 When topped with a scallop shell a pilgrim's staff, or "Jacob's staff", is the sign of a pilgrim.In Church art it is a symbol of the apostle Saint James the Great, and his sanctuary at Santiago de Compostela in Spain, perhaps the principal place of pilgrimage during the Middle Ages.This symbol also alludes to "the pilgrim people of God", a title for the Church which Joseph Ratzinger championed at the Second Vatican Council as "peritus" (theological adviser) to Cardinals Josef Frings of Cologne and Julius Döpfner of Munich-Freising (his episcopal predecessor).