Christian Welcome for Pilgrims on the Camino, Sahagún, Spain
Since 2018 we welcome pilgrims in our hostel (albergue) on the Camino, in the Benedictine monastery of Santa Cruz (Holy Cross) in Sahagún which is half-way on the French route. We offer a spiritual welcome and accompaniment to pilgrims on the Way to Santiago de Compostela.
We are open from mid-March to mid-November. Thousands of pilgrims are hosted annually. So, if you feel called to welcome and listen to pilgrims, do not hesitate to contact the team. You will be involved from the very first moment in the preparation of the welcome (cleaning, organizing, preparing material and spiritual resources), in the registration and accommodation of the pilgrims, listening to them and serving them with God’s love and trying to see in each pilgrim Christ himself that needs a shelter.
The Marist Mission at Sahagún
The mission of the Marist community is to offer pilgrims the opportunity to “ponder” their Camino experience and hear God’s word addressed to them about their lives at that moment. We do this by providing them with a Christian welcome in the manner of Mary revealing the maternal face of the Church (Evangelii Gaudium, n. 288). Welcoming each one in a discreet manner permits us to share with them moments of companionship, prayer, communion, reconciliation and liturgy. The ministry at Sahagún stands as a contemporary expression of the missionary tradition in the Society of Mary.
As soon as you enter, you know you are in the right place. This is no hotel, and if you come as a tourist, you leave as a pilgrim. Maybe it´s the light of the tabernacle in the chapel, or the light in people´s faces. Maybe it´s the chance to share a cup of coffee, a meal, a hearty laugh or a story. Maybe it´s listening, or being listened to. There is a Presence, and you feel welcome. The house has been used to welcome pilgrims for more than a century. It is Christ Himself who urges us on: “I was a stranger and you invited me in” (Matthew 25:35).
Not everyone is a pilgrim: many are tourists, doing the Camino for relaxation or physical fitness; others are homeless people, living off charity in the different hostels; others are not even sure why they´re there! But here, all are welcome. Because welcoming a pilgrim is also for us a way to “go to the peripheries”, as Pope Francis has asked us. We too are pilgrims, we too are seekers, leaving our comfort zone to find Christ among the “unchurched”.
This ministry of the province is born of our desire to carry out Mary´s Work in Europe by extending the same welcome Mary would give at Nazareth. It has been a moving experience to meet the thousands of pilgrims who have crossed our threshold. Over a cup of coffee, we share their hunger for God, their sorrows, their joys. We share their faith as they seek for new meaning.
Every evening we celebrate a multilingual Pilgrim Mass, with a Blessing of the Pilgrims followed by a shared supper. These are joyful events, and the diversity of languages and nationalities found on the Camino de Santiago, is more of an opportunity than an obstacle. It’s moving to hear from pilgrims who reached their destination some 260 miles away, and send us a selfie or message like: “I made it!”, “Hello from Compostela!”, and the best of all: “Thank you!”
We welcome volunteers to collaborate in this mission for a period of two weeks or several months, from March to November, so if you think you would like to serve the pilgrims, do not hesitate to get in touch. As we say in Spain: “nuestra casa es tu casa” (our home is your home)!