El Camino de Santiago

This week’s tour takes us to the oldest church along the pilgrimage route known as the Way of St. James, or Camino de Santiago de Compostela, which runs across in northern Spain, ending in Santiago de Compostela, where tradition teaches the bones of St. James the Apostle are housed.  The relics of the saint were discovered early in the 9th century and the pilgrimage route followed not long after.  Santiago de Compostela was considered the third most important holy site in Christendom, after Jerusalem and Rome, and thousands and thousands of medieval pilgrims followed the route. 

Eventually the numbers of pilgrims reduced to a trickle and that was the state of affairs when a priest named Elías Valiña Sampedro, of the parish of Santa Maria in the ancient Galician town of O Cebreiro became interested in the Camino pilgrimage route.  Through the 1970s and 1980s he researched the ancient route and coordinated resources to re-establishing the infrastructure of the Camino.  Father Elías conceived the idea to use painted yellow arrows as blazes to mark the way.  Thus,

Reconstruction of ‘The Camino’ as we know it today only began in the late 1970s and 1980s with a dedicated priest, a group of hard working volunteers with a few tins of yellow paint, and the formation of Camino interest groups. These events, coinciding with the advent of Internet and the World Wide Web in the 1990s, saw the numbers of people visiting Santiago explode, with exponential growth into the 21st century.

                                                    - an excerpt from a post about the modern history of Camino on the Camino de Santiago Forum.

In 2010, a Jubilee Year because the Feast of Saint James (July 25) fell on a Sunday, there were over 270,000 pilgrims who earned a “compostela” certificate for completing the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. (see statistics here )

As for Fr. Elías’ town, O Cebreiro, it is an ancient town in a high pass (4,242 feet) in the rolling mountains of Galicia, the Celtic area of northwestern Spain.  The buildings are constructed of stone, in fact, the original dwellings of this area are round stone huts with thatched roofs (as in the photo above). 

His church, Santa Maria la Real (“Royal St. Mary’s) is the oldest church directly associated with the Camino; parts of the church are from the year 846, actually pre-dating the Romanesque in form.

The short square pillar just outside the church is a monument of gratitude to Fr. Elías from the Confraternities that support the Camino (see photo above).

The church proudly houses relics from an Eucharistic miracle that occurred in the town in the 14th century, in which a priest celebrated Mass without truly believing his actions - in fact ridiculing the Real Presence - and at the time of the Consecration, the bread and wine were transformed into literal flesh and blood, that is, the Body and Blood of Christ appeared in actual visible form, producing reverence and repentance on the part of the priest.  The chalice and paten from the miracle are displayed in a glass case on a side altar, and fragments of the miraculous Eucharist are in the silver reliquary donated by Queen Isabella in the 15th century (the case and reliquary can be seen on the altar in the photo, above).  (More about the miracle and the church, including the quote below, here.)

…the miracle of O Cebreiro gets right to the heart of the true motive which for a thousand years has moved millions of men and women to leave house and home to journey to Compostela. 

The church holds a Pilgrim Mass each evening, and I was fortunate enough to reach the town just in time to attend.  I came directly from the trail, where we had hiked the final 7 kilometers, a steep uphill grade, after riding our bicycles 32 kilometers earlier in the day.

The baptismal font is ancient and designed for baptism by full immersion.

You can read more about O Cebreiro in Rick Steves’ page on the town, here.

walking the camino has been one of the best experiences of my life to date. when I get back, I´ll post pictures and parts of the journal that I´m keeping, but I´m safe and happy and seeing a new part of the country every day as we walk. tomorrow is a 27k hike and we´ll be in Burgos by monday. I´m so exxcited to see what the next few weeks bring. I´ve already met so many amazing people from around the world that I now consider my friends, especially since they´ve been so integral on my camino journey. i love you all and I hope you´re having wonderful summers! tell me about your adventures. I´d love to read about them when I get home! :)