THE PILGRIMAGE ACROSS MEDIEVAL SPAIN: "El Camino de Santiago"

The Camino de Santiago began for most 10th century pilgrims in Paris,

on Rue de St.Jacques. It stretched over 1,700 kms. through France and Spain, terminating at the north door of the great cathedral in Santiago. The road was lined with monasteries and charitable hostels, run for the benefit of the pilgrims making their long journey to see the relics of St. lago. An order of knights was established for their protection along the way. There is even a 12th century book, written by a French monk about the details of this road and it is considered to be the world's first tourist guide book. The pilgrimage to Santiago was an extraordinary phenomenon of travel in an age when most people would scarcely venture outside the town or village in which they were born. So why did so many pilgrims risk their lives to make such a journey? The answer was simply one of blind faith. They believed in the power of miracles and were told that their journey would guarantee them remission of half their time in Hell. They did not doubt for a moment that the tomb beneath the high altar of Comp

ostela Cathedral held the true remains of St. James the Apostle, first cousin to Jesus Christ. It seemed scarcely credible to these pilgrims that the whole business was an immense ecclesiastical fraud! The legend of how the bones of St. lago reached this part of Spain bears this out at each point in its development. The legend begins with a claim that lago (James) journeyed to northwest Spain to convert its inhabitants to Christianity. However, the Bible never specifies exactly where James went on his evangelistic crusade into Spain.Then James returned to Jerusalem where he was (in fact) beheaded by Herod Agrippa in 44 A.D. for his energetic propagation of the faith, becoming the first of the followers of Jesus to attain martyrdom.The legend of Santiago records that two of James' disciples removed his corpse from its grave and by the end of seven days had transported it to the coast of northern Spain at Iria Flavia (now Padron) where it was reburied further inland in a Roman cemetery and then lost and forgotten for 750 years! Ford wrote in 1845, that the supposed "seven day" voyage was extremely fast-paced "since the Oriental Steamship Company can do nothing like it." In 813 A.D., the remains of St. lago were miraculously discovered at the present site of Santiago's cathedral by a shepherd who happened to see a strangely bright star hovering over a cemetery. Recent excavations beneath the cathedral floor have coincidentally uncovered the remains of a Roman mausoleum, adding credence to the legend of the bright star. In fact, the last part of the city's name, "Compostela", is possibly derived from the Latin, "campus stellae", meaning "countryside where a star shone," but most historians believe it is most likely from the Latin, "compost terra", meaning "burial ground" or "cemetery". The 9th century was a particularly opportune time for the Spanish church. Over the previous 100 years, the Moslem Moors had swept across the Iberian peninsula gaining control over all but the northern mountain kingdom of Asturias. In doing so, the Moors introduced a concept entirely new to the West, that of the "Jehad" or Holy War. The Moors seemed to draw great strength and inspiration from their champion, the Prophet Mohammed, whose death in 632 A.D. was still in popular memory and from who

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Approximate Word count = 1540
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)