Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela (2003 pop. 92,339), the "European City of Culture" for the year 2000, is located in the northwest region of Spain in the province of A Coruña. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia.

The relics

"Santiago" ("Sant' Iago") means "St. James", and the city is supposedly the final resting place of the Apostle Saint James the Great, the brother of John. His remains are said to be beneath the altar in the crypt of the cathedral. According to another theory the actual remains in the crypt belong to Priscillian, an ascetic from Avila who was beheaded as a heretic at Treves, France, in 385 AD, but was venerated as a martyr in Galicia and other parts of northern Spain.

Related Topics:
Saint James the Great - John - Cathedral - Priscillian - Avila - Heretic - Treves - 385

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The Roman Catholic Church affirms that the belief that St James had found his way to the Iberian peninsula, and had preached there, was current before AD. 400.

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According to a tradition that cannot be traced before the 12th century, the relics were said to have been discovered in 835 by Theodomir, bishop of Iria Flavia in the far northwest of the principality of Asturias. Theodomir was guided to the spot by a star, the legend affirmed, drawing upon a familiar myth-element, hence "Compostela" was given an etymology as a corruption of Campus Stellae, "Plain of the Star." Other etymologies derive it from "San Jacome Apostol".

Related Topics:
12th century - 835 - Iria Flavia - Etymology

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Whose bones were actually found, and precisely when and how, may be unknowable, and perhaps it does not matter. What the history of the pilgrimage requires, but what the meager sources fail to reveal, is how the local Galician cult associated with the saint was transformed into an international cult drawing pilgrims from distant parts of Christendom. At Santiago itself, a building more substantial than the first shrine was begun in 868, but was totally destroyed in 997 by the Moors, who, however, respected the sacred relics. On the reconquest of the city by Bermudo III of Leon (died 1037), the roads that led pilgrims from across northern Spain to the shrine were improved, and the reputation of the shrine spread. The earliest recorded pilgrims from beyond the Pyrenees had visited the shrine in the middle of the 10th century, but it seem that it was not until a century later that pilgrims from abroad were regularly journeying there in large numbers, even the first recorded pilgrims from England, between 1092 and 1105. By the early 12th century the pilgrimage was a highly organized affair. Four established pilgrimage routes from starting points in France converged in the Basque country of the western Pyrenees. From there a single combined track crossed northern Spain, linking Burgos, Carrión, Sahagún, León, Astorga and Lugo.

Related Topics:
Pilgrimage - 868 - 997 - Moors - 1037 - Pyrenees - 10th century - 1092 - 1105 - 12th century - Basque country - Burgos - Carrión - Sahagún - León - Astorga - Lugo

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Diverse requirements of the pilgrim trade were met by a series of hospices along the way, by royal protection of such a lucrative source of revenue, by the evolution of a new genre of Romanesque ecclesiastical architecture designed to cope with huge devout crowds; and by the familiar paraphernalia of tourism, selling badges and souvenirs, and the remarkable guide-book put together in about 1140. The pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela internationalized the entire route to a degree unheard of in this impoverished and isolated backwater on the outermost fringes of Europe, which was opened most particularly to the influence of France, whence the great majority of pilgrims always came. Enterprising French people settled in the pilgrimage towns, where their names crop up in the archives.

Related Topics:
Hospice - Romanesque - Tourism - 1140

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Pilgrims would walk Way of St James for months to arrive finally at the great church in the main square to pay homage, and so many pilgrims have laid their hands on the pillar just inside the doorway to rest their weary bones, that a groove has been worn in the stone. So numerous were the pilgrims that the popular Spanish name for the Milky Way is El Camino de Santiago.

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The Galician government hopes to make the Way into a powerful tourism destination. For the Holy Compostellan Year: whenever July 25 is a Sunday, the Xacobeo campaign is reinforced.

Related Topics:
Way - Tourism - July 25 - Sunday - Xacobeo

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