Your Scallop Shell

[Jeff Stys]

I imagine there are some great stories about how pilgrims attained their scallop shell. Did you get it from a friend before the camino or 'discover' it along the way?

I was on my second camino in Burgos. It was December and the hospitalero was so happy to see me because he had been on his own for a few days. He made me a lunch of lentils and home made chorizo. One more pilgrim came later in the afternoon with his beautiful, very well-mannered german shepard.

We spent the night drinking scotch and eating Christmas chocolates. Being Spaniards, they stayed up much later than me.

As I was leaving in the morning, the hospitalero handed me a scallop shell. The inside had been painted by children with developmental disabilities. There are four yellow stars painted on a blue background

The shell bring back great memories.

 

[sharon w]

That is a beautiful story. Our scallop shells came from the beach near where we live and so gave a reminder of home. Our good friend carefully drilled holes in them so that we could tie them onto our packs. They have lasted through two caminos and are ready for a third.
Sharon

 

[mikevasey]

I was given mine by a recently retired gentleman on the Plymouth-Santander ferry on my first camino. I had tried walking from my front door in Exeter to Plymouth but the south west coastal path had defeated me at just past Dartmouth. When I had got on the ferry to Santander I was in two minds about doing the Camino, it just seemed too big a task for me, and I was quite downhearted after not being able to walk the English leg off it. Thankfully I was approached on the ferry and asked if I was doing the Camino, when I told him what had happened and I was not sure, he gave me this shell and said would I mind walking with him for the first week, I did and since that one I have been on two other caminos and the shell always comes with me.

 

[Sojourner47]

I must confess my shell came from a somewhat mundane source: Waitrose luxury seafood starter - £3-95......
It's been on the Ingles and part of the Madrid so far - Frances or Portugues next. :lol:

 

[mikevasey]

I must confess my shell came from a mundane source: Waitrose luxury seafood starter - £3-95......
It's been on the Ingles and part of the Madrid so far - Frances or Portugues next.

Terry was from Kidderminster, i wouldnt be surprised if thats where his came from, But me telling how I got it sounds a lot better than how he probably got it.

 

[Arn]

I got my first scallop shell at the Pilgrim's Office in SJPDP April 08'.

My second one last year from Sara Anna in Porto Oct 11'

Of all the things I show folks, credential, pack, blister thread and needle, etc. The question I get the most is: "Where did you get that cool shell?"

 

[BlackDog]

Got mine at Santiago last year when I was just a tourist on a day visit - it was my second visit. I didn't know, or at least wasn't aware, then that I was going to become a pilgrim!

 

[miguel_gp]

Bought for me by my wife and children from a gift shop in A Gudina, in 2007. I walked from Verin to Santiago over 6 days with 3 companions and my family met us in Ourense at the end of day two and presented scallop shells to each of us.

Like a little comfort blanket , it nows comes with me on any walk I do, whether in Galicia or the UK.

Mig

 

[methodist.pilgrim.98]

On 17th June 2003 I drove Jenny and myself from London to Lincoln Cathedral to attend a service of celebration and thanksgiving for the Tercentenary of the birth of the founder of Methodism, John Wesley.

On every chair was a large scallop shell with a sticker on the inside bearing the symbol of the Methodist Church of Great Britain.

(A red orb dissected by a cross in the shape of the + sign).

The scallop shell is part of the Wesley family heraldic crest. One of the family's ancestors had gone to the Crusades and some of those who had undertaken this placed a scallop shell on their family crest. I do know where or how that tradition began or even if it is historically correct. I merely repeat the explanation given for the scallop shell being on the Wesley family crest.

The Scallop shell became one of the symbols of Methodism, especially for our work among young people whose logo was a scallop shell with the letters MAYC (Methodist Association of Youth Clubs) imposed upon it.

Anyway, I knew that I was returning to the Camino in 2004 to finally walk SJPP to SdC and I knew what to do with the Scallop shell given to me that day. Especially since it already had a hole drilled into it.

I have taken it on every pilgrimage since and even though the sticker is pretty flimsy it is still there in almost perfect condition. God willing, we will be travelling out in March 2012, though that is yet to be finalised.

I am sure that John Wesley would have theologically condemned the reasons for pilgrimage to St James so I wear it as a Methodist minister, proud to be one of John Wesley's preachers, with a gleeful delight. I love being a rebel.

 

[Sagalouts]

"The Scallop shell became one of the symbols of Methodism, especially for our work among young people whose logo was a scallop shell with the letters MAYC (Methodist Association of Youth Clubs) imposed upon it."
wow you just stirred a nearly 50 year old memory of my own days in the MAYC. Two trips from Leeds down to perform at the Royal Albert Hall in the early 60's-we did the willow pattern story and was filmed doing a black and white minstrel song and dance act,I still have somewhere a ticket stub that says Royal Albert Hall-admit one performer.
My own Camino shell came from the pilgrim office at SJPP in 2009 and now hangs on my wall,a constant reminder of my many Camino's and a great source of strength whenever I'm a bit low.
Ian

 

[robertt]

Not a scallop shell, more a cockle shell, but with the fanning ridges converging nicely at the base, in spite of some cross-thatching. From the little beach at Fisterra, at low tide!

If I retire to the coast soon, I may leave it on a beach somewhere south of Port Macquarie, or toss it into the South Pacific.

That way I'll have to go back for another!

 

[Jeff Stys]

Great stories...some meaningful, some memorable, some mundane...just like the Camino experience!

 

[Lydia Gillen]

I have just realised that there are three scallop shells on the coat of arms of our family. It was granted to Robert Batt of Purdysburn, near Belfast in Northern Ireland in 1857.

I read that a scallop shell can be a symbol of fertility and young couples hoping for a child often walked the Camino.

One of my ancestors arrived into Ireland in 1649. If any of your ancestors were a Batt please P.M. me as we like to know as many of you as possible.

 

[methodist.pilgrim.98]

Ian, glad to hear your MAYC story.

But.

I didn't think that 5 year olds were allowed to join MAYC.

The one and only time I went on an MAYC coach to London our vehicle got stopped by armed police. Very dangerous these Lincolnshire Methodist young people! :shock:

Jeff, tut, tut... mundane. You asked for our stories. They may be mundane to you but they are important to the tellers.

The naughty corner for you. :lol:

 

[tallrobert]

About seven years ago or so, my dad made me a nice wooden mailbox for my new (and still first and only) house. A little while later I came across a scallop shell... can't remember where it came from now... and put it inside the mailbox. I don't know why I did that, but I just felt like doing it. It has been sitting there in the mailbox all this time. I wonder if the mailman wonders why it's there? And I wonder if it has been sitting there all this time, just waiting for me to take it on the Camino? It has a chip off it now. Maybe I should take it to Finisterre and return with a new one?

 

[haikutaxi]

We will be doing the Camino Portuges in May and (since scallop shells are fairly easy to find on our Cape Cod beaches) will be bringing along some choice specimens to give as gifts to fellow pilgrims.