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JAMES JOYS

Spanish pilgrimage is celebrating a special year

EVERY year is special in Spain but 2010 is doubly so.

It is a Jubilee year as the feast day of Santiago (St.James), July 25, falls on a Sunday. This won't happen again until 2021.

The Pilgrimage of Saint James has long held a fascination for the Irish ever since the Saint's body was found in a cave in Santiago de Compostela around the early 9th century.

I have walked and cycled this ancient pilgrimage seven times and hope to continue doing so for the rest of my life.

For many, the pilgrimage is exactly that, a pilgrimage to seek forgiveness, to pray for a sick friend, to recover one's inner peace after a great loss or to pave the way to the next life.

For others, it's a journey into the unknown but one they never recover from as it drags them back again and again.

Depending on the time available, the usual start is in the Pyrenees at St Jean Pied de Port or Roncesvalles on the Spanish side of the high Sierras.

From there you ease your way through tiny old-world villages to Pamplona where you can rest your weary limbs in a guest house of your choice and enjoy the city of San Fermin - made famous by Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises and The Fiesta.

Monuments

Saint James's Way abounds with beautiful monuments dedicated to the life and story of the Apostle. Every town and village has an ermita (hermitage) or stone cross with a million images of the Saint.

The landscape along the pilgrim route varies rapidly from low hills to high mountains and long stretches of flat cereal-growing plains where shelter from the sweltering heat and the scourge of maddening flies can be provided by a widebrimmed hat covered with a
thin muslin veil draped onto the shoulders.

The trail abounds with young people in search of adventure.

Not for them the expensive Paradours, quality hotels or up-market guest houses that line the way. They prefer the simple comfort of a mattress thrown on the floor in any one of the many hostels, refugios or pensións that provide a safe haven for anything from three to ten euros per night.

As one nears the Galician border one becomes aware of a great change in climate and landscape. It begins to resemble the West of Ireland and the weather can be just as changeable.

The paths become more difficult and the climbs more energy-sapping until you reach the top of O Cebreiro, the Holy Mountain, where The Holy Grail is safely preserved behind plate-glass in a beautiful stone church in the Celtic village.

The scenery becomes ever more beautiful as you head down the mountain and on through the heavily- scented Eucalyptus forests to the fabled city of Santiago de Compostela and the end of a fabulous journey.

Despite the glories of the immense Cathedral, the visits to the Saint's silvercovered casket and the many delights of this welcoming city, you will be left with an abiding sense of loss.

Quality

It's not the culmination of another pilgrimage but the journey itself which allows one to test values that may no longer prove essential to a better quality of life.

Times have changed and the advent of the motor, aeroplane and safe travel has made life a lot easier for all of us.

A journey that took months can now be done in a matter of days or weeks depending on one's chosen mode of travel.

Thousands fly into Spain every year from all parts of the world to walk, cycle, drive or ride horses across the north of Spain on a path long recognised as The French Way or Camino Francés.

Besides Roncesvalles the most popular pilgrimage route is The Camino Francés but the Via del Plata or Silver Way from Sevilla to Santiago is gaining in popularity as the old tracks are being reclaimed, made safer and offer better accommodation.

It's not unusual to encounter groups of strangers inter-mingling and making music at night in the many hostels and bars in even the tiniest villages that grew up along the pilgrimage route.

Villagers, long-accustomed to the needs of the traveller, offer all kinds of services from meals to medical for mind and body.

There are hundreds of Refugios (shelters) and all kinds of inexpensive accommodation all along the journey.

Indulgence

The Church granted all kinds of indulgences to the true pilgrim but in time that became lost in the excesses of greed and legal translation.

There is still a belief however, that if one were to do more than one Camino one could reach the Pearly Gates with little effort.

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