- Time of past OR future Camino
- Oct/Nov 2022_Mozarabe from Almeria
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ThanksThe pilgrims office only accept official credencials when it comes to issuing a Compostela! Theoretically you could use any credencial until 100km before Santiago and then switch to an official one and collect 2 stamps/day from there to Santiago. Also theoretically, an albergue might refuse you staying if a Credencial looks too unofficial.
Hope that helps and Buen Camino/albergue, SY
Thanks for checking this with the office.My contact from Pilgrim Office confirmed the same. Must be an official credential.
https://oficinadelperegrino.com/en/pilgrimage/the-credencial/
This should tell you that they are just looking for a bargain holiday. I have shown them the door. Eroski says that your albergue is only for pilgrim with credenciales. She was not a pilgrim, nor had a crendencial. There are other albergues who are open to anyone (juveniles, some on the way to Fisterra/Muxia, etc.), but not most of them.I was Registering a batch of Spanish pilgrims yesterday in alburge Villa de Grado /a few had the Asturias turismo free credential. One had no credencial and didn't want one. I told her that she could not stay in the Albergue without a credencial so I got a shrug when she agreed to a free one. I mentioned they are not official. She said they were only walking for a few days and didn't care as they didn't want a compostela.
I know I'm not here to judge but it didn't feel good for me.
Annie
Kind of agree with you, Anemone, but...This should tell you that they are just looking for a bargain holiday. I have shown them the door. Eroski says that your albergue is only for pilgrim with credenciales. She was not a pilgrim, nor had a crendencial. There are other albergues who are open to anyone (juveniles, some on the way to Fisterra/Muxia, etc.), but not most of them.
Would you really be volunteering to keep this albergue spotless, cook, welcome people looking for an inexpensive holdiday not willing to pay for a pension/hotel. Should people leaving generous donativos be subsidising these holidays? No Santiago = no bed in my book, at least as an eventual destination, if not on this outing, im a second or third, as not everyone has the time to walk all the way to Santiago.
I am surprised you were not given clear guidelines about who you could admit and who not to admit.
I
But if you tell me you have no credencial, don't care about getting to Santiago to pray over the relics, in an albergue that is reserved for pilgrims with a dredencial. and want to stay in a donativo on top of it and leave coins, I have no problem giving them the boot.
Or wait after closing hours and charge them the same price of the local pension, that way they contribute to the beds for others, and have not given a bed that someone else may need later that evening.
Naughty? MaybeCompletely agree!!!
You being naughty?
Hi Annie, what's the official position of your parent organisation not allowing any pilgrim who does not have an official credential? Might be harsh but it seems to me that an albergue such as yours is there to provide accommodation for official pilgrims! ( btw this just an opion, not interested in a full scale argument!)I was Registering a batch of Spanish pilgrims yesterday in alburge Villa de Grado /a few had the Asturias turismo free credential. One had no credencial and didn't want one. I told her that she could not stay in the Albergue without a credencial so I got a shrug when she agreed to a free one. I mentioned they are not official. She said they were only walking for a few days and didn't care as they didn't want a compostela.
I know I'm not here to judge but it didn't feel good for me.
Annie
So in your book, since I had no intention to pray over relics, and Santiago was just a way station on my way to the coast I had no right to a bed?But if you tell me you have no credencial, don't care about getting to Santiago to pray over the relics, in an albergue that is reserved for pilgrims with a dredencial. and want to stay in a donativo on top of it and leave coins, I have no problem giving them the boot.
Hi Annie....my understanding about the Official Credencial was that this is The Pilgrim's passport to enable them to stay a night in a Municipal or Donativo Albergue as well as being The Official Document needed to obtain your Compostella, Certificate of distance and? When I was walking, there were many who were turned away because they did not have the official Credencial. I also did my Hospi Training with our Julie Milne and, from memory, this was one of the things we discussed during the training weekend.....I'm volunteeribg as hospitalera at the moment (donativo Albergue 'Villa de Grado ) on the Primitivo route.
I've seen a fair number of pilgrims arrive with 'free' credentials received from turismo in Oviedo or Grado.
As Grado can be day 1 for many starting in Oviedo we do have a supply of official credentials if they need one at a cost (we collect 3 euros for each).
There is also a supply of free credencials.
We explain the difference but many don't care and some only want it for a week or so and not going to claim a compostela.
I am concerned though at what may happen to those arriving at the pilgrim office to claim a compostela with the unofficial version.
Would someone on the forum please advise.
Annie
I'm volunteeribg as hospitalera at the moment (donativo Albergue 'Villa de Grado ) on the Primitivo route.
I've seen a fair number of pilgrims arrive with 'free' credentials received from turismo in Oviedo or Grado.
