pilgrim-walk-fatima-2-700-044518776.html

I would do that kind of thing in a second. I can go tomorrow
I've heard that was the medieval routine also. I believe either @mspath or @Kathar1na would know more about it.

Anyway if there's a soul that can't walk and would subsidies me for a "walk" just PM me. Really!!!

 

[KinkyOne]

Then last year I met a French woman who was walking with a young offender. I think the state pay people to accompany problem youngsters on the camino. She said that they only had a budget of €15 per day between them which I think was farcical - they are paid quite handsomely for this work.

Actually they are not paid any more than that. I've met a Swiss lady named Marina (she opened an albergue on Norte I think) in A Laxe albergue in 2014 with a young French lad. If I remember correctly there was an amount approx.15€ and they were carrying a tent to spend less weather permitting. But that thing certainly isnt'r a vacation. She was alerted all the time for this boy.

 

[KinkyOne]

...
In his own words, courtesy of the AFP news agency: The service itself is not controversial. What is controversial, is the money I ask for it. ... As for me, I'm fine with it. Love his smile when he says that at the end of the clip (see below).

My grin would be even wider

 

[CaptBuddy]

Reminds me of another lost ritual/custom. This was practiced in the Rural USA Southeast well into the 20th century.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-shropshire-11360659

 

[flippinkittin]

Capitalism reached its icy fingers into every nook.

If you read up on the history of the camino, this is not new, or unheard of. In the past there were pilgrims on their own spiritual journey, forced pilgrims (an alternative punishment akin to imprisonment), and pilgrims who were walking in the name of someone else.

 

[Shaun_Casteneda]

Now here's something that all of us repeat offenders on the Camino should consider.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rent-pilgrim-walk-fatima-2-700-044518776.html

I noticed this thread today and experienced something last year very similar. A car pulled up outside a bar and a guy gets out and walks across the road sits at a small table where there was water, oranges and watermelons for passing pilgrims.
The next moment he pulls out a stack of pilgrim credentials and begins stamping them one after another.
When approached and asked what are you doing he was very vague but to me it looked as if he was collecting stamps for people who could not be bothered to walk the last 150km. How can you go back home look people in the eyes and show them your Compostella with pride !!!!!

 

[caminka]

I've heard that was the medieval routine also.

If you read up on the history of the camino, this is not new, or unheard of. In the past there were pilgrims on their own spiritual journey, forced pilgrims (an alternative punishment akin to imprisonment), and pilgrims who were walking in the name of someone else.

amidst the very sparce evidence of the pilgrimage to SdC from Slovenia in the middle ages are two interesting wills:

Štefan Frascha, the son of Peter from Zagreb and an inhabitant of Piran, ''leaves 12 gold ducats to his (female) servant Stojka, with which she is to go on a pilgrimage to Santiago in Galicia for his soul.'' I imagine that 12 gold ducats was quite a lot of money in the middle ages, but it is a long way. Piran is a pretty town on the Slovenian coast. the will is from 1413.

another will from 1486 specifies three pilgrimages to be undertaken by three different persons (two men and one unspecified), to Santiago, to Loreto and to Padova (this one is also obliged to pay for three masses). one can't help but wonder what he had to atone for.

 

[William Marques]

This thread was moved by mistake it is now back where it should be but some posts may be missing.

Sorry