In recent years, the Camino de Santiago has attracted people from all over the world. Some walk for their own reasons; some walk as a pilgrimage to the grave of the Apostle James. But what if someone else’s remains are buried in the Cathedral in Compostela. And what if those remains were those of one called “heretic” by the Roman church, and executed in 385 AD?
My new book Pilgrimage to Heresy is a novel which looks at these questions as it follows what may have been the last days of Priscillian, at one time Bishop of Avila, and a man who had a huge following in his native Galicia. It also follows a modern day pilgrim, Miranda, a Canadian professor of Philosophy who is looking for her own answers in a world where “Faith” has become harder and harder to keep.

I walked my own Camino in 1999 from the Pyrenees. There is still no doubt in my mind that it was perhaps the most important thing I have ever done, and, as it does with all pilgrims remains a constant influence in my everyday life.

For more information, see http://www.pilgrimagetoheresy.com where you can read about Priscillian, my own Camino, and some links to Gnosticism, as well as ordering information. You can also read some pages from the book.
If you wish to read the Prologue and the first chapter, see also http://www.iuniverse.com/lookinside/Loo … 124&page=3
Pilgrimage to Heresy will not be to everyone’s taste. It challenges established ideas about the pilgrimage and particularly asks “Who is buried in Compostela?” Ultimately, perhaps it doesn’t matter: it is the Camino we experience in our hearts which lasts. Either way, it asks pertinent questions about the idea and rationale of going on a Pilgrimage in the 21st century.
I hope you enjoy reading about it.

Ultreia y Buen Camino
Tracy Saunders
Spain

Thanks very much for your comments and for the information about the journal and the digital database. I’ve raised this with my colleagues and I’ll contact you directly in due course.

Stuart

A friend just sent me the link to your article on images of St. James in the Victoria & Albert collections and I was grateful for the timely notice. I am on the newly formed editorial board for Ad limina, a research journal being launched by the Sociedad Anónima de Xestión do Plan Xacobeo (roughly, the Foundation for the Development of Santiago Studies), a division of the Xunta de Galicia, the government of the Autonomous Region of Galicia, Spain.

The senior Editors will be looking for collaborators in Jacobean and pilgrimage studies and also researchers who can help them build their digital data base of the iconography of Santiago in all his representations. I know a contribution from you on the images in the V&A would be a welcome start, perhaps even in the form of an article (in English, of course).

I would be happy to answer any further question I can. They are still setting up parameters for submissions and a website, but the first issue is already in the planning stage for appearance early 2008. As editor of several serials myself – La corónica, an international research journal on medieval Spanish language, literature and cultural studies; and American Pilgrim, a magazine of public scholarship on the Camino de Santiago – I know something of the effort involved in getting new serials off the ground and the entire editorial board of Ad limina is making an effort to contact key potential contributors.

Please accept my own best wishes for your work.

gd greenia
Editor, La corónica & American Pilgrim
http://college.holycross.edu/lacoronica/
American Pilgrim http://www.americanpilgrims.com