Left, from top Ellen Berger ’14 and Nicole Scott ’13 along the road between Le Puy and Montbonnet. Middle Art History Professor Linda Neagley catches her footing while descending the rugged terrain. Bottom On a cold day, the students built a fire for warming feet and drying clothes at a gîte (pilgrim’s hostel) in Domaine du Sauvage.
Below The trek began in Le Puy-en-Velay and ended in Conques, 125 miles away. This route, the Via Podiensis, is the most popular pilgrimage route to the destination of Santiago de Compostela.
Paris
Chartres
Saint-Denis
Vézelay
France Santiago de Compostela
Le Puy-en-Velay
León
Conques
Burgos
Moissac
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ence the day-to-day feeling of the pilgrimage. We wanted them to see volcanic mountainside to reach the chapel’s entrance on the summit. for themselves.” “Obtaining that kind of knowledge is very different than just flipping Le Puy-en-Velay is the historical rendezvous for the French portion open a book in the library,” Sweeney said. “With each successive step of the Way of St. James. Popularly known in Spanish as El Camino de of our ascent, we were being conditioned for a holy encounter that was Santiago or, in French, Le Chemin de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle, made all the more powerful due to our physical exertions.” the journey historically could provide the penitent with plenary indulSweeney, who was clad in high-tech hiking gear, said lesser-equipped gences. In modern times, the route remains popmedieval pilgrims had much more endurance and ular with pilgrims. In 2012, nearly 135,000 people conviction than he did. They often climbed the “We are in class talking walked portions of the timeworn path. same steps on their knees in an act of penitential On their first day, the route took them to about these places in theory,” devotion. “My pilgrimage would have ended after Saint-Michel d’Aiguilhe, a medieval chapel they said Nelson-Campbell. “It’s about two minutes,” he said. had studied in class. The sight proved that no phoOn from Le Puy, the students and professors too abstract. We wanted tograph, slide or lecture could provide the depth slowly began to shed the familiar bustle of the city, students to experience the of perception of what the class was to experience unfolding their library bodies and stretching into day-to-day feeling of the on their walk. the expanse of the French countryside. For many, “Imagine a skyscraper of rock poking up out pilgrimage. We wanted them their most frequent “access to nature” had been of a tiny French town,” said doctoral student Kyle to see for themselves.” Hermann Park. Now each day brought two or Sweeney, who had written a paper on the chapel three mountains and medieval villages. Between and was looking forward to seeing it for the first time. To do so, he religious sites, they encountered marshes and swamps and marched and the other Rice pilgrims had to climb 268 steps carved out of the through fields and rocky scapes. S p r i ng 2 0 1 3 · R i c e M a g a z i n e
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