If we focus on the religious tradition Christendom comes from, the Bible is the written testimony of a pilgrimage that points to the man’s way to happiness. And happiness is the destiny for which God created the man. Abraham is a wandering pilgrim searching for the destiny God had announced to him. Jacob himself, the great patriarch, was a pilgrim. The people of Israel escaped from the Pharaoh’s slavery and shaped as a nation by being pilgrims. The Apostles, specially St. James, announced the Good News of Jesus, which meant the definitive liberation from the obstacles – insuperable for men – that prevent men from being happy and went on pilgrimage all over the world known at that time. 

When the European Christians felt that their faith was threatened by Islam’s unstoppable advance, they settled themselves in that faith and walked to the newly discovered Grave of the First Western Christian Pilgrim: St. James “the Thunder”, as he was named by Jesus himself, the Saviour.

Why did they go on pilgrimage?

1. 1. To get involved in their faith in a more coherent way
2. To show their belief in St. James’ heritage, which is the fulfilment of the work of Jesus of Nazareth: to announce to the world that man can already be happy.
3. To turn their own values derived from pride and selfishness into love and to invite the others to do so.

And so they created a route that revealed the mutual love and solidarity existing between the pilgrim and the society the Way went through. And so, walking, they made the Way to St. James.

Christian pilgrims to St. James still nowadays?

The formation process of the Way to St. James began in the first half of the 10^th century some years after the Apostle's Tomb was found in 829. That was the time when European identity and culture were threatened by Islamism - which finally invaded Spain and part of France - and by Adoptionism, doctrine of the Archbishop of Toledo that aimed to harmonise Christian faith with the faith of the invaders. The news, reported by Theodomir, Bishop of Iria, and by King Alfonso II the Chaste, favoured the creation of a movement that intended to reveal the solidarity with the Apostle's heritage.

The 12^th and 13^th centuries are considered to have been the golden centuries of the Pilgrimage to Saint James. Renaissance and Reformation were hard times for the pilgrimage, perhaps as a logical consequence of those times of change. Nevertheless, it would still be in, though not as intensive as in the Middles Ages. The Bull of Leon XIII Deus Omnipotens carried about a revival of the Pilgrimage to St. James, which continued in the 20^th century.

            The appearance of modern modes of transport lead most people to think that pilgrimage could be considered in terms of tourism - more or less religious. Though this is a fact - and in our case this has also been caused by St. James' historic-artistic relevance -, traditional pilgrimage today is once again enjoying a period of splendour. From the 1.245 pilgrims on foot or by bicycle in 1985 to the 154.613 during the Holy Year 1999, the number of pilgrims is still growing spectacularly.

Pilgrims' motivation is still the same as before as it is to be seen in the survey on pilgrims' prayers, the testimony book of the Pilgrims' Office and the spontaneous prayers during the Pilgrims' Mass everyday at 12,00 o'clock in the Cathedral. 

Thus, what does "pilgrim" mean?

The expression "pilgrim" has a broad meaning: the 'stranger', which is very usual. From this root, the word gained a more accurate meaning by means of the pilgrimage to St. James. Thus, Dante in Vita Nuova, 40: 'pilgrim' is par excellence the one who journeys to St. James, 'palmer' the one who journeys to Holy Land and 'romero' to Rome: "in a strict sense, pilgrim is the one who journeys to or comes back from the household of St. James". In La Divina Commedia, in Paradise, pointing to St. James the Apostle, he says: "ecco il varone per cui laggiù si visita Galizia" (Divina Comedia 25,15). To be a pilgrim is to journey to the Apostle's Tomb in Compostela with a Christian or at least religious motivation, that is to say, "pietatis causa".

In every pilgrimage we should take into account the following aspects: a) the motivation; b) the Way; c) the Goal.

The motivation is - since it is a pilgrimage to St. James - to visit the tomb of one of the Apostles of Jesus, someone who enjoyed a personal relationship with Him. From Him he also learned the Message of the Redemption and with Him he lived for three years on the ways of Palestine under the circumstances of the time and context of His Coming. The Apostles were responsible for the transmission of the original faith given by Jesus. Therefore, an apostolic Tomb has a special meaning for the Church.

It is the motivation what makes you a pilgrim. Some make the pilgrimage in a profound religious way and as a piety to see the apostolic roots of faith, others searching for faith, perhaps for their very first time, or trying to recover it after a time… Thus, different attitudes can have the same root by means of their motivation.  And it is the intention what makes you a pilgrim. 

Pilgrims usually receive God's blessing before leaving. This is already expressed in the Codex Calixtinus in the 12^th century (L.I, chapter 17):

"In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, receive this pouch, habit for your pilgrimage, so that, castigated and corrected, you hasten to prostrate at Saint James' feet, where you yearn to arrive and, after having completed your journey, you come to us delighted with the help of God, who rules over the world without end. Amen. Receive this staff as support for the journey and your efforts during your pilgrimage so that you are able to defeat the throngs of enemies and thus arrive safely at Saint James' feet and, after having completed your journey, you come to us delighted with the consent of the same God, who lives and rules over Heaven without end. Amen."

For more information on this theme see the Pastoral Letter by D. Julián Barrio Barrio, Archbishop of Saint James, To go on pilgrimage in Spirit and Truth. Click here to enter (in Spanish).

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