What exactly is a Holy Year

Updated 31 July 2026.

A Compostela Holy Year — the Xacobeo — happens whenever 25 July, the feast of Saint James, falls on a Sunday. It's a simple rule with an irregular effect on the calendar: since Sundays don't land evenly across years, the gap between one Xacobeo and the next varies. Here's how that cycle works, what the plenary indulgence actually requires, and why the last Holy Year didn't follow the usual script.

The irregular cycle: 6, 5, 6 and 11 years

25 July rotates through the days of the week in a pattern that, with the adjustments of the Gregorian calendar, doesn't distribute Sundays evenly across the years. The practical result is a cycle of 6, 5, 6 and 11-year gaps between Holy Years. After 2027, the next ones fall in 2032 (+5), 2038 (+6) and 2049 (+11).

The plenary indulgence: what it actually requires

The plenary indulgence is the central element of the Holy Year: the full remission of the temporal punishment due for sins already forgiven, which the Catholic Church grants under specific conditions. According to the Archdiocese of Santiago, obtaining it during the Xacobeo requires four things:

1. Sacramental confession, roughly within fifteen days before or after the visit.
2. Receiving Communion.
3. Prayer for the Pope's intentions.
4. Visiting the Apostle's tomb in the Cathedral and praying there (a Creed is enough).

The Xacobeo that broke the pattern: 2021-2022

The theoretical cycle said that after the 2010 Holy Year, the next "normal" one should arrive in 2021. It did — sort of. The COVID-19 pandemic led the Church to an unprecedented decision: extend the Holy Year on an extraordinary basis into 2022 as well, so it could be experienced with the normality that 2021 didn't allow. In practice, there was a double Xacobeo, 2021-2022, with the Holy Door open for twenty-four straight months instead of twelve.

The numbers show how atypical the period was: in 2021, with mobility restrictions in place for much of the year, only 178,912 pilgrims arrived — a low figure for a Holy Year. In 2022, once the harshest limits were lifted, that jumped to 438,308: almost two and a half times more. 2027, with the calendar back on track, is the first Holy Year celebrated under normal conditions since 2019.

A little recent history, in numbers

To get a sense of what a Holy Year usually means for pilgrim numbers, it helps to look at the last few:

None of those Holy Years started from a base like today's: 2025 closed with 530,987 pilgrims, without even being a Holy Year — the full breakdown is in the Camino de Santiago guide. That's the reference point worth keeping in mind when thinking about what 2027 could bring.