double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs vietnamese seafood double-skinned crabs mud crab exporter double-skinned crabs double-skinned crabs crabs crab exporter soft shell crab crab meat crab roe mud crab sea crab vietnamese crabs seafood food vietnamese sea food double-skinned crab double-skinned crab soft-shell crabs meat crabs roe crabs
Lifestyle

Pilgrims return to Spain’s Camino de Santiago after pandemic shutdown

By
Conor Skelding
Published June 5, 2021, 7:44 p.m. ET
Martim Thomas, 41, from Switzerland, walks along a path during a stage of "Camino de Santiago" or St. James Way near Pamplona, Spain.
Martim Thomas, 41, from Switzerland, walks along a path during a stage of "Camino de Santiago" or St. James Way near Pamplona, Spain. AP

Pilgrims are returning to Spain’s Camino de Santiago after COVID-19 restrictions kept them away, according to reports.

The centuries-old Catholic pilgrimage route ends at the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in the northwestern region of the country, where St. James is said to be buried.

The Camino saw more than 340,000 pilgrims in 2019, according to The Associated Press — but just 50,000 in 2020, when Spain banned foreign and domestic travel, except during the summer.

Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela Julián Barrio said as many as 300,000 pilgrims could make the journey this year.

“The Way of St. James, in this sense, can help us. It is a space that helps us recover our inner peace, our stability, our spirit, which without doubt we all need, given the difficulties that we have in facing the pain and the ravages of the pandemic that sometimes leave us speechless,” he told the AP.

Martim Thomas, 41, from Switzerland, walks along a path during a stage of "Camino de Santiago" or St. James Way near Pamplona, Spain.
The Camino saw more than 340,000 pilgrims in 2019. AP

2021 turnout will likely be boosted by Pope Francis’s extension of the 2021 St. James Holy Year through 2022. Catholic pilgrims who complete the Camino during such a year and meet other conditions are granted a plenary indulgence.

A United Kingdom charity dedicated to promoting the Camino said this was the second such extension — “the first being in 1937-38 due to the ramifications of the Spanish Civil War.”