Rachel Sanborn is in her early 30s and struggling with relationships, dreaming of escaping to Spain’s Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage her father undertook that transformed her life.
From spiritual tourism to deeper connection: Spain’s sacred Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route attracts both devout and secular tourists (Photo by IconicSettings on Twitter)
A born rebel and adventurer (she dropped out of college and spent a year meditating in India), Sanborn quit her job, gave up her health insurance, pooled together her savings and hiked the Camino in two months. On the third day, she vowed to return every year. Nine months later, she returned, guiding the first group of eight pilgrims.
A decade later, now 45 and living in the Bay Area, she leads grief walks and walking meditations on the Camino through her travel company, Red Monkey Walking Travel. The red monkey pays homage to Hanuman, the Hindu god of joyful service. Having grown up a Tibetan Buddhist, Christian and Jew, Sanborn considers herself all three. She believes everyone can find a way to make the Camino useful for their own religion.
“We’ve had everyone from devout Catholics to Chinese atheists,” Sanborn says. “For the past 1,000 years, the Camino has been open to people of all religions. Some of my first Camino friends walked from Iran — Iran! — and stopped in and outside locked churches to read the poetry of Rumi.”
Sanborn symbolizes a growing trend of non-Catholic, and even non-Christian, pilgrims taking on the Camino. In 2023, nearly half a million people walked the Camino in Spain. About 40 percent of them walked it for purely religious reasons, according to statistics released by the Pilgrims’ Office. Traditionally a Catholic pilgrimage, it ends at the shrine of the Apostle James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, but today secular pilgrims set out on the Camino for a variety of non-religious motivations, including health, grief, transition, cultural exploration, history and adventure.
Sharon Hewitt of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, walked part of the Camino with two friends in the fall of 2016. Her motivation was to spend time with friends and have a “meaningful” vacation. Although Hewitt doesn’t consider herself religious, she found a certain devotion in the rituals and challenge of the eight-day walk.
“I didn’t do it for religious reasons, but there are overlaps,” Hewitt says. “A lot of religion is the discipline, and it’s the same as the Camino: after a hard night, you get up and keep going.”
This blend of religious and secular motivations is meaningful to people like Nancy Mead, president of the Friends of the Anglican Center of Santiago de Compostela, an ecumenical religious organization. Mead, an Episcopalian from Rhode Island, says there are as many reasons people walk the Camino as there are people who do it. For her, the Camino is a religious experience, but she also learned life lessons along the way that apply to everyone, faith or no faith. She has walked seven different routes of the Camino, and each time she has to remind herself to pack lightly. Makeup and extra clothes only weigh the journey down.
The number of “spiritual but not religious” pilgrims on the Camino has grown over the past two decades, due to population growth and the emergence of “secular spirituality.” Jackie Frost, who studies nonreligious health and well-being at Purdue University, says researchers are increasingly using the language of spirituality to talk about the secular experience of feeling connected to something greater than oneself. This, she says, is something that often happens in the natural world.
“We’re starting to secularize a lot of what were once religious rituals,” Frost says. “Think about meditation, yoga, or atheist churches. A lot of people are interested in ritual and finding meaning in these communal events.”
As this growing spiritual-but-not-religious group borrows religious rituals and beliefs, the question arises of how to do so without appropriating them. Many of the reasons nonreligious people go on the Camino are similar to the reasons religious people go. In a 2019 study in the journal Sociology of Religion, researchers looked at the motivations of atheist and religious pilgrims walking the Camino and found an overwhelming overlap between the motivations; most sought to connect with nature and a deeper part of themselves. The only two indicators that differed were community and religious motivations, both of which were higher in religious pilgrims.
Liz Bucher, an expert on religious ethics and author of the upcoming book “The Religious Element: How Reclaiming Religion in Spirituality Can Make It More Meaningful, Responsible and Effective,” says the rise in spiritual but non-religious pilgrims shows the need to find meaning even if one rejects religion. But she doesn’t think it’s as simple as just throwing the religious part out, and she’s not sure the same benefits can be achieved without religion.
“If you want to experience the essence of pilgrimage, you have to engage with the religion of the pilgrimage,” Bukar says. “Spirituality is the element of religion that they like. Religion is part of the secret sauce.”
Ultimately, pilgrimage is spiritual tourism, Bucard says. She describes the Camino today as “an institutionally involved, curated, socially constructed experience.” Bucard used to guide college students on the Camino, and she came to see the journey as promoting the idea that you can access this spiritual connection and transcendence by participating in a temporary experience. The Camino, she says, falls into this category, which she covers in her new book, as a spiritual hack or shortcut people take when they “don’t want to do religion.”
Bucar required students to write a statement of purpose for the class, and most cited a desire for a life-changing experience as their reason for walking the Camino. “They’re looking for a quick fix, a life-changing experience,” Bucar said.
She’s not opposed to welcoming students back, but she’ll do it differently. Instead of focusing on inward-looking journeys, she will encourage students to study the historical context of the route and controversial parts of history that official Spanish tour guides might leave out. After all, St. James is also known as Santiago Matamoros, or “Killer of the Moors.” You won’t hear from a tour guide that Matamoros helped Charlemagne kill Muslims. She will bring the construction of historical narrative to the fore.
“I would make it less enjoyable for them and less of an ‘experience.’ It’s much more valuable for these experiences to be uncomfortable and confusing,” Bukar said. “You have to approach it with a religious sensibility.”
For Sanborn, Christianity will always be at the heart of the Camino, even for those who bring other religions to the pilgrimage, and for those who have no religion, but he agrees with Bucard that Christianity on the Camino has not always been pretty.
“I think it’s important to respect the Christian faith of the Camino and appreciate its traditions, its beautiful art and architecture, but the Camino also passes through the places where over 80 people were taken off the mountain and the towns where they were burned at the stake, so I think it’s important to see the good and the bad of religion,” Sanborn said. “Every time I go into a church or cathedral on a hot day, I can’t help but feel a sense of awe.”
But Sanborn disagrees with the idea that non-Catholic pilgrims (“sometimes called tourist pilgrims”) can’t experience what the Camino has to offer.
“Everyone I’ve met on the Camino has gotten more than they expected, so I think it’s best not to judge,” she says. “There’s something special about the Camino that I don’t understand. It’s part of the great mystery of life. It’s magical.”
