The Story of el Camino de Santiago

ASTORGA, SPAIN.  According to Christian history, James (Santiago in Spanish) the apostle, traveled to Galacia, in what is now northwestern Spain after Jesus´ death to preach Christ´s message.  Greeted with little success, James returned to Jerusalem where he was summarily beheaded.  Legend has it that his remains were returned to Galacia for their final resting place.  

Fast forward about eight centuries to a Christian hermit wandering around Galacia, doing whatever it is that hermits do.  He witnesses a compostela or field of stars (a meteor shower perhaps?) and takes refuge in a cave where he discovers some headless human remains.  He then chats with the local Catholic Bishop who confirms that those remains are indeed the remians of the Apostle James.  That is how the pilgirmage to the field of stars of Saint James, or Santiago de Compestela began. 

During the middle ages millions and millions of Christians made pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela.  It was the third most important pilgrimage in Christendom, behind Jerusalem, which was often too dangerous, and Rome, which I imagine was a little too close to the beehive for most worker bees to want to visit.  Prudent would-be-pilgrims woud save those two destinations for when they had some serious sins to walk off, but for lesser indescretions Santiago de Compestela was pilgrimage enough. 


Popularity of the pilgrimage diminished in the 17th and 18th centuries, but not before the Way of St. James, or Camino de Santiago was permanently (and literally) etched into the terrain of northern Spain, and not before the benevelence of Santiago was etched into the psyches of all Spainiards.  He is said to have appeared numerous times at the height of battle to turn the tide in the favor of the Christians in their reconquest of Spain from the Moors.  That is why James is sometimes called Santiago de Matamoros (James the Moor Slayer) and why Santiago is the patron saint of all of Spain. 

 In the past couple of decades the popularity of pilgrimages to Santiago de Compestela has soared again.  Perhaps due to a general disatisfaction with the secularism that has spread across europe for the past few decades, or perhaps because Europeans needed a grand adventure like that was closer to home.  I suspect it is both. 

Mags and I started our pilgrimage on el Camino in Astorga, about 250 km from Santiago de Compestela.  Tornado warnings in Dallas led to a cancelled flight out of Salt Lake and ultimately to our arriving in Astorga 24 hours later than we´d planned.  They also Caused us 15 hour layover in Newark, NJ (One hour is all anyone really needs to fully experience Newark) for which getting bumped to first class for our flight across the Atlantic was little consolation. 

I´ll have more to say about this tomorrow, but for now I´ll repeat what I´ve said in the past, that there is no better way to see a new place than by bicycle, and that long distance touring is the highest and best use of a bicycle.  The people along el Camino are very friendly toward peregrinos (pilgrims), probably because in some towns el Camino is all they have going for it, economically speaking.  It´s a strngth in numbers thing, because this pilgirm isn´t blowing a lot of euros on this trip.  Last night we stayed at an albeurgue, a hostel for pilgrims, for only 9 euros.  That´s not 9 euros each, but 9 euros for both of us.  And dinner tonight was, from the ¨special pricing for pilgrims¨ menu, less than 20 euros for both of us, and most importantly, the portions were more than enough for a pilgrim sized appetite. 

More manana.  Buen Camino!

Comments

[Brock]

Beautiful! I hope you are collecting all the certificacion de pasa stamps in your passport. BTW, Floyd.L has listed you as a EPO user along with Lance.