190/499 … Saints alive! (10/02/08)
This hostel is one of the many “donativos” one can find along the Camino de Santiago. Donativos are hostels that run purely on donations, where the pilgrims are cared for without any obligation to pay for those services — leaving only what they can or what they feel is just. Many of these hostels have gone bakrupt due to a trend of the recent past where people would walk the Camino posing as pilgrims, simply to receive the free lodging and free meals that the donativos provided. And yet, despite this abuse, many donativos remain open — providing an invaluable service for those earnest pilgrims who might not have much money, and especially for those pilgrims who are walking as “mendicants”; without any money at all. I personally walked roughly ten days of my pilgrimage as a mendicant, and was extremely grateful for the donativos that sheltered me during this time.
“We never with our eyes saw our own Soul; yet we have a Soul. We see many rivers, but we know not their first spring and original fountain; yet they have a beginning. …When ye are come to the other side…set down your foot on the shore of glorious eternity, and look back again to the waters and to your wearisome journey, and shall see, in that clear glass of endless glory, nearer to the bottom of God’s wisdom, ye shall then be forced to say, ‘If God had done otherwise with me than He hath done, I would never come to the enjoying of this crown of glory.’” ~ Samuel Rutherford
P.S. If anyone would like to support these priceless sanctuaries of selfless kindness, please send your money to one of the following addresses. I personally stayed at all three of these locations during my pilgrimage, and joyfully attest both to their humble meagerness and the sincere & gentle caring they provide any pilgrims fortunate enough to find them.
Albergue Parroquial de Tosantos: San Francisco de Asis
attn: Jose Luis Anton
Calle Sta. Maria s/n
Tosantos 09258
Burgos, Spain
Casa Calocal
attn: Paz
Iglesia 4
09199 Ages
Spain
Peaceable Kingdom
attn: Rebekkah Scott
Calle Ontarion 2
Moratinos 34349
Pallencia, Spain
(“Peregrinos”, by the way, means “pilgrims”)
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