The Road to Santiago: Pilgrims of St. James

Apostle, St. James the Less, the first Archbishop of that city, and brought it to Carrión de Los Condes, where it was given to the Queen, Doña Urraca, who presented it to Gelmirez and today we may see it in the cathedral of Compostella.
    The possession of relics of the saints was a luxury that could only be afforded by the great and mighty kings and bishops: the humble people had to be satisfied with objects which came from the neighbourhood of the Apostle’s tomb such as the scallop shells and figures of jet, which could be acquired in the so-called Paraiso or square at the north door of the Cathedral or in the numerous shops nearby. * The cockle shell was the emblem of the Saint and the proof that the pilgrimage had been accomplished. It was the symbol of good works and was worn on the cloak or hat, and the Cid, as he is represented in an old painting in Burgos, wore it at his girdle. There is an old legend explaining the origin of the scallop shells as emblem of St. James, which is still told by the people of Galicia. *
    The seven disciples after witnessing the martyrdom of St. James, gathered his body and head and transported them to Jaffa where they found a ship ready to start. They embarked and travelled on a peaceful sea for seven days and reached Iria Flavia in Galicia. An angel was their pilot. At Iria Flavia, a marriage was being celebrated between two great families of the region. The bridegroom was on horseback accompanied by a brilliant procession. Suddenly the horse took fright, ran away and dashed into the sea, just as the ship was slowly approaching.
    When the horse rose to the surface of the water the rider, to his amazement, found himself entirely covered with shells. One of the disciples then taking in his hand sea water threw it over the rider’s head and baptized him.
    The cockle shells were considered the official emblems, and for this reason the Church authorities in the ancient days kept control of their sale at Compostella. Devout people cherished the shells and they passed from father to son like heirlooms. * In London the prestige of the scallop shell of St. James passed to the familiar oyster, and it was customary around the day of St. James for children to pick up the oyster shells that had been cast in the gutter by oyster-sellers and with them construct little shrines of St. James for which they used to beg alms.
    Londoners used, it is said, to begin eating oysters on July 25, the day of St. James, for the well-known proverb says that ‘He who eats oysters on St. James’s Day will never want money’, perhaps, as the Rev. Dr. Stone wittily remarks, because only the wealthy can afford them on this opening day. *
    There is, however, a still more familiar rhyme connecting St. James with oysters:

    July, to whom, with Dog-star in her train
    St. James gives oysters, and St. Swithin rain.

    St. James, in fact joins hands with all the good old vegetation saints, and in parts of England apple trees are blessed on St. James’s Day, and he is as unaccountable as St. Swithin, for in the hop-producing counties there is the superstition:

    Till St. James’s Day be come and gone,
    You may have hops or you may have none.

    It was the confraternity that gave prestige and tradition to the individual pilgrims, for it kept alive the cult transmitting it from generation to generation. The very poor pilgrims who went on a pilgrimage because of a vow made when in mortal danger, or in youth because the fever of wandering was in the blood, or in age because there was no place else to go, could expect little prestige and had to plod their way onwards murmuring the saying, “Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.” * But the prosperous middle classes derived satisfaction from the pilgrimage and a kind of social status which they revived by their membership of one of the confraternities. In France, we find many of these confraternities of returned pilgrims which, as Miss King remarks, may have been mutual benefit societies. They certainly gave opportunities for conviviality as, in addition to the monthly and annual Mass, they celebrated with an annual banquet.
    Moissac which was on one of the four great roads of St. James leading to Spain had an hôpital de St. Jacques at St. Pierre de Moissac and a Confrérie was created in 1523 and reorganized in the seventeenth century. The monks of Moissac from the early Middle Ages had helped the caravans of pilgrims as they passed onwards through Guyenne and