The Camino de Santiago (“The Camino”) consists of a group of ancient pilgrimage routes to the tomb of Saint James the Apostle, located in the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.  Ancient tradition has it that pilgrims would start walking from their front door, then join up with more established paths and trails as they continued on towards Santiago.  Today, over 500,000 pilgrims receive their compostela upon arrival in Santiago each year, evidencing the completion of their pilgrimage.  To qualify for a compostela, pilgrims must document with at least two stamps per day that they have walked at least 100 kilometers and finish their pilgrimage in Santiago. 

Pilgrims can now apply up to 30 kilometers walked from other routes outside Spain to apply to their Camino de Santiago pilgrimages. Two routes in the United States were previously recognized by the Pilgrim Office in Santiago for this requirement:  The Camino de las Americas First Coast route starting in St. Augustine, Florida and the Camino de San Antonio in Texas. 

In February of 2026, Camino de California received a similar designation and is now able to offer a “transitory certificate” for pilgrims walking at least 30 kilometers (18.65 miles) along the Camino Real and finishing in one of California’s historic 21 missions.  Presenting this certificate to the Pilgrim Office in Santiago will enable that distance to be applied towards their Spanish camino. 

Our vision is to have 21 individual pilgrimages organized between the California Missions, each named for their destination Mission. Grass roots groups are being sought to work on these pilgrimages, and leaders such as the California Mission Walkers have already done great work on these routes including publishing a trail guidebook and organizing Mission walks (www.missionwalk.org). Camino de California seeks to assist these groups as desired with guidance, materials, templates, etc. to ensure compliance with the pilgrimage requirements of the Pilgrim Office in Santiago for those interested in a Transitory Certificate.

The first of these individual pilgrimages is the Camino de San Francisco, developed by Father Christopher Iwancio of Modern Catholic Pilgrim along with the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Please see their website at: www.caminosanfrancisco.org for more information. The inaugural Camino de San Miguel was walked in March of 2026 organized by the Central Coast Chapter of American Pilgrims (www.centralcoastpilgrims.org). The inaugural Camino de San Buenaventura is scheduled for August 8th & 9th, 2026, organized by the Saint Junipero Serra Walking Pilgrimage organization (www.stserrapilgrimage.org). Please contact us if you have interest in participating in this exciting project.

On June 25th, 2026 a group of California pilgrims presented an icon of St. Junipero Serra to the Dean of the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela in gratitude for the formal recognition of the new relationship as mentioned above between the Camino de California and the Camino de Santiago. The icon was first blessed at all 21 California Missions by the respective bishops, pastors, priests and deacons, and then hand-carried on the Camino de Santiago into the Cathedral. We are happy to share photos of that historic event below: