The countryside is spectacular. Day 4 greeted us with waving fields of green wheat as we passed over a 500 meter pass and down the other side across the Navarra terrain. There are yellow mustard flowers, deep red poppy flowers, daisies, chamomile, nettles and more along the roadside and path. The path is long and feet are hurting for most of the pilgrims. We are traversting olive country and now here in La Rioja we are more in wine country and the fields are that of grapes just starting out their season with only short green arms beginning to grow across the lines that are set for their long reach of the season. The days are long. The sun rises by 7 am, but it is not dark until well after 9 pm. We have travelled just more than 200 kilometers now, and one sees the effects of such a walk on the body. Many of the pilgrims feel the distance in the body as one becomes more aware of one´s constitution. Many of the towns established hospitals for the pilgrims, and now I see why. I imagine a lot of foot and knee doctoring happened along the route.
We traverse through the countryside for most of the day and every 5 to 15 kilometers we are walking through an old town. The modern town is built out along the fringes of the old town centers, and the camino, the way, takes us to the heart of each city and through to the other side and then back out into the country. We enter into old stone city gate, pass by and sometimes enter the very ornate gold gilded churches, follow the yellow arrows through the narrow stone streets to pass out of the town gate on the other side. Many of the town centers and churches were built around the 11th century.
Today we wake up to clouds and cold. We are in a town built by the Moors called Azofra. It is very small and there are two storks that have an enormous nest on the top of the church tower!! Imagine! And the church bells ring every hour, and the constant din of Mass bells ring two or more times a day as well!
Today we hope to travel to Santo Domingo and perhaps beyond. We hope to meditate more today and to take a small break on this full Moon day!
We are thinking of all our family and friends with the deepest love and concern.
Please share any insights and inspirations, and information. We know little about Saint James. Perhaps Uncle Phil and Aunt Liz can share some history!!
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Caroline and Wes,
ReplyDeleteI found this on Wikipedia. Catholic tradition upholds the idea that Saint James, brother of John and apostle to Jesus, was in Spain but the Bible does not.
I hope this helps. Phil.
"The 12th-century Historia Compostellana commissioned by bishop Diego Gelmírez provides a summary of the legend of St James as it was believed at Compostela. Two propositions are central to it: first, that St James preached the gospel in Iberia as well as in the Holy Land; second, that after his martyrdom at the hands of Herod Agrippa I his disciples carried his body by sea to Iberia, where they landed at Padrón on the coast of Galicia, and took it inland for burial at Santiago de Compostela."
"St James suffered martyrdom in AD 44, and according to the tradition of the early Church, he had not yet left Jerusalem at this time. St Paul in his Epistle to the Romans written after AD 44, expressed his intention to avoid "building on someone else's foundation", and thus visit Spain, presumably unevangelized."