MANRESA, Spain >> Josep Lluís Iriberri helps celebrate Mass at a mountaintop basilica, swaps his priest’s robe for a hiking backpack and rallies his latest group of pilgrims literally following him in the footsteps of the 16th-century St. Ignatius.

Iriberri is the do-it-all Jesuit who designed the pilgrimage route to honor the founder of the Society of Jesus and for over a decade has almost single-handedly kept it alive.

Since 2012, when Iriberri started the Camino Ignaciano (Ignatian Way) at the orders of his Jesuit superiors in Barcelona, this 65-year-old Spaniard spends six months a year guiding pilgrims along the trail that recreates the life-changing journey Ignatius made over 500 years ago.

“The Camino Ignaciano is putting flesh on the bones of Ignatius,” Iriberri said recently while an Associated Press journalist accompanied him and about 20 teachers from Jesuit schools in the United States on the final day of their pilgrimage.

At one point on the 13-kilometer (8-mile) hike as the path dips from a village through some woods, Iriberri stops the group to tell them that Ignatius — or his mule — surely stepped on the very stones they stood on, making them natural “relics” of the saint.

“We all know the history of Ignatius, because we have read about it, but being here, walking here, is what let’s you feel like you know Ignatius. He now has a body for me,” Iriberri says.

True to the Jesuit tradition of being active in the world, Iriberri stays busy problem-solving. Nothing is too transcendent or too mundane for him to tackle.

Besides celebrating Mass and dishing out historical and spiritual knowledge about Ignatius, he often carries a can of spray paint to touch up the hundreds of orange arrows he left on rocks and sign posts to mark the way. He even pitches in helping a server with orders at a bar that served as a refueling post.

“From rising in the morning until going to bed, I take care of everything,” said Iriberri, walking briskly through the sunbaked countryside.

“He’s so knowledgeable and so deep. But also just like a fun person to be around,” said pilgrim Amanda Murphy. “I feel like he’s always got a tidbit to surprise you or help you learn more.”

Iriberri had worked for the Jesuits Refugee Service in Morocco and had walked Spain’s popular Camino de Santiago, or St. James’ Way, six times when he was assigned the gargantuan task of creating from scratch a Camino Ignaciano. The idea was to try to mimic some of the success of the Camino de Santiago, which drew nearly half a million walkers last year.

Walking the nearly 600-km (370-mile) Camino Ignaciano can take a month, broken into 27 stages by Iriberri. Most pilgrims, like the teachers from the U.S., do a shorter version in just over a week that combines bus rides with daily walks.