Camino Photo of the Day: Don Elías Valiña Sampedro

This marker in O Cebreiro celebrates the former pastor of the village church of Santa María la Real, Don Elías Valiña Sampedro (1929-1989). He almost single-handedly revived devotion to the Camino, after it had fallen into relative obscurity in the XIXth and XXth centuries. He organized the clearance of parts of the route that had become impassable, and it was he who began marking the path with the now ubiquitous yellow arrows.

Date: 25 April 2013
Place: O Cebreiro (Province of Lugo, Galicia, Spain)
Today started: Vega de Valcarce (Region of El Bierzo, Province of León, Castilla y León, Spain)