The Camino Ignaciano is a 645 km pilgrim route which retraces the footsteps of St. Ignatius when he walked from his home in Loyola to the cave in Manresa in 1522.  During his convalescence, following his injury in Pamplona in 1521, Ignatius experienced a profound conversion and decided to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land via the shrine of Our Lady in Montserrat.

In 2010 a small group of Jesuits set about establishing a pilgrimage with a difference.  Most pilgrimages focus on a destination associated with relics or religious events eg. Santiago, Rome, Holy Land whereas the Camino Ignaciano recreates the actual pilgrimage of Ignatius as he travelled through five regions in Northern Spain – the Basque Country/Euskadi, La Rioja, Navarra, Aragon and Catalunya.  Another distinctive feature of this pilgrimage is that the pilgrim is invited to follow the Spiritual Exercises over the four weeks or 27 stages.

The website www.caminoignaciano.org offers Ignatian Tips providing reflections and Scripture readings and prayer for each of the stages.  The Camino Ignaciano has also been called “The Way of the Rising Sun” as each morning the pilgrim walks east towards the rising sun.

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Ann Lenihan rsm
Southern Province