Since before the year 1,000 AD millions of pilgrims have walked to Santiago de Compostela, in Northern Spain, believed to be the burial place of the Apostle James. Since the 1980’s there has been a modern resurgence in the ancient pathway, with over 400,000 completing the pilgrimage annually. After Spain, the second highest number of pilgrims now come from the U.S. It seems like everybody knows someone who has walked the Camino de Santiago, or is interested in it. What is driving this modern interest in pilgrimage? For Russ Eanes, trekking 500 miles on the ancient Camino de Santiago was not just an item to check off his bucket list. It was a journey he had dreamed of taking for two decades. At age 61, with his children grown, he was too young to retire but wise enough to know that he needed to reorient the hurried pace of his life. He left his work and took a sabbatical to “reset” himself and prepare for this next phase of life. With everything he needed in a 16-pound pack and, equipped with a set of seven simple principles, he took off from St. Jean Pied de Port, France, to walk, as pilgrims have for twelve centuries, across Spain, to realize his dream. It was a deeply transformative experience, which he later turned into a book, The Walk of a Lifetime: 500 Miles on the Camino de Santiago. Since 2018 he has walked five more pilgrimage routes in Italy, Portugal and again in Spain, has written another book (Pilgrim Paths to Assisi: 300 Miles on the Way of St. Francis) and talked to thousands about the meaning of pilgrimage and especially about the Camino, now leads tours for older adults who want to experience the revival of this ancient spiritual practice. A prolific photographer and storyteller, he will take you along with him on his journeys so that you feel you are walking with him, learning about the history of pilgrimage, about the modern revival of the Camino de Santiago, and about new routes, such as the Way of St. Francis in Italy.



Russ Eanes is a writer, walker and cyclist from Harrisonburg, Virginia. Formerly the Executive Director for MennoMedia (a publishing agency serving the Mennonite Church in the U.S. and Canada) and an experienced international traveler, he left his job in 2018 and at age 61 spent six weeks solo-walking 500 miles on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. He has followed it up with yearly pilgrimages on the Way of St. Francis in Italy and most recently on the Camino Portuguese. He has gone on to write bestselling books about his experiences (The Walk of a Lifetime and Pilgrim Paths to Assisi), to teach online classes for older adults about travel, and to lead trekking tours especially for older adults in Italy, Portugal and Spain, and cycling tours in the U.S.