[Steppes] Santiago de Compostela
Catalina Elvira Osorio Lopez de Xerez
ladycatalina at hotmail.com
Sun Oct 1 11:47:10 PDT 2006
Camino de Santiago de Campostela
Medieval pilgrims inspire modern tourists
by Gael Stirler
The legends of James, the brother of Jesus, tell how he traveled to Spain
and preached the gospel after the death and resurrection of Christ. He
returned to Jerusalem and was beheaded by Herod Agrippa in 44 AD, but his
followers rescued his remains and an angel miraculously returned his body to
Spain in a stone boat. The apostle and his two disciples were entombed near
the northwest tip of Spain and forgotten until the 9th century when the tomb
was discovered by a hermit, Pelayo, in a "field of stars," or campo stella.
His bishop, Theodomir, built a church on the spot and news spread fast of
this new shrine. The Church encouraged pilgrimages to Santiago (Saint James)
in the 13th century because the Saracens had blocked the route to the Holy
Land and the Papacy had relocated from Rome to Avingon, France. Christians
and Moors were in a struggle for supremacy of the Iberian peninsula, and the
influx of pilgrims helped to secure the northern part of Spain. Donations by
wealthy pilgrims helped to build more elaborate churches along the way as
well as refuges, hospitals, and hotels.
The Journey
The Camino crossed the Pyrenees and turned west. Click to enlarge.
The Camino, or road, to Campostela was not one road but many that funneled
into Santiago from all over Europe. [See a map of all the routes, here.] The
most famous part of the Camino began at the Basilica of St. Mary Magdalene,
in the center of France at Vézelay, then headed southwest through the
Limosin and Aquitaine regions before crossing the Pyranees mountains into
Spain at Pamplona. From there the Camino proceeds west across the high
plains of Spain.
Many came for a miracle, others for forgiveness or to fulfill a vow, and
some traveled the Camino for adventure.
Pilgrims, or perigrinos as they say in Spain, mostly traveled on foot, but
some of the wealthier pilgrims preferred to go by horseback. The historical
guidebooks say that the trip from southern France to Santiago de Campostela
took 28 days by horseback, and more than 2 months on foot...
Catalina
Sanguinem dumtaxat causam virtutis pendate
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