Anonymous Heroes of the Camino: Volunteer Hospitaleros Win the Prestigious Hermann Künig Award for Hospitality
LEON, Spain - The selfless hospitality, soul of the Camino de Santiago, has received well-deserved recognition. The organization Volunteer Hospitallers, born 35 years ago under the umbrella of the Spanish Federation of Associations of Friends of the Camino de Santiago, has been awarded the First Hermann Künig Prize for Hospitality. This award celebrates the tireless work of thousands of people who, for decades, have offered free and humane welcome to pilgrims.
An Award with Historical Roots: In Honor of Hermann Künig
The award, awarded by the Association of Friends of the Künig Trail, is named after Hermann Künig, a German monk of the 15th century. Künig was not only a pilgrim, but the author of the first written guide for pilgrims to Compostela. His work, a beacon for medieval travelers, not only offered practical advice, but even then praised hospitality as a fundamental pillar of the Jacobean journey. This award, therefore, connects the present with the purest tradition of the Camino.
The jury, chaired by the philosopher Rogelio Blanco and composed of outstanding personalities of Jacobean culture, valued the impressive career of Hospitaleros Voluntarios. Since its creation in 1990, the organization has mobilized more than 10,000 people from all over the world. In 2024 alone, more than 700 hospital workers They dedicated their time altruistically in shelters throughout Spain, from Navarra to León, Castilla and Extremadura.
The Essence of Jacobean Welcome: “Receiving the Other as a Friend”
The work of these volunteers is essential to keep the essence of the Camino alive. During fortnightly shifts, they accompany the pilgrim 24 hours a day, preserving the traditional Jacobean hospitality, based on donation and personal and close treatment. Most of them are former pilgrims who, moved by the experience received, decide to "repay" that generosity by dedicating part of their vacation to the service of other walkers.
The jury highlighted that this award seeks to "reclaim hospitality as an essential value of the Camino", especially in a context where the growing weight of tourism sometimes tends to the "commercialization of hospitality." Rogelio Blanco summed it up masterfully: «hospitality is receiving the other as hospes (friend), not like hosts (enemy), and those who practice it, like these volunteers, offer a model of coexistence and humanity that our society needs to remember.
Public Recognition without Financial Endowment
The award ceremony will take place in October at the historic Royal Abbey of San Isidoro de León. The award consists of a terracotta plate, designed by ceramist Marta Rivera and representing a medieval pilgrim, and a honorary diploma. Although it lacks financial support, this recognition is a public tribute of immense value to a work that, often discreet, is fundamental for the authentic experience of the Camino de Santiago.
Hospitaleros Voluntarios won over other notable candidates, such as the Tosantos parish shelter, the work of Pedro Robles in Carrión de los Condes, or the “La Flor del Valle” shelter in León. All of these proposals shared the spirit of non-profit hospitality and unconditional service to pilgrims, but the trajectory and reach of Hospitaleros Voluntarios earned them the well-deserved First Hermann Künig Prize.
What do you think of this type of recognition for volunteer work on the Camino?
