A Hug for the Apostle: On Foot from Chartres to Santiago de Compostela

Winifred M. O'Rourke was a writer and journalist in Saskatoon.

Undertaking a journey alone, on foot, through France and northwestern Spain, following as far as possible the ancient pilgrim way to the shrine of St. James at Santiago de Compostela, would strike most people as foolhardy. To Laurie Dennett, author of A Hug for the Apostle, this pilgrimage was a mission to alert people she met on the way to the need for more funds for research into the cause of multiple sclerosis (MS).

Dennett, a Canadian with a master’s degree from the University of Toronto, went to live in Britain in 1971 and since 1975 has been living in London. A freelance archivist and business historian, she has written several histories of prominent British companies.

At the beginning of the book Dennett explains how she developed the notion of a pilgrimage for a special cause. Her mother has MS so there was a personal involvement. The time became available when the company she was working for closed down in August 1985 leaving her, as she puts it, both the time and a generous severance allowance. She relates how she contacted the MS Society in London and in Canada as well as in Spain.

In Toronto, Dennett contacted the radio station where her father had been a well-known personality for over 30 years. There she arranged to make collect calls twice a week reporting on her progress on the pilgrim way. Similarly she reported back to the MS Society in London. She also received encouragement from Roy McMurtry, High Commissioner for Canada in the U.K. Dennett also spent considerable time studying maps and routes including scheduled stopovers. On the day after Easter 1986, Monday March 31, Dennett set out on her pilgrimage from Chartres where she had spent most of the weekend in its famous cathedral which has a special window of St. James. The author describes this briefly, mentioning especially the cloak on the figure covered with scallop shells. The scallop shell is associated with this saint and was important to medieval pilgrims because it marked the way.

For most of the first four weeks, the pilgrim encountered cold, wet spring weather, but in spite of this kept up her 30 km per day with an extra day of rest. As Dennett progressed southward the weather improved. She had arranged as far as possible to stay each night at a place associated with the pilgrim way. By arriving in the late afternoon, Dennett was able to rest for a while, explore the town’s historical features, and then make her journal entries and prepare for her Toronto “phone-back.”

Until her arrival in Spain, Dennett had very little contact with anyone who knew much about her pilgrimage, but arriving at the border she was greeted by members of the Spanish MS Society and thereafter at her regular daily stops there was increasing awareness of who she was and what her mission was about. As Dennett approached the goal of her journey she had some companions with her, and for the last two days High Commissioner McMurtry joined her. By now the weather was really hot and the terrain quite rough. The arrival at Santiago became a fiesta, all of which she describes. She had learned that sizeable funds had been received both in London and Toronto.

Dennett’s descriptions of the countryside she walks through, and the historical significance of the towns and villages she stays at, give this book a substance well beyond a fund-raising effort. It is an enjoyable, well-written book.