Where does the Shell of the Camino come from?

The symbol of the pilgrims to Compostela is the scallop shell, mollusk scientifically named Pectem Maximus, which can be found in the Atlantic coast from Cabo Norte to the Canary Islands. In the ancient times these shells were a symbol of Venus, goddess of love and fertility. The first Christians used it as a symbol of death and rebirth, placing them in graves. When they arrived to Santiago, the pilgrims would get one of those shells either by buying it, or going to take it personally from the beaches at the end of the world, just like the German Dominican Felix Faber de Ulm did at the end of the 15th century.

According to the Codex Calixtinus (3rd century), the scallop represented the good works, and in one of its miracles it got the thaumaturgical value. One of the medieval legends says that the scallop became the symbol of Santiago after finding many of these mollusks stuck in a Knights saddle in Gaia (North of Portugal). The Knights got into the sea to get a better look of the boat that was carrying Apostle Santiago's body to Galicia.