A TRALEE baby has been carried nearly 180km of the Celtic Camino with his parents and has a cert to show for it!
Tiago Ryle has earned ‘compostelas’ for finishing two different routes of the Camino de Santiago and he’s only six months old.
Recently, Baby Tiago and his parents, James Ryle and Cassie Childers Ryle from Tralee, set off to walk the Celtic Camino, one of many routes making up the network of Camino de Santiago trails fanned out across Europe, all convening at the grave of Saint James in Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain.
Continued below…
The Celtic Camino begins at several official starting points in Ireland. The Ryle family started just steps from their front door at St. John’s Church in Tralee, trekking 57KM along the Dingle Way for three days until reaching St. James’ Church in Dingle Town.
The three continued their trek from the Spanish seaport of Ferrol, completing an additional 119KM, walking seven more days.
They finally reached the Cathedral of Saint James on September 5, making Tiago, surely, the youngest pilgrim on record to ever complete the route.
Baby Tiago is no stranger to the Camino. During the summer of 2018, while James and Cassie walked a different route of the Camino known as the El Norte, the lad was conceived, unbeknownst to his parents-to-be.
Just days before completing the 840km journey they discovered that they were expecting – and that Cassie had essentially trekked the entire Camino while pregnant.
Upon reaching Santiago, officials granted the unborn child an official certificate issued by the Catholic Church, known as a compostela, for completing the pilgrimage in utero.
The Ryles decided to name their son Tiago, which means James in the local Galician dialect – in a way, naming him after both his father and the apostle saint on whose storied road he was conceived upon.
The family stayed in small pensions and albergues, which are special hostels just for pilgrims, along the way. Despite obvious challenges to backpacking with an infant, Baby Tiago enjoyed each and every moment in his all-terrain buggy, preferring a life in motion over a stationary one.
James and Cassie are currently completing their first book, a travelogue based on their experiences on the Camino. The family plans to continue walking each year, trying out new routes each time.