The Road to Santiago: Pilgrims of St. James

hill in sight of the towers of Compostella. But the advances made by science, though they have modified our lives and imposed an outer veneer or mask upon us, cannot entirely shut our eyes to all the sights and ghostly visions witnessed by the traditional pilgrim in his tattered cloak plodding along the endless Jacobean road, nor can we deafen our ears entirely to the hymns and songs and rhythms that echo and re-echo in the mountains and in the woods at nightfall, like tantalizing fairy music recalling the minstrels who wandered over the hills and far away.
    The peculiar fascination of the road to Santiago for the pilgrim today is that, in addition to its religious and historical significance, it seems also a continual reminder of the further ghostly journey towards Ultima Thule, the undiscovered land from which no traveller returns. It is a pilgrimage towards the other world, in the summer months under a star-studded sky, with the luminous track of the Milky Way to guide the wanderer westward to Compostella. A ghost-accompanied pilgrimage, moreover, for even after death myriads of souls make their way to the shrine of Saint James, as we are told in a lovely Asturian folk-legend, which describes how one gloomy night, when not a star was shining, a forlorn pilgrim soul lost its way. Then a knight came to the window and said: “If thou art the devil I conjure thee to depart: if thou be of this world tell me what thou dost need.” The soul then answered:
    “I am a sinful soul journeying to Compostella, but there is a deep river in front me and I cannot pass.”
    “Trust to the rosaries thou didst say in thy life,” answers the other.
    “Alas, woe is me, I said none.”
    “Trust to the fasts or to the alms thou didst give.”
    “Alas, I gave none.”
    But the knight was charitable and he pitied the soul, so he lit the sacred candles at the window, and the soul crossed the river and went on. That same night the soul returned from the holy pilgrimage singing: “Blessed be the Knight who by saving my soul saved his own as well.”

Part One
EARLY PILGRIMS

Chapter 1

THE LIFE OF ST. JAMES

    T HE Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles tell us all that is known about St. James. He was the elder of the two sons of Zebedee, a fisherman living on the banks of Lake Galilee and his mother’s name was Salomé.
    According to St. Jerome, the family was of noble origin and there is a tradition that they came originally from Jaffa, where their house is still shown. They were partners in the fishing business with Simon called Peter and Andrew, the sons of Jonas, and they were all closely connected with the Holy Family; in fact some authorities have maintained that Jesus was cousin of the Sons of Zebedee.
    One day when they were mending their nets by the lake Jesus passed by and spoke to them of His mission, and they forsook their nets and followed the Master. Henceforth they would be fishers of men. And, knowing their strength of spirit, Christ surnamed them ‘Boanerges’, which is, the Sons of Thunder. These two men and Peter, more than any other of the twelve Apostles, Jesus took into His confidence, for they surpassed in devotion that of other men. They went with him to the raising of Jairus’s daughter, and they witnessed also the Transfiguration on the Mount, and there they knew Him as the Master of Death and as the King of Glory. To them He gave His apocalyptic prophecy foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem and the tribulations and wars to come. And St. Matthew tells the story of Salomé, the mother of Zebedee’s sons, coming to Jesus and desiring of Him that her two sons James and John should sit, one on His right hand and the other on His left, in His Kingdom. But Jesus answered: “Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They say unto him, “We are able.” And he saith unto them, “Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.” *
    Salomé, whom we meet with the Family of Bethany in the Church of the Sea-borne Marys in the Camargue and who follows her eldest son to Compostella, becomes thus the prototype of the ambitious matron, mother of noble sons, and we find her in the Gospels urging her sons on, much to the displeasure of the