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THE ROAD TO SANTIAGO

by John Roseaman (Monday 16th September 2002)

For a brief moment the rain stopped and the leaden skies began to lighten as fifteen members of Salisbury Cathedral Strollers said the final post-communion prayer at the end of a wind swept Eucharist, celebrated on Monte del Gozo (the Mount of Joy), the traditional spot where pilgrims who have walked the Camino across north west Spain gain their first glimpse of Santiago Cathedral. Later the skies cleared revealing its distinctive spires. What followed were unforgetable moments, walking down through the narrow, medieval streets of the old town, greeting fellow pilgrims, and singing 'Laudate Dominum, omnes, gentes, Alleluia,' a chant that had accompanied large parts of our journey. Then a final right hand turn and with tears of joy, elation and much hugging, we entered the spacious Plaza del Obradoiro below the Baroque splendour of the Cathedral's west front. It was the end of a 125 mile pilgrimage to the shrine of St.James that had been tranforming both personally and spiritually in ways that far exceeded our wildest expectations.

It was also a journey that had started fourteen days earlier in the small town of Villafranca. On the way we had marvelled at high flying eagles across large-skied landscapes, at nightingales singing confidently in bushes and trees alongside our path, wild flowers in profusion, tiny, crumbling churches tucked away in wooded valleys, rushing streams, monasteries and convents, farms with yoked oxen and isolated cottages.

But it was more than just a journey. It was an experience of travelling prayerfully in which worship and liturgy played a major part. Saying the daily office together on a windy hilltop or celebrating the Eucharist whilst sheltering in the lee of a tiny Romanesque church gave worship a special poignancy and resonance. Recreating the Body of Christ with bread from the local panaderia and wine saved from the previous night's supper, joined occasionally by fellow travellers on the road, is part of the reservoir of grace that remains from such an activity. The rest is a kaleidoscope of deep forests of oak, chestnut and eucalyptus, noisy motorways, cool cloisters and wayside crosses and the dramatic swinging of the great censer, the Botafumeiro, at the Pilgrim Mass in Santiago. As it says in the church at Triacastela: 'the Camino is not a race but an exercise in humanity.' Amen to that!

John Roseaman works with the Cathedral Education department in Wren Hall.

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