PILGRIM
A member of the respected trade guild of sword sharpeners, Laurens, sold his house in Turku in the year 1488 to his son, Bengt. Laurens packed the rest of his belongings and headed towards the town of Santiago de Compostela in Castilia. His wife was unwilling to follow her husband to far-away countries, and so their roads split. Laurens took care of his wife's maintenance by leaving her a 20 mark allowance, which, according to the standard of the time, was quite sufficient. Everything indicated that he didn't plan to come back.
Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain was one of the most important medieval places of pilgrimage, because the apostle Jacob himself was believed to be buried there. Each and every pilgrim could hope to have a share of the mercy and miracle-performing power of the apostle after the tiring pirgrimage. Laurens's reasons for leaving his home were not, however, barely pious; there was plenty of work available in Spain for a professional of weapon technology - Spain was, in fact, fighting back the islamic maoris.
Like thousands of other pilgrims, also Laurens may have walked part of the burdensome trail by foot - even barefoot - consciously increasing his suffering. Pain if anything ensured a place in Heaven, at least that is what Laurens believed. Once in Santiago de Compostela, Laurens got a white shell from the Atlantic as a decoration on his hat. This was a sign that he had won himself.
