Pilgrims on the Way

A few days ago, when I was discussing the Apostle’s tomb, I talked about the worn steps. For more than a thousand years, pilgrims from all over the world have come here. Here’s what that looks like. Date: 03 May 2016 Place: Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, Spain)

These confessionals line the walls all along the perimeter of the Cathedral in Santiago. Most have a sign indicated what languages the priest will hear confessions in. This is a photo of the priest who heard my end-of-pilgrimage confession. After leaving the confessional, I turned around and snapped the photo. He was already hearing another confession. Date: 03 May 2016 […]

Alicia, Rebecca, and Francine in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, awaiting the start of the Pilgrims’ Mass. The thing about Santiago – and I’ve said this more eloquently in the past – is that it is a type of heaven. As you walk in that final day, you run into people you know, but whom you haven’t seen in […]

Every day at noon, Mass is celebrated in the Cathedral for the arriving pilgrims. Most usually, you will attend the day after you arrive due to simple logistics. Here you see the gathered pilgrims awaiting the start of the Mass in about ten minutes. On either side of the nave, you can see the the enormous pipes of the organ, […]

Continuing down yesterday’s street into the Praza da Quintana, we find the monastery of San Paio de Antealtares on our right. Originally built in the 9th Century, it was subsequently restored and expanded every century or two, culminating in the Baroque structure we see today. It still houses a cloistered monastery (the monks left in 1499, and it’s been nuns […]

The narrow medieval streets in the old town of Santiago twist and wind like a maze around the Cathedral. It’s easy to get lost, and I frequently have. City workers wash the streets in the pre-dawn hours, which is why this one appears wet, even though we can see the brilliant morning sunshine in the plaza beyond. The streets are […]

Both of my breakfast companions on that first full day in Santiago de Compostela were charming. Exhausted from six weeks of walking, but charming. It is a long, long time indeed since that first meal that Francine and I shared on this Camino, back in Saint Jean Pied-de-Port, France. Date: 03 May 2016 Place: Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, Spain)

After visiting and praying some time at the tomb of the saint, we spent a short time touring about the cathedral. I’ll have more photos in coming days, but this is enough to give you a taste. It’s not a building so much as a complex of buildings all mashed together in a glorious cacophony of architectural and artistic styles. […]

Here, at last, we come to the object of our pilgrimage. In the crypt under the high altar of the Cathedral, we come face to face with the casket containing the remains of the Apostle Saint James – Santiago. “And going on a little farther, [Jesus] saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their […]