The Scholarly Pilgrim Podcast Season 3
Welcome to a new season of the podcast!
Please click on the buttons below to subscribe to the Scholarly Pilgrim podcast on Apple or Spotify. Or you can listen by pressing the play button on the individual players found in each episode description below.
S3 E1 – Miracle Stories of the Medieval Camino de Santiago
May 2025
Pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago today are likely to encounter medieval miracle stories as they pass shrines dedicated to various saints along the route. This episode explores how miracle stories attributed to St. James supported the Camino and the wealth and prominence of the shrine in Compostela. It also discusses the central role played by miracles in the rise of the cult of saints and pilgrimage to holy sites.
S3 E2 – Food and Faith on the Medieval Camino de Santiago
July 2025
As modern pilgrims travel on the Camino de Santiago, they are fortunate to enjoy a wide range of tasty and safe food and drink options to keep them energized along the way. But for medieval pilgrims, the experience was far more challenging. This episode examines the foods that nourished pilgrims on their long and arduous journeys, the religious symbolism interwoven in bread and wine, and how overindulgence in food and drink was viewed as a sin. It will also explore the vital roles that monasteries, hospitals, and towns played in providing sustenance to pilgrims.
S3 E3 – The Templars of Ponferrada: Guardians of the Medieval Camino de Santiago
October 2025
As modern pilgrims journey along the Camino de Santiago, they reach Ponferrada, gateway to the final stretch to Compostela. Overlooking the town stands the Castle of the Templars, where history, legend, and faith converge. This episode explores the Templars’ quiet presence around Ponferrada, a story not of great battles but of town administration, fortified outposts, and a sacred vow to protect pilgrims. It pieces together who they were, what they did, and what became of them.
S3 E4 – Fantastic Creatures on the Medieval Camino de Santiago
January 2026
For many pilgrims on the medieval Camino de Santiago, the most striking feature of churches was not their size or architecture, but their sculpture. This episode explores the fantastic creatures found on medieval churches along the Camino. It discusses how animals, mythical beasts, and demons communicated moral warnings, how sculpture taught pilgrims about sin and virtue, and how these images were strategically placed to guide the faithful through sacred spaces.
S3 E5 – The King of the Camino de Santiago
May 2026
In 1075, King Alfonso VI of León-Castile arrived in Compostela at the head of a royal procession — and with him came gold, and an ambition to build the greatest pilgrimage church in the western world. Over the next thirty years, he would help transform the Camino de Santiago from a growing route into one of the defining spiritual and political centers of Christian Spain. This episode traces Alfonso’s turbulent rise to power, his reshaping of the Camino’s infrastructure in the lead-up to its golden age, and his close ties to the Abbey of Cluny. It will also explore his role as a leading figure in the Christian expansion into Muslim-ruled territories, his relationship with the shrine of St. James in Compostela, and how his death threw northern Christian Spain into chaos.
S3 E6 – The Pilgrim Experience in a Medieval Camino de Santiago Town
July 2026
What did it actually feel like to pass through a pilgrim town during the twelfth century, the golden age of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela? This episode reconstructs the sights, sounds, and smells of the towns that pilgrims encountered along the Camino de Santiago, exploring their streets, markets, lodging, and the remarkable diversity of people who inhabited them.
