Rite and Reason: Life is a pilgrimage, Brendan Ó Cathaoirreflected on the long walk to Santiago de Compostela
The Camino de Santiago is about letting go. The heart of the pilgrim journey is trusting in providence and leaving anxiety behind. Tagore said one is a "fool to try to carry thyself upon thy own shoulders".
St John of the Cross remarked: "God's greatest gifts fall into hearts that are empty of self."
The Camino is an ancient path to the cathedral of St James in the city of Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain where, according to tradition, the apostle's body was brought after his martyrdom in Jerusalem.
He had earlier preached the gospel in Spain.
It has been a pilgrim route since the discovery of the tomb of St James in the ninth century.
Numbers visiting the shrine in the middle ages were astonishing: in peak years pilgrims may have numbered two million.
As early as the 12th century Irish men and women were making their way to Santiago by boat. A church dedicated to St James was erected near Kilmainham in Dublin - hence St James's Gate.
It was a perilous journey to Corunna, according to Prof Roger Stalley, with the death rate among Irish pilgrims "alarmingly high".
Santiago cathedral is still one of the most visited Christian sites in the world. People of faith and of no religion visit the shrine of St James to experience something more profound than the emptiness of materialism. In 1987 Unesco recognised the pilgrim route as a European cultural itinerary.
Almost 100,000 walked the Camino in 2005, only 622 of them Irish.
The route followed today is the same as the path taken by pilgrims since St Francis of Assisi walked to Santiago in the 13th century. In medieval Spain the ashes of St James became a powerful symbol in the fight against Islam.
St Francis's encounter with an Egyptian sultan offers a more appropriate model for dialogue with Muslims today.
The Camino starts in St Jean-Pied-de-Port in the French Basque region and continues for nearly 800km across northern Spain. One leaves the town at the Spanish Gate, through which the armies of Charlemagne and Napoleon passed.
Crossing the Pyrenees, golden eagles soared overhead. During a month-long walk, the landscape encompassed mountains, forests, olive groves, vineyards, wheat fields and the white propellers of wind farms (converting this pilgrim to wind power).
Yellow arrows and scallop shells - the emblem of St James - guide pilgrims along the diverse terrain. The Camino's energy comes also through historical architecture: Roman roads and medieval bridges take one forward towards Santiago, and towering cathedrals grace one's path.
Life gets simpler - not easier - carrying a backpack and the mind becomes clearer. One may experience the Camino on the mystical, cultural and social levels. Spanish religious art, preoccupied traditionally with the sufferings of Christ, can be oppressive until one reflects on the Franciscan paradox.
St Francis identified so fully with Christ that he developed the stigmata. Yet he is acclaimed as the troubadour of peace and joy.
The Christian challenge is to be open to the unconditional love of God, and then grow in compassion.
A monument to Cesare Borgia at the entrance to the church of Santa Maria in Viana places the present difficulties of the Catholic Church in perspective. The natural son of Renaissance Pope Alexander VI, he was appointed commander of the papal armies in the pivotal year of 1492. He patronised both Leonardo da Vinci, who acted as his military architect, and Machiavelli, who no doubt influenced his political ideology.
Despite the beauty, adventure, mystery and joy, the Camino is a tough road to walk, requiring laughter as a daily companion.
One faced unexpected difficulties including floods. But struggles are the alchemy of spiritual growth and, according to Dante, St James is the apostle of hope.
Entering the world of refugios or albergues - the basic pilgrim accommodation - one grows in awareness of the millions of people who do not have the luxury of space and privacy.
A notice in one of them read: "The tourist demands, the pilgrim thanks." After a day spent walking there can be hours of waiting: to have one's pilgrim passport stamped, to take a shower, to wash clothes, and for restaurants to open in the evening. An enterprising brewery advertised its beer as "companero de camino".
Reaching Cruz de Ferro, a landmark on the 4,900-ft pass of Monte Irago, represented a profound moment of communion with those who suffer. Arriving in Santiago de Compostela, there were joyful reunions with many of the wonderful people encountered along the way.
On Rua Nueva in Santiago, a plaque marks the site where an Irish college once stood. Colegio de San Patricio was founded for Irish Catholics in 1605, as a Counter-Reformation initiative under Spanish patronage. Initially, the college catered for both lay and clerical students - the latter finishing their studies at Salamanca.
Besides being a seminary for training Irish priests for 150 years, the Santiago college served also as a refuge for exiled prelates. When Thomas Walsh, archbishop of Cashel, died there in 1654 his body was placed in a vault of the cathedral.
Dr Brendan Ó Cathaoir is a historian and former Irish Times journalist. ocathaoir@gmail.com