I'm sitting in my hotel room right now enjoying some lunch and warming up. We went out this morning about two kilometers and walked into Santiago de Compostela. The cathedral here is a huge Christian pilgrimage site after Rome and Jerusalem. It contains the supposed remains of the Apostle James (Spanish:Santiago) the fisherman. The story is, that a monk followed a field of stars (the Milky Way?) to a place where he discovered the tomb and remains of the Apostle James who was beheaded by Pontius Pilate after his mission. They built a church there and the pope declared that people could receive remission of their sins if they made the pilgrimage to the site. ( I think its complete remission if its a Holy Year--if St. James' day:July 25 falls on a sunday) Pilgrims walk for sometimes 3 weeks to make the journey to this cathedral in Northern Spain starting in France, some in hopes of a healing and others to receive a remission of their sins, and probably some just to do it. They have a passport book that We saw some pilgrims in the church today. There were pilgrims from Barcelona, the United States, and even CANADA!! cool eh!? The traditional pilgrim wears a big floppy hat, a robe, and carries a gourd for water and a walking stick with a shell on it (the sign of Santiago). It was rainy and cold but it didn't even matter because I was so excited to be in the church for the pilgrim mass. When we got to the plaza outside of the church we admired the 18th century facade. Its a beautiful baroque style and with all the rain here in northern Spain its all dark and covered in wet green moss. Once we got inside we looked up at the Pórtico de Gloria--a sculpted doorway with statues of apostles and prophets. Then we touched the pillar that holds up the statue of St. James. It's worn down and even has a hand print in it from the hundreds of millions of people that have touched it over the past 1000 years signifying the end of their pilgrimage. King Ferdinand and Isabel, Columbus, TONS of people have made the pilgrimage to this site and have touched that pillar. We got there early so we had time to walk behind the high alter over the tomb of St. James. We walked past his 13th century statue wearing a silver cape covered in jewels that the pilgrims embrace, and then went down into the crypt where his remains are kept (along with 2 of his apostles. There was a group down there having some kind of service, singing hymns with the priest The core of the building has virtually been unchanged since the 11th century! The cathedral was completely filled with people and Kristina and I found a spot beside a nun. We chatted with her before misa (mass) started. She explained many of the statues in the cathedral, the customs of the pilgrims, and what she did as a monk. It was so much fun to chat with her! Mass started and it was a special mass for all the pilgrims. The service was really nice and we were very fortunate to have been there today because they swung the massive botafumeiro. <--That is a huge incense burner that is silver and suspended from the ceiling with a big wooden pulley. It was swung above the alter by 8 priests after it was lit. The smoke filled the catheral with a really nice smell while the pipe organ belted out at full sound a majestic hymn. So the trodging through the rain and mud for a couple of hours and having escaped the experience with the only thing broken being my umbrella (completely snapped off from the wind) we were incredibly rewarded. It was quite the experience!! After we get all warmed up we are going out again to a museum and then out for seafood. Galicia has the best food in all of Spain and is definitely the most picturesque and traditional I have seen yet. Anybody up for a pilgrimage? I sure am!
