Tag: saint james

Postcard from Oviedo, Spain: Sacred relics attract peregrinos and thieves

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Above: Central detail of the main Gothic altarpiece, dating from the early 1500s, in Santa Iglesia Catedral Basilica Metropolitana de Oviedo

He who goes to Santiago and not to the Savior visits the servant and forgets the Lord.”

Back in the year 40, the apostle James was preaching in Zaragoza when the Virgin Mary miraculously floated down on a cloud to assist him with his efforts to convert pagans living under Roman rule to Christianity. Soon after establishing a chapel in her honor, James traveled all the way back to Jerusalem. His preaching incurred the ire of the King of Judea, Herod Agrippa (11 BC-44 AD), who had him beheaded in the year 44. Avenged as, according to Acts Chapter 12, Verse 23, King Herod Agrippa met his maker within the same year:

“…an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died.”

The head of Santiago, as James is known in Spain, is said to be entombed below the altar of the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral of Saint James, the church built on the site where he was martyred in Jerusalem. But what became of the rest of his body? As Santiago is the country’s patron saint, let’s go with the miraculous version. A band of angels arrived on a cloud to retrieve it, placed it in a simple boat and guided it to shore in northern Spain.

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Postcard from Burgos, Spain: Pilgrims should indulge in Santiago’s symbolic seafood

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Above: Broiled zamburinas, Gallaecian scallops, at La Cantina Burgos

Bronze scallop shells embedded in the streets of Burgos lead pilgrims along the Camino de Santiago route to the Cathedral. The trail of shells conveniently passes right by La Cantina de Burgos, where one can find perfectly prepared grilled zamburinas, Gallaecian scallops. Earlier in this same trip, a blog post explains both the shell’s connection to Saint James and the bicolored anatomy of the bivalves.

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Postcard from Burgos, Spain: Counting on forgiveness at the hour of death

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Above: A putto cradles a skull in the Chapel of Santa Ana in the Cathedral of Saint Mary of Burgos.

“Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.”

Growing up Catholic in the United States seems to bear little resemblance to the experience in Europe. Even the basic images in a place like Star of the Sea in Virginia Beach are more than an ocean apart from what surrounds church-goers in an ancient church of Europe – for example, the Cathedral of Saint Mary of Burgos, where these photographs were taken.

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