Walking the Camino in Someone Else's Name: Pilgrimage by Proxy and the Vicarie Pro

Walking the Camino de Santiago in another person's name is one of the oldest traditions of the Jacobean pilgrimage. For centuries, making the pilgrimage on someone else's behalf was a common practice for a wide range of reasons: vows, penances, testamentary bequests. Today that tradition survives in a more limited form in the Vicarie Pro: the annotation that the Pilgrim's Office adds to your Compostela when you have walked in memory of someone who has died.

Some people arrive at the Pilgrim's Office in Santiago with a stamped credential, a story on their shoulders and a question on their lips after completing the Camino de Santiago: can I ask for my Compostela to also bear the name of someone who has passed away? The answer is yes. And it has a Latin name that comes from centuries back: Vicarie Pro.

But the history of walking the Camino in someone else's name is far older and far richer than that annotation on a document. For centuries, walking to Santiago on behalf of another person (and not only a deceased one) was a common practice, recognised by the Church and by the civil courts, covering situations as varied as fulfilling someone else's vow, redeeming a judicial sentence or carrying out the last will of the dead. This guide explains both sides of that tradition: what remains of it today and what it was during the Middle Ages.

Medieval pilgrims

What Vicarie Pro means

Vicarie Pro is a Latin expression that literally means "in place of" or "in the name of". When a pilgrim arrives in Santiago having walked the Camino in memory of someone who has died, they can ask the Pilgrim's Office to add by hand, beneath their name on the Compostela, that annotation followed by the name of the person for whom they have made the pilgrimage. The Compostela is always issued in the name of the pilgrim who has walked. That does not change. What changes is that this document, as well as certifying your pilgrimage, records the name of the person who could not make it.

Who the Vicarie Pro is for today: only for people who have died

This is where medieval practice and present-day reality diverge significantly, and where most of the incorrect information circulating on forums and blogs comes from. The Pilgrim's Office in Santiago confirms that today the Vicarie Pro annotation is granted exclusively for making the pilgrimage in memory of someone who has died. It is no longer processed to represent living people, even if they are unable to walk for reasons of health or advanced age. In the Middle Ages such cases were provided for; today they are not.

The case the Office currently recognises is that of the pilgrim who walks the Camino in memory of a loved one who is no longer here: a father, a mother, a partner, a close friend who never fulfilled the dream of reaching Santiago, or who was going to walk it with you and no longer can. In these cases, the Office grants the request naturally and with great respect.

How to request the VicariePro at the Pilgrim's Office

The process involves no bureaucratic complexity, but it helps to know how to approach it so that the experience is as meaningful as possible. There is no specific form and no separate counter: you simply explain your intention when you arrive with your stamped credential.

• Walk at least the required number of kilometres — 100 km on foot or on horseback, 200 km by bicycle — and get your credential stamped as normal, like any other pilgrim. There is no different procedure during the Camino.
• When you arrive at the Office, explain your intention from the outset. State clearly that you have made the pilgrimage Vicarie Pro and give the full name of the deceased person in whose name you have walked.
• The Compostela will be issued in your name. What changes is that they will add by hand, beneath your name, the annotation Vicarie Pro followed by the name of the person represented. Ask for it explicitly if that is what you want, because they do not do it automatically.
• Bring a letter or a photograph if you wish. It is not compulsory, but many pilgrims bring a written note, a photograph or some object belonging to the deceased. It has no bearing on the official document, but it can make the moment more meaningful.
• There is no fixed protocol. The response ultimately depends on who attends to you. Go with an open attitude and tell your story calmly. The Office has been handling these situations with great sensitivity for decades.

Compostela with the Vicarie Pro dedication (detail)

One single Compostela, even if there are two names

A question that comes up frequently is whether it is possible to obtain two Compostelas: one for the pilgrim and another for the deceased. The answer is no. The Pilgrim's Office issues a single Compostela per person who arrives, and that Compostela is always in the name of the pilgrim who has walked. The Vicarie Pro annotation is exactly that: a handwritten annotation, not a second official document.

Some pilgrims ask whether they can carry two credentials and have both stamped along the Camino, hoping to obtain two Compostelas at the end. The Office may stamp both as a courtesy, but it will only issue one Compostela: that of the pilgrim present. The second credential does not generate any additional official document.

