Camino de Santiago
So who was St James?
James (the greater) was one of Jesus’s 12 disciples. He was mending his fishing nets one day with his brother John when Jesus found them and said “C’mon. Let me make you fishers of men” or something similar. According to legend, James came to Spain in 40AD though little if anything survives to prove this. Some records show he converted maybe 6 people while here. He returned to Jerusalem, where King Herod had him beheaded, (though James caught his own head and held it close to his chest, which can be tricky) and then had his bones thrown outside the city walls. Two of his followers picked up the pieces (gross) and traveled in a stone boat back to Spain, and buried him in tomb with his name on it on a hill in Santiago.
He lay there, resting in peace, until 814AD when a hermit named Pelayo followed a trail of stars in the sky that led right to his tomb. The towns full name, Santiago de Compostella, give credence to this in that “compo” can be translated as “field” and “stella” means “stars” so “Saint Iago in the field of stars.” Pelayo contacted the local bishop Theodomir who confirmed these were the bones of St. James. To do this, I think Theodomir must have had an awesome reference library back in 814AD! Anyway Theodomir told the king what they found, and a small chapel was built on the site… with a Cathedral being completed in 1188. And millions of people have been coming to see St. James’ bones ever since.
We woke up at 6AM, along with 15 other pilgrims in our bunk room (odd, weird, with no privacy to be honest) and got on the trail by 6:50AM. Very dark, but we caught a beautiful sunrise. I tell my kids to try and catch a sunrise at least once a day.
We spotted a cat on the trail, and Drew took a picture. Only then did we notice this awesome church built into the side of cliff behind.
It was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, as we have found many of the churches here are… which led to:
Drew: This place is lousy with Virgins!
Terry: For being a Virgin, she really got around!
(That’s the heresy part of the newsletter. To make up for it, here’s another picture of the lovely church.
More pics from the trail
This guy below named himself Dr. Coffee, and set up a stand along the way. He was selling painted shells, food, and of course coffee. He had such joy in being there, dancing around in his pilgrims cape and slouch hat, that I had to get my picture with him. Leaving him, he said “thank you for visiting my country!”
Our destination was San Juan de Ortega,which is an amazingly huge monastery in a town of maybe 15 houses.
Today we passed the 1/3 mark!! 164 miles done. 321 to go. We are all feeling good!
We have relied on Drew’s Spanish immensely. I’m proud of my boy in his skill and his patience with us. The other day he did say “I think the waiter was complimenting me on my Spanish. Or maybe she was mocking me!”
