• Get your Camino Frances Guidebook here.
  • For 2024 Pilgrims: €50,- donation = 1 year with no ads on the forum + 90% off any 2024 Guide. More here.
    (Discount code sent to you by Private Message after your donation)
  • ⚠️ Emergency contact in Spain - Dial 112 and AlertCops app. More on this here.
This is a mobile optimized page that loads fast, if you want to load the real page, click this text.

"The Way", a film directed by Emilio Estevez

Bert45

Veteran Member
Time of past OR future Camino
2003, 2014, 2016, 2016, 2018, 2019
Near the end of the film, Tom (Martin Sheen) is about to get his compostela when he changes his mind and asks for it to be given in the name of his son, Daniel. The compostela is dated 5th November, 2010. The film was shot in 2009 and premiered in Santiago in 2010. Everything about the scene seems genuine to me, so I wonder why they put a false date on the compostela. I suppose everything else about the compostela (which just amounts to the name "Daniel Avery") is false, too, so why worry about the date, but I do.
 
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.
Because it was to be released in 2010 (not 2009), they wanted all the dates in the film to be 2010. There is a youtube somewhere of Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez addressing a university (I think) audience, and explaining this. I'm sure someone here can find the video link!
Jill
 
I started to type a response, but I see that Jill has explained it better than I could.
 
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 suppose everything else about the compostela (which just amounts to the name "Daniel Avery") is false, too, so why worry about the date, but I do.
I don't know whether you noticed it but the name Daniel Avery on the movie's Compostela must be another artistic liberty, for obvious reasons . They tend to convert first names to their Latin equivalent which needs to be put into fourth case (accusative) in Latin, so a "real life" Compostela has Danielem instead of Daniel, like this:

 
Last edited:
They may do that for the Daniels of the world, but there was no attempt to Latinize my name. It is “Cherie” on both Compostelas.
 
Join our full-service guided tour and let us convert you into a Pampered Pilgrim!

They didn't convert my name to Latin.
 
Imagine my delight when my first name was Latinised into Peregrino. Nomen est omen...
 
A selection of Camino Jewellery
Mine does not get converted either. I have been assuming it is because my real name ends in er and thus is not Latin friendly? Does any Latin scholar know if this is the case?
 
because my real name ends in er and thus is not Latin friendly?
Plenty of nouns in Latin with an -er ending, for example pater (father) and mater (mother). The grammatical form of these nouns that is required in the sentence used in the Compostela would be patrem and matrem. The Pilgrims Office uses a database and if your first name has been around in Europe and assorted countries during the Middle Ages it ought to be included. So I assume that either your first name is too modern or too "foreign" or they didn't manage to locate it in the database.
 
Last edited:
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
I'm going a bit off topic here ... apologies. I personally think they could drop the declension of first names on the Compostela, ie treat them as nouns where the ending never changes in Latin, in particular since they make no attempt to convert surnames. I just noticed that the Book of Esther (a section of the Bible) used to be called Liber Estherae in Latin but the current Latin version on the Vatican's webpage calls it Liber Esther and the ending of Queen Esther's name never changes throughout the text. Daniel could just stay as Daniel. It would make at least one pilgrim happy who explained to his readers on his blog about his Compostela that "Danielem = kind of a lame name in Latin".
 
From the reports here, it sounds as though it depends on who is filling out the Compostela at the time whether latinization is utilized or not.

When complete, I will be happy to receive it in any form.

As for the movie, I can see that continuity was achieved with this apparent faux pas. It does not diminish the film for me, which I am watching right now..... "Tour the Cathedral, El Sid is buried there, the Chuck Heston film...."

Semper Paratus
 
Last edited:
The first edition came out in 2003 and has become the go-to-guide for many pilgrims over the years. It is shipping with a Pilgrim Passport (Credential) from the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.
True.
My first name is Boštjan which they wouldn't find in their database and is Slavic for Sebastian (Bastian very often in German/Nordic countries). If you know what your modernized first name is derived from - that's it, you'll get your Latin name on the Compostela
 
A selection of Camino Jewellery
Re: the ‘latinisation’ of names at the Compostela office...

My name (Scott) was latinised to Scotorum, and I my walking family immediately nicknamed me “Knackers” ...
 
Re: the ‘latinisation’ of names at the Compostela office...

My name (Scott) was latinised to Scotorum, and I my walking family immediately nicknamed me “Knackers” ...
That is possibly the best thing I've ever read.
 

Most read last week in this forum