HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: 

St James the Apostle and Spain

When Jesus was crucified the remaining apostles departed Judea for the 4 corners of the then known world.

St James the Apostle arrived in the Iberian Peninsula and proceeded to evangelise what is now Spain.  

He returned to Jerusalem in or around 44 AD and was promptly captured and executed by Herod Agrippa (son of Herod  who had Jesus Crucified). 

Legend has it that St James’ disciples gathered his remains and returned with them to Finnisterra (end of the World), in Spain and travelled in-land about 80km and buried his body.  

Things would have ended there had not a hermit monk discovered his remains in the 8th Century in a area known as a “field of stars” or in Spanish - Compestella.  

Camino Santiago de Compestella – what is it? 

Quickly thereafter, St. James’s (Santiago’s) resting place became a focus of pilgrimage for Christians from all over the then known world which principally comprised of Europe and in particular North and Western Europe.  

The popularity of this pilgrimage to St James’ grave reached the stage that, during the middle ages 1100 to 1500 AD, the numbers of pilgrims had grown into the multi-millions every year.  

The three main pilgrimage destinations for Christians at that time were Rome, Jerusalem and of course Santiago.  

The pilgrimage to (or Camino meaning - the way to) Santiage de Compestella was bestowed with the right of an indulgence by the catholic Church i.e. those who did the prescribed distance of walking (115km) received a ‘compestella’ indulgence which got them to the top of the Q when the big day arrived.  

In a holy year there was a double indulgences handed out for completing the ‘camino’ - by the way a Holy Year is designated by the birthday of St James, 25th July, falling on a Sunday and for instance 2010 is the next one.

The Irish Connection

  By far the most common route now is the Camino Francais (the way through France) but, during the middle ages and in particular during the 100years war (1340 to 1450) when France was effectively closed to travellers and pilgrims, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims sailed from Britain, Germany, Netherlands, Norway Sweden and of course IRELAND.

The estimates are varied but its reckoned that upwards of 20,000 people per annum sailed from our island departing from Dingle, Cork, Galway Wexford, Waterford but in particular from Dublin.  

The traditional journey was for people to walk or travel from wherever they lived to the gate of the city of Dublin named for Santiago (St. James Gate). 

From there they would travel to Dublin Port where they would board licensed ferries called English Cogs (type of ship) and then sail from there, by sight of land, to the northern Spanish coast making their way to La Ferrol in Coruna.  

On embarkation from their sailing ships, they would then walk the 120km or so to the cathedral in Santiago to collect their indulgence.  

A travel ‘passport’ accompanied each pilgrim and this was stamped at each overnight stay on the walking part of the Camino. 

Traditionally the first stamp was affixed to this passport at St James Gate in Dublin. 

At the end of the pilgrimage the passport became proof of the pilgrimage and the basis for the granting of the ‘compestella indulgence’.

Decline in the popularity of Camino de Compestella – Henry VIII

  When Henry VIII broke from the Catholic Church followed by the subsequent reformation and of course his daughters well publicised falling out with King Philip of Spain the Camino from Britain and Ireland became far less popular.  

However the English remained acutely aware of the significance and importance of the Camino to ordinary people, to the extent that Sir Francis Drake actually attempted to steal and remove St. James remains at one stage!  

There was always an amazing historical affinity between the North of Spain and Ireland so much so that there is anecdotal evidence that the Spanish “caminoed” to Croagh Patrick and Mount Brandon. The link remains of course and the Galician coast still has a Celtic swirl to this day.  

Indeed Limerick’s own Bill Whelan’s ‘Seville Suite’ musically traces the defeat of the Irish at the Battle of Kinsale and their flight to Galicia in northern Spain displaying the fusion of both cultures through music and dance in a most breathtaking and dramatic way 
 

RE-ENACTMENT OF THE TRADITIONAL CAMINO 
(Cancer Research Fundraising Project) 

Where we come in? 

What we are doing is chartering the Jeanie Johnston and sailing for 5 days as a parish group complete with a catholic priest to La Ferrol in Spain on the 26th August 2008.  

The sailing trip is not a holiday as each pilgrim is required to work while on the Jeannie Johnston supporting the professional crew of the sailing ship with a huge variety of tasks while at sea.

The trip is completely alcohol free! 

We are re-enacting exactly the route taken by many thousands of Irish before us in centuries gone by  

All in all there will be 40 Pilgrims between those sailing on the boat and those flying to meet us there and partaking in the walk.  

Click here for a full Itinerary of the pilgrimage

In doing this pilgrimage we are endeavouring to raise much needed funds to both fund the trip and in particular for cancer research.  

The charity we have chosen is CROSS (Cancer Research of the Oesophagus and Stomach) in St James’ Hospital in Dublin.  

This Charity is led by Professor John Reynolds from Trinity College and it’s research is at the cutting edge of world wide search for a cure to this particularly nasty form of cancer.