Pilgrim's Credential
The Credential is the current document equivalent to the safe-conduct used by pilgrims since the Middle Ages. Its purpose is to identify you as a pilgrim, for this reason, it must be correctly completed, and must be used to identify you as a pilgrim when requested (usually in hostels). You must be clear that the credential identifies you as a pilgrim, but does not give you rights.
It serves to keep a record of your pilgrimage by means of the stamps with the date of passage through the different places. It is stamped at least once a day, at the hostel where you are going to rest (if you do only the last 100 km, at least two stamps a day are required). It can also be stamped in the hostels you pass through, even if you don’t stop, and also in churches, Tourist Offices, public information points… and in many other establishments along the Camino.
The credential accredits you as a pilgrim, and is the document you will be asked for if you want to obtain the Compostela when you arrive in Santiago. It is also a perfect souvenir of the pilgrimage, as it has accompanied us every day and will remind us of the places we have passed through.
The Associations are in charge of providing credentials to Pilgrims and also of providing them to Hostels that request them. So, you can ask for information to any association of the Federation, preferably the one closest to your home or the place where you start your pilgrimage and they will inform you where to get it. In our Directory of Associations, we provide you with the addresses and contacts of those that are currently operating.
At the place where we start our journey, they will certify the day and the way we did the Camino, on foot, by bicycle or on horseback. Along the Camino, usually in the hostels, we will be stamped and dated, and once we arrive in Santiago, proving that we have traveled at least the last 100 Kms. on foot or on horseback, or 200 Kms. If you are on a bicycle, you can obtain the “compostela” at the Pilgrim’s Reception Office in the Cathedral, as long as your pilgrimage has been for religious, spiritual or inner search reasons.
“In 2020, the Federation in collaboration with the company Camino Aplicación S.L. decided to publish the first and only Digital Credential of the Camino de Santiago.
With the support of the Associations of Friends of the Camino de Santiago in Spain, they design and develop a digital project that allows to reach Santiago de Compostela, automatically certifying the completion of the Camino and the fulfillment of the necessary requirements to obtain the Certificate that certifies the pilgrimage.
The idea is not that this new Credential will replace the current paper Credential, but that both will coexist.
The modernization and digitization of the Way of St. James arrives through mobile devices. The acquisition of the activation codes of the digital Credential can be obtained at the Associations of Friends of the Camino de Santiago and by purchasing through the credit card from the App itself.”
