Book Review: Discovering the Camino de Santiago

Karen Estep explores the new book by Father Greg J. Markey about his adventures on the Camino de Santiago.  

"Doing God’s will is the most important thing in one’s life" is a quote from Father Greg J. Markey in his new book, Discovering the Camino de Santiago. The quote rings true for Saint James the Greater, because without his bringing the faith of the Catholic Church throughout the Iberian Peninsula, most of the “New World” would not have also been saved. It is amazing to think about how one person doing God’s will helped not only shape the country he lived in but also other countries all over the world for thousands of years and hopefully thousands more to come.  

One of the reasons I asked to review this book is because I have unintentionally visited parts of the Camino. The summer before I started college, I went on a tour of Spain with my high-school Spanish teacher. Every year she would do a tour of Spain with her Spanish 4 class. She is an incredible woman for wanting to organize the yearly trip she took with a bunch of chucklehead 18-year-olds.

I don’t remember if any of us on the trip were Catholic (this was 20 years ago!) but I certainly was not. When we arrived in León, I remember noticing the seashells tiles in the street throughout the city. I even recall taking a picture of the seashells, asking my teacher about them, then when I got home from the trip telling my parents that it was for some pilgrimage or something … I hadn’t really paid that much attention. However, now I wish I had!  

Discovering the Camino de Santiago is split into three distinct parts: the history of Saint James, the history of the Camino itself, and then Father Markey’s experience on the Camino. I loved learning more about the history of Saint James and the impact he had on the Iberian Peninsula. 

 My favorite section of the book, though, was reading through Father Markey’s experience on the Camino. To write this section, he used emails that he'd sent to his parish back in the United States for them to read in the Sunday bulletins. He is a phenomenal storyteller. The way he writes about what he saw on the Camino and the people he met made me crave more of the stories he told from his experience on the Camino. From reading this section, I can tell that this was not just a pilgrimage for him to experience personally, but for him to also help other people in their pilgrimages. I wish there was more in this section because I felt drawn in to learn more about the people he met along the way, as well as Father Markey himself.  

The book itself is a fairly quick and enjoyable read. It almost gave me the confidence to think I could complete this pilgrimage myself — but make no mistake, Father Markey points out the physical toll completing almost 500 miles in a month can put on a person’s body. He talks about the aches, pains, and blisters that plagued him for most of the pilgrimage walk. So maybe I will just use this book as a guide for going back to León or maybe even a trip to visit the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.  

Spain will always hold special memories for me. I even joke that maybe Saint James had a hand in leading me toward the Catholic faith, because that is the name of my parish. We even have a painting of Santiago de Compostela in our church. After reading this book, I am hoping to make many more memories in Spain one day.  

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Copyright 2024 Karen Estep
Images: Canva