What if learning happened differently? This is what Saint Paul University has suggested: not seated in a classroom, but out in the open, walking on the Camino de Santiago. That is the innovative experience that was offered to students enrolled in Pilgrimage of a Human Life, a course created and led by Anna-Maria Moubayed, Art History professor. This interdisciplinary program combines intellectual inquiry with an exploration of medieval philosophical and theological themes, all while immersing participants in rich cultural settings.
Over several days, the group journeyed on foot through the breathtaking landscapes of northern Spain—from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Pamplona—stopping in medieval towns and villages like Sangüesa, Sos del Rey Católico, the Roman archaeological site of Santa Criz, the Monastery of Leyre, and the birthplace of Saint Francis Xavier in Javier. Guest speakers from the “Bonds, Creativity and Culture” research group at the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Navarra, lead by its director and primary investigatorInés Olza, joined the course along with Carleton University professor Anne Trépanier. Together, they helped guide students through the course’s central questions: What is a pilgrimage? How do we define the sacred? What meaning do we assign to walking—and what does it yield? How are art, architecture, and music both witnesses to and expressions of human life? What role does storytelling play in art, history, pilgrimage—and in our own lives?
I designed this course, drawing from years of research in the Navarre region, to shed light on the many layers of medieval art, architecture, music, memory, fears, and hopes—while connecting them to our present-day reality. Too often, we study history and art through screens and reproductions. Experiencing art, architecture, and archives in situ has become essential—not only to understand them within their original context, but also to better understand ourselves as complex human beings.
For Noah, a student at the Gerald Schwartz School of Business at St. Francis Xavier University, the journey combined “a love of the outdoors with [his] passion for art, architecture, and travel in an unforgettable way.”
Present on the seminar’s first day and again to welcome participants on their final steps into Pamplona, Rector Louis Patrick Leroux noted the depth of conversation and commitment throughout the experience.
“This seminar, anchored in action and movement, opened Saint Paul University to the world—and invited the world to discover our university’s rich and unexpected offerings: human, spiritual, and engaged.”
But the pilgrimage was more than academic.
A shared laugh on a quiet path. A photo snapped at the invisible border between France and Spain—students joyfully placing one foot in each country. A symbolic (and playful) reminder that curiosity knows no borders.
That’s the true power of this course: to learn through walking, to think differently, to experience both inner and intellectual transformation. A living, embodied form of teaching—where the memories are as lasting as the knowledge itself.
Pilgrimage of a Human Life opens the classroom to the entire world. While this was its first edition, plans are already in motion for what comes next.