We are in Santiago, Spain on the day dedicated to St. James. Peter Sills had arranged for us to arrive here in time for this festive occasion. As I mentioned in my last blog, the festivities started yesterday. This is a national holiday in Spain and the heart of this celebration is here in Santiago where the bones of James are in the crypt underneath the cathedral. Even though the cathedral is undergoing restoration, it is still possible to enter it and to go down into the crypt. Though there are masses said all over Spain in honor of St. James, these services are said virtually every hour in churches in Santiago. We walked to the San Francisco Church, named after St. Francis and served by the Franciscans to attend the high noon mass today. We arrived a little after ten in the morning and stood at the edge of the crowd that attended the ten o’clock mass. There was standing room only. As soon as that service was over, people rushed to find seats for the next mass. It was raining in Santiago today but that deterred no one. We waited in our seats for over half an hour for the next mass to attend. In only a matter of minutes the cathedral was packed with people standing along the side aisles and in the chapels, sitting on the floor or wherever they could find a place.
Statue of St. James in San Francisco Cathedral
Before the service began lay leaders came to welcome Pilgrims. The welcome greetings were given in German, Italian, French, English and Spanish. When the service began a procession of at least twenty priest came down and entered the chancel. A young nun sang the service and though the main priest spoke in Spanish and gave his homily in Spanish, other priests would do parts of the service in English and some other languages. Hundreds of Pilgrims from all over the world have timed their Pilgrimages to end in Santiago to be here for this day. There are images of St. James all over the city - several in this church alone. As the service came to a close a procession of priests went to the Statue of St. James that is in this cathedral to swing the censor and chant special prayers. It was the highlight of the service and an extraordinarily moving time for many of those who have walked hundreds of miles to be here.
In all of the Jesus’ narratives there are stories told about men, though we now know this was apparently true of women as well, who abruptly left their expected roles and vocations to follow the itinerant Jesus on his journey. Two of the first of these, according to the story, were fishermen - James and his brother John. As soon as Jesus called them, they left what they were doing to follow him. These were two strong characters. Jesus called them “the sons of thunder.” These are the ones who asked Jesus if they could sit one on his right hand and one on his left. Jesus is said to have responded to them, “You don’t know what you are asking.”
James was the first apostle to die in the persecution of Jesus followers. He was beheaded by Herod (Acts 12:1 - 2) Here is what Peter Sills put in our guidebook:
Another statue of St. James
“According to legend, before his martyrdom, James preached the gospel in Spain, part of the scattering of the acpostles across the world, and that after his death his disples places his body in a rudderless boat that was guided by the Spirit to the town of Iria Flavia (known today as Padron) in Galicia. From there his body was taken for burial in what is now known as Compostella. From the first century until the ninth his body laid there unnoticed, then a hermit was led by a star to a field where the relics, believed to be those of St. James, were discovered. ‘Compostella’ is generally said to mean ‘field of the star,’ though most scholars agree that it is a version of the Latin world for ‘burial,’ in other words, a cenetery.”
Of course, this is a legend and not everyone finds it convincing. But, since the tenth century, people have been making the Pilgrimage to Santiago. Of course, with the growth of global travel over the past number of years, the number of people coming to Santiago has dramatically increased. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are dramatic differences between being a Pilgrim and being a tourist. I personally think this is a good metaphor for how we travel through our time on this planet as well. We either go with intent or we are aimless.