The Pilgrimage

Virtually every Medieval person was obsessed with sinning and sought forgiveness and salvation. The existence and reality of Miracles was taken for granted and the authenticity of the vast majority of them was never questioned. The ;miracles, the relics, the tombs of the saints, and the holy ground where they stood held an allure beyond all deeds. Thence the popularity of Pilgrimages.

The route to Santiago was a Roman trade-route. It was nicknamed by travelers lavoje ladee, the Milky Way. It was the road under the stars. The pale arm of the Milky Way stretched out and pointed the way to the edge of the known world : to Compostela and Cape Finisterre

There is evidence that a tradition of some form of pilgrimage along the Camino Frances may have roots in Roman or even prehistoric times, for throughout the ages many pilgrims - instead of stopping at Compostela, the end point of the Christian pilgrim's route - continued some 80 km. to the far-westerly point of Finisterre, or "the End of the Earth", a place with many connotations of mythical or mystical nature.

Reasons for Pilgrimage

The Legend of Santiago:

According to the gospels, St. James was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus; a son of the fisherman Zebedee, along with his brother John. Jesus named the brothers “Boanerges” (Son of Thunder) because of their because of their booming speaking voices and zeal for preaching . He is known also as St. James the Greater. The gospels attribute a couple of miracles to James and relates that he was the first of the apostles to suffer martyrdom.

According to a tradition that dates back at least to the 7th century, James preached the gospel in Galicia, in the north-western corner of the Iberian peninsula. He returned to Palestine after reportedly making only 9 converts. He was executed by king Herodes Agrippa I around the year 44 AD. His disciples brought his body back to Galicia - in a miraculous boat without sails, steered by God himself. They landed at Iria Flavia, and asked for a burial place from the pagan Queen, Lupa ("she-wolf"), who ruled the land. Lupa proved an obstacle to the disciples' plan until, after several miracles through the intervention of St. James, and attacks by dragons, etc. she converted to Christianity and had her palace converted into a church where the saint's body was buried.

The grave was forgotten until the 9th century. A hermit called Pelagius then received a vision in which the burial place of St. James was revealed to him. The site of the grave promptly was indicated by a very large, bright star surrounded by a ring of smaller stars. A tomb was found there containing 3 bodies which were declared St. James and two of his disciples.

The Asturian king, Alfonso II, declared St. James the Patron saint of Spain and built a church and monastery on the spot. Around this spot a town grew called “campus de la stella, or campus stelliae, and finally, Compostela, the Field of Stars.

The Cluniac monks promoted the Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela to strengthen the Spanish resistance to the Moors. They persuaded the Pope to give a plenary indulgence (total remission of all sins) to all who completed the Pilgrimage. The fall of Jerusalem to the Turks in 1078 left Rome and Santiago as the two Great Pilgrimage sites.