The value of walking for someone

Beyond the document, the practice of the Vicarie Pro has a value that no piece of paper can fully reflect. Many pilgrims who have walked the Camino in someone's name describe the experience as one of the most intense of their lives: each stage becomes an act of love or of mourning, each kilometre carries a different weight, and the arrival in Santiago takes on a dimension that goes far beyond the personal.

The official annotation is not needed for that intention to be real. Walking with your thoughts on another person is something that happens between the walker, the way and the person remembered. The official Vicarie Pro is simply the way the Church recognises something that pilgrims have been doing for centuries, most of them in silence.

Pilgrimage by proxy: a medieval tradition with many forms

Today's Vicarie Pro is only the last remaining trace of a much broader and deeply rooted practice. When someone had to make the pilgrimage to Santiago —because they had made a vow, to obtain an indulgence, to make a petition or to serve a sentence— and could not do so themselves, they had the option of asking someone, or hiring someone, to make the pilgrimage in their place. These people were known as pilgrims by proxy or vicarious pilgrims, and their role was firmly established in medieval society.

The reasons why someone turned to a vicarious pilgrim were enormously varied. The Codex Calixtinus, the great Jacobean book of the twelfth century, already records a miracle in which a knight asks for the intercession of one of his tenants who had made the pilgrimage to Santiago —after having struck him— in order to recover his health: "Raimberto, pilgrim of Santiago, pray to the Apostle in whom you trust, for my health". Santiago, at Raimberto's pleading, restored his health. The intermediary was not the pilgrim himself, but someone who had already walked and enjoyed the closeness of the Apostle.

Pages of the Codex Calixtinus

Vows that others could not fulfil

One of the most frequent situations was that of the pilgrim who had promised to go to Santiago in order to ask for a favour —recovery from an illness, the solution to a financial or emotional problem— and who, when the time came to keep the promise, was unable to do so for reasons of health or other impediments. In such cases, they would entrust a relative, a friend or someone hired for the purpose to walk the Camino in their name, carrying their intentions to the tomb of the Apostle.

Penances and judicial sentences

From the twelfth century onwards, both the civil courts and the religious authorities imposed the pilgrimage to Santiago on criminals, wrongdoers and sinners as a punishment or penance. The aim was for the offender to endure the hardships of the Camino and to be removed, at least temporarily, from the place where the offence had been committed. In some cases, however, sending a substitute was permitted: under the municipal law of Liège, for example, a married woman convicted of an act committed before her marriage could be replaced by her husband if he gave his consent.

Testamentary bequests

It was also common for the pilgrim by proxy to be obliged to walk in fulfilment of a testamentary bequest. The deceased, either because they had been unable to fulfil their vow to reach Santiago during their lifetime, or because they wished to impose that obligation on their heir, left it as a condition in their will: the heir had to make the pilgrimage to Compostela before receiving the assets bequeathed to them. It was a way for the dead to complete, through another person, a commitment that had been left unfinished.

Collective vicarious pilgrims

Pilgrimage by proxy could even be undertaken on behalf of an entire community. Towns, parishes, guilds and associations sent commissioners to Santiago to ask the Apostle for some collective benefit: rain for the harvest, the end of a plague, peace with their neighbours, the prosperity of the district. The commissioners could be members of the community itself or people hired for the task. Records of this practice survive in Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands and other European countries.

A practice that provoked debate

The Church did not always look kindly on pilgrimage by proxy, especially when it involved people who were hired and paid. In such cases, it sometimes regarded the practice as scandalous, since the salaried pilgrim carried no personal devotion with them. As an alternative, for cases in which the commitment was impossible to fulfil, the option was offered for the devotee to pay a sum to the church of the shrine to which they had intended to make the pilgrimage. This was the monetisation of penance, a practice that would in turn generate its own theological controversies.

Boots, flowers and a waymarker on the Camino de Santiago to Finisterre in memory of a loved one

Would you like to walk the Camino in the name of someone special?

If you are thinking of walking the Camino Vicarie Pro and you want everything well organised so that you can focus on what really matters, we can help you. At Viajes Camino de Santiago we have been organising the Camino for more than ten years for over 30,000 pilgrims, and we know that each of them carries their own reasons for walking. Ask us for a personalised quote and we will take care of the details so that you can devote yourself to every step.