Ultreia et Suseia! The pilgrim greeting on the Way of St James

The pilgrims’ greeting on the Way to St James: “Ultreïa!” and the response, “et Suseia!”.

“Ultreïa!” was what one pilgrim said to another, and “et Suseia!” is the reply. This Latin/French/Spanish means something like, “Go further!” and “And go higher!”

Sometimes it is sung

“Every morning we take the path,
Every morning we go further.
Day after day, the road calls us
It is the voice of Compostela.

Go further! Go further! And go higher!
God assist us!

Dirt road and Faith
Ancient way of Europe,
The Milky Way of Charlemagne
This is the way all my pilgrims.

Go further! Go further! And go higher!
God assist us!

And while there at the end of the continent,
Santiago waits ahead, [Santiago = St James]
Always his fixed smile
The sun dies in Finistère.

Go further! Go further! And go higher!
God assist us!”

I am reminded (by Bosco Peters) that in the CS Lewis novel The Last Battle, there is the cry, “further up, come further in!” In this echo of the “Ultreïa!” greeting, he wonders if CS Lewis was thinking of pilgrimage.

We use this pilgrim greeting – sometimes without being aware of it. Here in Northumberland, when walking the hills, we say, “Onwards and upwards!” This, I suggest is “Ultreïa et Suseia!”

In this, we are encouraging pilgrims to go physically onwards (“Ultreïa!”), and also to grow spiritually, to go “upwards” (“et Suseia!”). Pilgrimage, like the whole of life, is both: the physical going further, and the spiritually going higher.

It’s parable for life, then. We are encouraging one another to keep going: to survive. And more than that – with life as a pilgrimage, as we continue on in life – we also are encouraged to grow spiritually: to thrive.

Ultreïa et Suseia!

Onwards and upwards!