Inspired by Santiago de Compostela, Brazil's Walk of Faith Attracts 3,000 per Year

12/26/2014 - 17h10

Their feet were full of blisters, their shoulders were sunburnt and their knees and ankles hurt after walking approximately 195 miles (313 kilometres) for 11 days. Still, Agatha and Pedro Liduario promised they would trek the Walk of Faith (Caminho da Fé) again.

Inspired by the pilgrim route of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, the Walk of Faith was officialised 11 years ago. The pilgrimage covers 509 miles (948 km) considering all the extensions; it includes 36 cities of São Paulo and Minas Gerais States until its end in Aparecida (Sao Paulo).

Agatha and Pedro are two of 3,000 pilgrims who walk the route per year. Cyclists make this number higher.

The length depends on the pilgrim's pace – on average, it takes from 15 to 20 days by foot, or seven to ten by bicycle.

	Edson Silva/Folhapress

PILGRIMAGES

The Mantiqueira Range is the landscape of most of the way where unpaved roads cut through countryside towns. Residents of farms and ranches along these roads host and encourage the pilgrims.

"They ask for a glass of water, a fruit or to use the lavatory. We always help. I only ask they pray for my son [who is disabled] in return", said José Roberto Ferreira, 52, a farm owner in the countryside of Borda da Mata.

There are lots of chapels and sanctuaries along the way where they can pray. Some of them are historic and architecturally important like São Benedito chapel, in Cravinhos, and the churches located at the mining towns of Ouro Fino and Borda da Mata.

Translated by JULIANA CALDERARI