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Our pilgrimages · On foot · 2020

El Collell 2020

“Tired, but happy”

Dates
On foot
160 km
Days
6
Stages
6
A line of pilgrims in red T-shirts and rucksacks comes down a ridge path, with the plain in the background.

The route

On foot

The stops

  1. Parish of Sant Mateu (Barcelona)25 July
  2. Granollers25 July
  3. Santa Maria de Palautordera26 July
  4. Turó de l’Home27 July
  5. Arbúcies27 July
  6. Sant Dalmai28 July
  7. Shrine of El Collell30 July

El Collell 2020, tired but happy

With lockdown over, forty young people set out from Sant Mateu for the shrine of El Collell: 160 kilometres, from 25 to 30 July, through the Vallès and the Montseny, shortcut included.

In the summer of 2020 everyone was itching to get out. After three months shut up at home because of the pandemic, forty young people made a pilgrimage from Barcelona to the shrine of Our Lady of El Collell, in Girona: 160 kilometres in six stages, from 25 to 30 July. For some it was their first pilgrimage. Itziar, who was 25, signed up on Father’s recommendation, convinced she wouldn’t finish it; she has never regretted it.

Stage by stage

On the first day they went from the parish of Sant Mateu to Granollers, to warm up their engines. On the second, to Santa Maria de Palautordera, already feeling the tiredness of getting up at three in the morning; that night they slept in a new house that hadn’t been finished yet. The third was the queen stage: climbing the Turó de l’Home and coming down to Arbúcies, and it dragged on so long that they arrived at five in the afternoon. The next day the group split in two and the first group got lost; in Sant Dalmai, a large and generous family welcomed them into their home for a combined lunch and afternoon tea. The last two stages were calmer, and at El Collell their families were waiting for them to spend a day of community together.

The Sant Mateu shortcut

The climb up the Turó de l’Home gave rise to a legend. After almost six months without anyone passing that way, the paths had disappeared. While the guides were thinking what to do, one of the boys cleared a new path with his penknife, until they reached some rocks they had to climb. They all reached the summit safely, and that improvised passage got a name of its own: the Sant Mateu Shortcut. Inés remembers that, despite the heat and the tiredness, they didn’t stop singing, and that someone, in a state of delirium, was shouting: “Up here the flowers come in colours!”.

People who contribute

That year it was St Maria Goretti who wrote to them, and she made them wonder whether they were people who contributed something. You could see it in a pilgrim who never stopped singing and cheering the others on when they couldn’t go on, on a tough stage. Her secret, which months earlier she had confided to a friend: “I pray to God every day that I can do the whole pilgrimage without complaining”.

For Inés, that first encounter with pilgrimages meant discovering that the greatest happiness is compatible with giving up the “I”. For Itziar, what counted most was the family atmosphere and the closeness of Jesus: “When I thought I couldn’t go on any more or that I wasn’t able to make it to the end, I always felt Him beside me”. She has come back every year since.

Photos

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How they lived it

  • “The feeling of utter happiness, and discovering how it can go hand in hand with giving up the “self””

    This pilgrimage was my first and one of Sant Mateu’s lightest, but intense at the same time: it lasted five days and the route consisted of setting out from Barcelona to the shrine of El Collell, in Girona, passing through various towns in Catalonia and through the Montseny.

    Read it in full

    I remember my first shock with pilgrimages: getting up at four in the morning, the tiredness and the feeling of thirst when the route went on longer than usual; and, at the same time, the feeling of utter happiness and discovering how it can go hand in hand with giving up the “self”.

    On this pilgrimage, my favourite stage was the Turó de l’Home (a mountain in the Montseny), where, after losing our way, we opened up a new path with penknives and brute strength: the Sant Mateu Shortcut.

    It struck me how we learnt to be optimistic and, despite the heat and the tiredness, to keep on singing. I remember how, in a state of delirium, some people were shouting: “Up here the flowers are in colour!”.

    Inés

  • “When I thought I couldn’t go on any more or that I wasn’t capable of reaching the end, I always felt him at my side”

    My name is Itziar and on that pilgrimage I was 25. We had just come out of the total lockdown caused by Covid-19, and I found myself looking ahead to the summer without knowing what to do, because the place where I worked had closed.

    Read it in full

    […]

    So I began this route full of insecurity and fear. A decision I will never regret.

    One of the things I liked most about the experience was the family atmosphere that was created and grew among all of us who were there. But what drew me most was how close I felt Jesus all those days. When I thought I couldn’t go on any more or that I wasn’t capable of reaching the end, I always felt him at my side, in different ways: in a travelling companion, in a prayer or, simply, feeling him beside me.

    […]

    This experience helped me grow as a person, both emotionally and spiritually. And that’s why I go back every year, because, although it may seem like the same experience, every pilgrimage is unique and helps me recognise the worth I have as a person, simply because I am a daughter of God, and to see that I can go much further than I think.

    Itziar

  • “We were all longing to get out, switch off, breathe fresh air”

    The 2020 pilgrimage to El Collell was the first pilgrimage of my life. I was 15 and, for me, it was incredible.

    Read it in full

    That summer we had just come out of a pandemic that had kept us shut in at home for 3 months, unable to do very much. We were all longing to get out, switch off, breathe fresh air and let off steam with some exercise. That’s why we all set off on this six-day route to the shrine of Our Lady of El Collell full of enthusiasm.

    […]

    The next day, although it wasn’t supposed to be like that, we had another stage that went on and on, because we gradually split into two groups and the first one got lost: it took a much longer detour and arrived later than the group behind it. When we reached Sant Dalmai, a large and generous family welcomed us into their home and we had a combined lunch and afternoon snack, because we had also arrived there quite late.

    The next two stages were calmer, because our bodies had got used to the pace we were keeping, and finally we reached our destination! There our families welcomed us and we spent a good day of community all together.

    Marc

The chronicles

What we wrote along the way and afterwards, chronicle by chronicle.

  1. Renouncing the “I”6 April · Inés A.
  2. Reaching our destination6 April · Marc L.
  3. The closeness of Jesus6 April · Itziar L.