Madonna Hettinger, professor of history at The College of Wooster, will present “A Long Walk with Demons and Ghosts: 500 Miles on Foot on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela” at the next Faculty at Large lecture on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 11 a.m. in Lean Lecture Room of Wishart Hall (303 E. University St.). Admission is free and open to the public.
Professor Hettinger will share insights from her recent research experience hiking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, a medieval pilgrim route that stretches some 500 miles across northern Spain. Known in English as “The Way of Saint James,” this route has been traveled by pilgrims for more than 800 years. As one of the three most important pilgrim destinations in the Middle Ages, Santiago de Compostela held great significance as the burial site of Saint James the Elder, one of the original apostles. Medieval people walked to Santiago from all parts of western Europe, hoping to find religious solace in the physical challenges and personal sacrifices they faced along the way. There has been a revival of interest in this route in recent years and modern-day pilgrims bring their own range of motives and interests to the Camino de Santiago. What they share, however, with pilgrims of the Middle Ages, is the realization that the journey itself is as important as the destination. For Hettinger, the community of travelers on the Camino, past and present, also share the “demons and ghosts” referred to in the title of the talk.
Further details at http://www.wooster.edu/news/releases/2013/november/fal-hettinger