The Road to Santiago: Pilgrims of St. James

Leocadia.
    According to the expert authority of Dr. Schlunk, the German archaeologist, the Cámara Santa follows the type of funerary chapel which was current in the later Middle Ages, and according to Kingsley porter the sculptured figures of the twelve Apostles grouped in pairs with their backs to the columns are of the twelfth century.
    On a stone pedestal stands the ‘Holy Ark’ which for the past eleven hundred years has been the veneration of pilgrims. It is made of dark oak and covered with plates of silver. According to the inscription, it was made at the order of Alfonso VI in 1075 and was, judging by the Cufic band and the ornamentations in plaster ( atauriques ), the work of Andalusian craftsmen. * On the cover a Calvary is designed with the symbolic figures of the Sun and the Moon. On the front of the ark are two rows of six Apostles, one row above the other with Christ in the middle, within an oval circle upheld by four angels. On the sides there are scenes of the Annunciation, the Visitation and Flight to Egypt. So great was the eagerness of the pilgrims in the Middle Ages to touch the relics and kiss the ‘Holy Ark’ that the monks had to keep an ever watchful eye, and on one occasion when the wife of King Alfonso IX and her sister were suspected of casting covetous eyes on the relics in the ‘Holy Ark’, the Abbot quickly closed the casket and it was not opened again.
    The presence of the figures grouped at the foot of the columns like eternal watchers round a holy tomb impresses the modern pilgrim even more than the relics in the glass cases, for the features of the Apostles were carved by an artist whose vision transcended our vale of tears, and to their apostolic faces he imparted an expression of peace and serenity which comes from the contemplation of Divinity. And many a pilgrim has been haunted afterwards by the face of that St. James with his pilgrim’s staff and scallop shell, who stands beside his brother Thunderer in the Cámara Santa. There is no trace of Santiago Mata-moros in him; rather is he the St. James of the Portico de la Gloria at the end of our pilgrimage.
    After leaving the Cámara Santa, I followed a group of pilgrims to the cathedral to make my obligatory visit to the celebrated statue of our Saviour which stands at the epistle side of the high altar against the column of the central arch. Its pedestal is adorned with scallop shells and in the Middle Ages many miracles were ascribed to it. With right hand raised and uplifted finger the image seems to give blessing to us pilgrims. In a niche in the wall near the chapel of Alfonso the Chaste is the relic which most attracted the ancient pilgrims—the hydria or water jar which tradition ascribes to the Marriage Feast at Cana.
    The pilgrims whom I met in the cathedral had come by the coast road from France, entering Spain at Irán. With them were some Spaniards, among whom I recognized an old friend from the days when I used to visit Santillana del Mar. “Hola! Enrique,” I said. “I never expected to see you tramping the Jacobean road; I imagined you on the beach at Santander, or else playing golf at La Pedreña or tennis in Santillana.”
    “Good Heavens! Nor did I expect to see you. Have you become a pilgrim or what? As it’s the Holy Year, I’m going to hear Mass in Compostella on July 25. I’ve got my car and can give you a lift if you like.”
    But my next halting-place was Grado and he agreed to drop me there. As we drove along, my friend Enrique and two French journalists to whom he was giving a lift to Compostella talked about the pilgrimage. “This year,” said Enrique, “there will be even more people at Santiago than in past Holy Years, because Generalissimo Franco himself will be present and will make the offering to the Apostle.” “We want to see the opening of the Hospital del Rey,” said one of the French journalists. “They say it has been transformed into the finest hotel in Europe today.”
    “Wonders will never cease,” I said. “Why only a year ago I remember visiting the Hospital del Rey with friends who were doctors. Whoever did the transformation must have rubbed Aladdin’s lamp!” “That was Franco,” replied the Spaniard. “Obstacles do not exist for him. In less than a year patients have been moved to other hospitals and the ancient building founded by Queen Isabella has been transformed, as if by magic, into the last word in guest-houses for the crowds of North and South