“The pilgrim of the middle ages shared with the modern tourist the conviction that certain places and certain things possessed spiritual power and that one was a better person for visiting them.”
The opening sentence of the highly regarded modern book on The Pilgrimage to Santiago.
I would much prefer not to be here today and after I have spoken to you for a few minutes the feeling may be mutual.
Today is the feast day of St James the Apostle known also as St James the Greater.
He is the Patron Saint of Spain where he is called Santiago.
What do we know of him?
He was the brother of John and they were fishermen and partners with Simon Peter. His father was Zebedee his mother Salome and she was reputed to be the sister of the Blessed Virgin Mary so he was by my reckoning a cousin of our Lord.
He was one of the first to be chosen. He was present we know:-
At the healing of Peter’s mother in Law
At the raising of the daughter of Jairus
At the Transfiguration
With John and Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane
At one of the Post Resurrection appearances
And in the upper room after the Ascension
He was almost certainly present during much of Jesus ministry including key events such as the Last Supper
He was not present at the Crucifixion.
Jesus called him and his brother John “Sons of Thunder” maybe because they showed characteristics which fitted with such a description or maybe because they suggested that Our Lord called down fire from heaven to punish a village who had not taken them in.
That really is all we know with any degree of certainty.
In the Middle Ages much faith was placed in relics maybe because folk lacked confidence in the present so people obtained comfort from things which represented what they saw as the perfection of the past. Never slow to pass up an opportunity for betterment the church embraced the culture of relics with abandon. A “good” relic would bring pilgrims and prosperity. Quite an industry evolved with raiding parties from one church or cathedral nicking the relics from others.
There are three churches who to this day claim to have a relic of the arm of St Ann. There were enough fragments of the “True Cross” to build a bridge over the River Styx let alone a boat.
It was all the better to travel out of duty and faith and love to these relics especially as the church still preached on the dreadful Day of Judgement and the risk of eternal damnation. The only sure antidote was contact with the Saints who would intercede for them. There were plenty of Saints to choose from but if the Saint was a martyr so much the better and if that Martyr was one of the 12 disciples salvation was assured. So we know why the relics of Saints were important but where did James fit in with all this?
James was the first Christian Martyr after Stephen and the first of the apostles to be martyred.
After they were exhorted by Jesus to preach the Gospel James is supposed to have travelled to Iberia where he remained for two years. He returned to Jerusalem and during the persecution of Christians under Herod Agrippa I he was executed. His remains were taken by two of his disciples to Spain and buried and eventually they were buried with him and the tomb became lost for some 800 years by which time Spain had been conquered by the Moors from North Africa. The remnants of the Christians seized on the discovery of the Tomb and the cult of Santiago was born.
Bit by bit the story grew. St James appeared miraculously at various battles to help drive out the occupying Arabs. So his reputation as saviour of Christian Spain grew and the tiny shrine built over his tomb grew with it until the great flamboyant cathedral and the town which surrounded it came about which we see today.
The evidence for all this is flimsy. There is no proof that he went to Spain in the first place. Some of the legends are clearly nonsense but the Spanish people now rid of the invaders were easy to persuade and the church did little to contradict the belief that James preached and was buried there.
James was the only Saint with such credentials to be linked with any country in western Europe and it was only to be expected that pilgrims flocked to him from all over Northern and western Europe. At the height of the pilgrimage half a million people a year walked or rode to Santiago. In around 1990 I went there for the first time. In those days and for many hundreds of years (after an interview with a priest) the successful pilgrim was given a certificate called a Compostela. In 1990 2500 were issued. This year is a Holy Year, when St James day falls on a Sunday and 250,000 pilgrims are expected.
Edwin Mullins describes the road to Santiago as a monument to the creative strength of Blind Faith. Maybe his is right – the standard of forensic proof is low but then there is nothing more easy than for a sceptic to raise doubts over things that cannot be proven.
For me I can only say that having travelled 1000 miles under my own steam to kneel in a tiny cell with the casket containing the bones of St James the Greater I had no doubts whatever.
If I and thousands of others are wrong and the sceptics are right nobody can argue that James the Apostle has not inspired, motivated and nurtured countless Christian souls for centuries and for that we should give thanks. There can also be no doubt whatever that James had qualities of obedience , loyalty and love which all of us would do well to emulate.
Going back to the start the reason I would prefer not to here is that, as I speak thousands of Pilgrims will be celebrating in the Cathedral at Santiago the joyful feast day of their special saint and I wish I were there with them.
So we pray,
Lord God,
You accepted the Sacrifice of St James, the first of your Apostles to give his life for your sake,
My we and your Church find strength in his Martyrdom and Inspiration in his service and Love to our Lord.
Help us to serve you in the same Spirit of Love and Sacrifice,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
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