This pilgrimage thing...

My first pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in north western Spain was in 1999, when, on impulse, I took a sleeper train from Madrid to Santiago. Thus I arrived quite refreshed early in the morning at Santiago, got out of my berth and wandered up to the city. To be fair even that visit began years earlier in Lima, Peru. Someone took me to a church in Lima - it may have been the Iglesia de Santiago, El Cercado, but I can't really remember. I was quite surprised to see a statue of Santiago Matamoros - St James the Moor-slayer. James is depicted seated on a white stallion, slaying a couple of moors with a sword. That didn't quite jell with my notions of one of Jesus' apostles. This piqued my interest in St James.

Santiago Matamorros - Cusco (Peru) School

When I visited Santiago de Chile, I discovered that there was another Santiago - Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia in Spain. And I found out that there was another well-known image of Santiago - Santiago Peregrino (St James the Pilgrim). The two are linked by legend. 

The Apostle James (Saint James = Santiago = Sant Iago) went to this most north-western part of Spain, called by the Romans "Finis Terrae", "end of the world", to preach and convert people to Christianity.
 After returning to Palestine James was beheaded by Herodes Agrippa. James's disciples stole the body and brought him, in a sarcophagus of marble, on a small boat back to Spain. The Apostle was buried at a secret place in a wood.

 Centuries later, in 813 or a couple of decades later, the hermit Pelayo heard music and saw lights dancing in a field. Because of the lights the place was called, in Latin, "Campus Stellae", field of the stars, a name that was later became Compostela.
 The local Bishop, Teodomiro,  began an investigation, and the tomb of the Apostle was discovered. King Alphonse II declared Saint James the patron of his empire and had built a chapel. It is reported that from then on Saint James did several miracles, even that he fought side to side with King Ramiro I in the decisive battle against the Moors.

The Pilgrim Routes through Europe - Manfred Zentgraf, Volkach, Germany

More and more pilgrims followed el Camino de Santiago, the "Way of Saint James", and the original chapel soon became the cathedral of the new settlement, Santiago de Compostela... Santiago's medieval popularity as a pilgrimage place grew when the other two great pilgrimage places, Jerusalem and Rome were difficult to get to. 

The other Caminos through Spain

For over a thousand years people have made the pilgrimage to Santiago. In recent decades the numbers have risen dramatically - 262000 people in 2015. This Wednesday another one will set off - me!

The Via de la Plata

I'll begin in Seville on the Via de la Plata. There's some difference as to whether the Via de la Plata - which loosely follows a Roman Road - refers to the silver (plata) the Romans transported south along that road, or whether it refers to a "paved way" from the Arabic word al-balat, which means cobbled paving.

Wherever the name comes from, I'll be trudging though Spain soon. I'm quite looking forward to it and at the same time rather anxious about it. I'll keep you posted.