As Grado can be day 1 for many starting in Oviedo we do have a supply of official credentials if they need one at a cost (we collect 3 euros for each).
There is also a supply of free credencials.
We explain the difference but many don't care and some only want it for a week or so and not going to claim a compostela.
I am concerned though at what may happen to those arriving at the pilgrim office to claim a compostela with the unofficial version.
Would someone on the forum please advise.
Annie
I think there was a bit of a rebellion against the "edict" issued by the Cathedral about a uniform credencial, see for example here . As far as I can make out, the Cathedral wishes to sell their credencial for 1,50 EUR to the Spanish associations who have to sell it for 2,00 EUR to pilgrims. The Cathedral justifies their approach with the need to fund the Santiago Pilgrim's Office, at least that's my understanding.
When I asked "why do they do it" I didn't mean the Cathedral but the refional tourism offices as this doesn't being them any income and can cause a bad surprise to those who use them. I don't see the benefit to them.The Cathedral justifies their approach with the need to fund the Santiago Pilgrim's Office, at least that's my understanding.
PS: When I first looked into getting a credencial, which is quite some time age, I got the impression that you had to join an association first, so that was a lot more than 2 EUR (for me) resp 0,50 EUR (for them).
I can see why local associations would get their panties in a knot, but why is the tourism office giving their own? What is in it for them? Surely this not in solidarity with the little volunteer associations.Doesn't the linked article shed some light on this? I included the bit about what the money is used for because you had earlier said that you are "assuming this money can help towards the restoration of the cathedral".
I don't think hospitaleros should be Credential Police. I don't have detailed written policies on this because it's not come up before, and most hospis have enough common sense to deal with it on their own. (But if it was me, and that "pilgrim" was so clear about abusing the system, I'd have quietly showed her the way to alternative lodgings.)
Tourism offices get given money for publications and promotional materials. They produce all kinds of glossy, fact free rubbish with it. I got given some quite odd postcards on the Primitivo last year. I could have taken better photos with my phone, yet they came as a set in a custom envelope with multiple logos and whatnot. You also see piles of their glossies in albergues sometimes, booklets with no purpose.I can see why local associations would get their panties in a knot, but why is the tourism office giving their own? What is in it for them? Surely this not in solidarity with the little volunteer associations.
Jabba Pappa: No matter what fund-raising scheme the cathedral comes up with regarding the much-vaunted souvenir "Compostela," the cathedral does not control the entire Camino de Santiago. Thousands of pilgrims travel the holy path every year without involving themselves in Official doctrinally-approved paperwork. And dozens of albergues, operating on goodwill and donations, manage to lodge and feed the pilgrims without toeing the Cathedral line.
It's always been that way, and I hope to God it remains so.
... Maybe those with obviously commercial credenciales could wait until after a given time for a bed! ...
Besides, I just glimpsed through their 64 page booklet on the Camino de Santiago and they explicitly say that aunque la mayoría de los peregrinos llevan una especie de plantilla con casillas para ir poniendo los sellos, se puede utilizar una simple libreta que se va sellando en los pueblos por donde se pasa, in other words for them and their purposes of accommodating pilgrims in their albergues, anything will do as "credencial", there are no official credencials. So, the question seems to me: can they do this or is there a higher authority (legal, moral or other) who can stipulate otherwise?
No official credencials for staying in pilgrims albergues in general, it seems to me.
The ones we were given, in spite of having had our own credenciales stamped, were just blatant advertising of several restaurants. The idea was to collect their sellos, their names were in the spaces. Maybe these no longer exist, and the present offerings from Asturias turismo look very different in your photo.I really don't understand the reasoning behind this. Does the type of Credencial indicate the kind of pilgrim there are for you? I am sure some picked up these type of credenciales believing them to be as valid and proper as any other. Buen Camino, SY
But if you tell me you have no credencial, don't care about getting to Santiago to pray over the relics, in an albergue that is reserved for pilgrims with a dredencial. and want to stay in a donativo on top of it and leave coins, I have no problem giving them the boot.
Why would anyone walking to Santiago for religious motivation, not visit the crypt? Isn't that what this whole pilgrimage to Santiago is about? Ok, expanded now, to increase the clientele I suppose, to "spiritual reasons". No, it is not mandatory, but why then do any of this?Intending to pray over relics is not a requirement. I certainly didn't do it. Having a valid credencial is, though.
Why would anyone walking to Santiago for religious motivation, not visit the crypt? Isn't that what this whole pilgrimage to Santiago is about? Ok, expanded now, to increase the clientele I suppose, to "spiritual reasons". No, it is not mandatory, but why then do any of this?
CSJ credenciel is absolutely fine...it counts as an official one.
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