El Camino, the Consciousness of Europe
The Way of Saint James is a landmark in the development of Western culture for its historical and spiritual importance. It is a millenarian link between peoples in a Europe, which in the central period of the Middle Ages, became a place of pilgrimages and headed off towards Spanish finisterre, the mythical setting sun of Mediterranean culture. According to ancient traditions and written records of special value, the Apostle Saint James the Great travelled to the borders of Western Hispania after Pentecost to preach the Gospels. According to the Acts of the Apostles, he was martyred in Jerusalem in AD 44 after returning from his evangelical work. This particular source does not specify his place of burial, but there were rumours that circulated about the most likely place before the discovery of his tomb in the early 9th century (around 820-830) in a remote corner of north-western Spain. A cathedral was built on the site and a city took shape around it, the purpose of which was to shelter the sacred relics, attend to the Jacobean cult and make adequate preparations for the needs of pilgrims that in the 10th century were already arriving at the Locus Sancti Iacobi from Christian Spain and other parts of Europe. Many lands in the West were able to establish relations thanks to the religious, intellectual and welfare support network created by the pilgrimage routes.
Jerusalem and Rome were the two principal centres of pilgrimage in the first centuries of the Christian era, but Santiago de Compostela became the main goal for pilgrims in the Middle Ages. After relatively quiet beginnings in the High Middle Ages, the Christian Kingdoms of Navarre, then Aragón-Navarre and Castille-León prepared what can only be described a plan to promote Jacobean pilgrimage in the 11th and 12th centuries. The great project was supported by the Benedictine monks of Cluny and the Papacy, Christian monarchs in the Iberian Peninsula and the military orders, especially the Orders of Saint John, Saint James and the Knights Templar. This was a fertile period, in which pilgrims not only received external help but were also aided by the inner strength given by their faith and the spiritual stimulus of the many indulgences to be obtained in Santiago in return for pilgrimage. The Christian monarchs in the Iberian Peninsula built and protected roads, bridges, hospitals and churches, and encouraged the founding of new settlements. Towns and cities grew and developed that organised their layout around the high street: the pilgrimage route itself. The Cluniac monasteries brought new life to older religious communities, tilled new lands and gave work to large numbers of serfs, further stimulating the cult of Saint James and collaborating in the provision of care and assistance to pilgrims. Likewise the need for larger and safer churches encouraged the spread of the Romanesque style all along the pilgrimage route, linked to new cultural developments and the rites of the Gregorian Reform. At the end of the Middle Ages the papacy took the unique step of helping to develop the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela by establishing a holy year, celebrated when the 25th June coincided with a Sunday; a period of Great Pardon which became a religious and cultural event of tremendous importance.
The Middle Ages were without a doubt the golden age for pilgrimage ad limina Sancti Jacobi. In many parts of Western Europe there is a network of Romanesque churches and monasteries dating from this period that is denser still when it is close to the Way of Saint James. Lutheran criticism of pilgrimage and religious wars were serious problems for the Jacobean cult, but there was a revival in pilgrimage to Compostela during the Counter Reformation. This was a period when Baroque culture gave a style and luxurious forms that in the 17th and 18th centuries substantially reformed the Cathedral, created a splendid backdrop for worship of Saint James the Apostle and better suited the religious sentiments of the period. Pilgrimages continued to be made during the Enlightenment, which is borne out by the construction of a large communion chapel for pilgrims in the Cathedral of Santiago and an ambitious restoration plan, brought to an abrupt halt by the Napoleonic invasion and its aftermath.
A steady flow of pilgrims continued during the 19th century, and even increased, although modestly, from 1879 onwards, with the rediscovery of the body of Saint James, the public opening of the crypt where the Apostle’s remains were kept, and the Papal Bull Deus Omnipotens issued by Pope Leo XIII. The serious problems that Europe lived through in the first half of the 20th century led to a period of recession for the pilgrimage route, although later decades saw a slight return in numbers. However, in the last years of the millennium everything changed for the better, thanks to the support given by Pope John Paul II and his visits to Santiago de Compostela: the first in Holy Year 1982 and the second during World Youth Day at Monte de Gozo in 1989. Modern promotional work by public bodies was another factor, based to a great extent on rehabilitation and reappraisal of the Way of Saint James as a part of the cultural heritage. This heritage is expressed through its physical infrastructure and its enormous historical and artistic wealth, all of which are closely linked to the spiritual, service and welfare needs of pilgrims and the faithful. Throughout this most sacred of routes there are cathedrals, monasteries, churches, chapels, hospitals, towns, villages, defensive posts, bridges and many other historical sites that are the offspring of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.
The Jacobean presence in European history is easily found in the specific iconographic, cultural and intellectual reference points left by its passage: they are a sign that clearly mark out the significance of the millenarian route through the centuries. European pilgrimage to Galician finisterre was the spontaneous, popular expression of a civilisation galvanised by the strength of its faith, driven by a search for the sublime, and the need to find meaning in what was seen to be an ephemeral and arbitrary life. The medieval Catholic mentality with its love of relics, religious images and sacred spaces where miracles are possible, laid the foundations that would make pilgrimage to the end of the world the great success it came to be. The most remarkable thing about the Way of Saint James, as an inspiration for culture and thought, is its continuing presence at the beginnings of the 21st century as a living historical event that continues to amaze the world with its capacity to attract such large numbers. The pilgrimages are as spontaneous and numerous as they were in the days of its greatest fame, so much so that while this new golden age continues to be spurred by religious belief, there are other motives based on culture, sentiment and leisure that should also be valued and encouraged.
The profound religious and cultural significance of the Way of Saint James as one of the foundations of European identity has been recognised on several occasions. These include the Council of Europe with the declaration of the Way as First European Cultural Itinerary (1987), and UNESCO in 1993, when it declared the Way a World Heritage Site. The Prince of Asturias Award for Concord to the Way of Saint James drives home, if such a thing were necessary, the most heartfelt intimate message of the Jacobean Way: the offer of time, whatever time the pilgrimage takes, and a place, the Way itself, as a space of special meaning where solidarity, reflection and dialogue become possible.
