This summer, 14 University of Dayton students will walk the final third of the Camino Francés, or the "French Way" of the Camino de Santiago.
The Camino de Santiago is a historic Christian pilgrimage across Europe to the shrine of St. James in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Around 400,000 pilgrims walk the path each year.
The University’s annual Camino de Santiago program begins with a 16-week spring course, Walking the Camino/Pilgrimage, that prepares students for a physical and spiritual trek across Spain.
The group, which ranges from first-year students to seniors, will walk nearly 170 miles, or 273 kilometers, during three weeks from Astorga, Spain, to the famed cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.
“I entered the Camino experience with the intention of walking and to continue walking my life with a constant orientation towards God,” said Noah Novotny, a junior business management and religious studies and theology major from Batavia, Ohio, who walked the Camino de Santiago in 2025.
“It is never easy, obviously. The Camino allowed me to really depend on God at all times and learn to rely on him in everyday moments,” Novotny said. “Silence is just a gift.”
Nicholas Rademacher, a professor in the UD Department of Religious Studies who teaches the pilgrimage course, is taking an interdisciplinary path.
"I have training in history and theology, with a background in spirituality as well,” Rademacher said. “All three of those components are part of what we are doing in the class."
The course covers the basics of pilgrimage by exploring its religious, cultural and historical dimensions, as well as the theology and spirituality of the journey from a Christian perspective.
"During the class, we study the interfaith and cultural dimensions of pilgrimage, which includes people who go on pilgrimage for non-religious reasons, as well as the difference between going on a pilgrimage and religious tourism," Rademacher said.
Rademacher, who has walked the Camino de Santiago, is handling the academic side of the course. University Chaplain Father Bob Jones, S.M. ’98, is providing the practical preparation for the trip.
Fr. Jones’ sessions cover the logistics of the trip, such as how to pack a backpack and what to expect regarding the demands of the trail.
Neither Fr. Jones or Rademacher will be going on this year’s pilgrimage. Instead, the students will be accompanied by campus ministers Emma Geckle ’21 and Andres Lopez.
"We have nothing else but what we can carry on our back,” said Geckle, who first walked the Camino at age 18 before her first year at UD. “We are walking almost 170 miles, so you're really recontextualizing what it means to live and what you need for life."
A core component of the experience is journaling, which helps students process their physical and mental exhaustion, and connect with the spiritual aspect of their journey.
Geckle also will provide daily prompts to help students "ground" themselves when the emotions of the trail become overwhelming.
"You're feeling physical pain, mental pain, lots of emotions and sometimes that can be so overwhelming that you need something to ground yourself in, so that journaling piece is a huge one," she said.
Rademacher said these journals serve as personal reflections and academic tools to help connect course readings to the "experiential and embodied" reality of the walk.
The pilgrimage forces students into a "rhythm of walking" that serves as a form of prayer.
"We are not walking people here in the U.S., so it is a huge sacrifice that these students make and a gift in some sense to be forced to walk this pilgrimage," Geckle said
Rademacher said the physical challenges provide opportunities for deep personal and vocational reflection.
Living on the Camino involves communal experiences, such as sleeping in hostels, and sharing "pilgrim’s meals" with strangers, fostering a sense of human connection across different cultures.
“It was awesome to finish our day and be able to just buy a meal from amazing hosts and sleep in beds prepared for us,” Novotny said. “I love the ‘roughing it’ of hiking, but it is very independent and labor intensive, so the sacrifice of many responsibilities was probably my favorite part.”
To conclude the trip, students write letters to their future selves, which are returned to them weeks after they arrive home.
“Many students find that after living with only two outfits for weeks, they return home to realize they have far more than they truly need,” Geckle said.
Top and middle photos: UD students and faculty on the 2025 Camino de Santiago pilgrimage.
