A Pilgrimage to Santiago

I am writing this blog on the train, heading homewards from Cardiff. I’ve spent this week with clergy from the Diocese of Llandaff. Not in Wales, but in Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Bishop June Osborne had invited me to travel with her group of over one hundred people who were making this pilgrimage as their clergy school. It was part of the Diocese’s preparation for the Year of Pilgrimage that begins next year, when the Church in Wales marks the centenary of its disestablishment.

My brief was to offer a daily Bible reading on the theme of pilgrimage. You can read my four addresses at http://northernambo.blogspot.com. I decided to draw on St Luke’s Gospel to help us make connections between pilgrimage down the centuries and our lives today. The first address was on “Pilgrimage and the Offering of Life” where we looked at the child Jesus in the temple. The second, “Pilgrimage and Truth-Seeking” was based on the story of the temptations in the wilderness. The third, “Pilgrimage and Pain” drew on the journey Luke describes Jesus as making as he “turned his face towards Jerusalem”. And the final address on the Emmaus Road resurrection story explored Jesus as our contemporary who, known or unrecognised, walks with us on pilgrimage.

The great thing about the week was the freedom the Bishop gave us to engage with Santiago in our own way. What mattered, she said, was to be together. There was daily worship of course - bilingual Welsh/English, echoing the bilingual culture of our Galician hosts where they speak both Spanish and Gallego: I loved that. There were shared meals enjoyed together (including, on the last evening, a conference dinner in the legendary Parador opposite the Cathedral). There were sessions with visiting speakers on pilgrimage in Wales, pilgrimage with children and resources for promoting pilgrimage in local churches. And many memorable conversations. And lots of laughter. But much of each day was deliberately kept free: to walk (if you wanted to), explore the city (if you wanted to), read (if you wanted to) or simply benefit from a gentler pace of life away from the pressures of “ordinary time”.

It was not my first visit to the great pilgrimage city of Santiago. Jenny and I had been there in 2006 when we drove slowly and reflectively along the entire length of the Camino from one of its traditional starting points in France, Vézelay. And back again, along a different route. We’d stopped at the churches and shrines, said our prayers and lit candles. We’d met other pilgrims on the Camino and listened to their stories. We’d enjoyed each other’s companionship - such a rich word, that, literally “bread-sharing” - and felt a sense of contentment for so much that was lovely in our lives. It was a beautiful experience. 

I shared some of this with the Llandaff clergy. I wanted to emphasise that pilgrimage is not about the means of transport we use to make the journey, but the spirit in which we do it. With the biblical texts to inform us, we looked at different ways of understanding pilgrimage. A journey with a purpose was one. A journey that led to transformation and change was another. A journey that moved us from being observers to becoming participants was a third. The important point is that we bring the whole of ourselves with us. And although we can never know how until we do it, it’s going to make a difference to our lives. To fly by jet from Cardiff to Compostela may not offer the romance and hard work of walking. But that doesn’t make it any less of a pilgrimage. What matters is why we’re making the journey in the first place.

I was keen to deepen my understanding of Santiago as a pilgrim destination. So I spent a lot of time walking round this beautiful granite city (and photographing it - for me, an indispensable way of paying attention to its sense of place). The historic centre is one of those rare places where every building seems right, from the great churches, palaces and monasteries that cluster round the Cathedral, to the more intimate charms of the pedestrianised arcaded streets and squares and alleys within the line of the ancient city walls. 

The museums were especially good. Outstanding was the Museum of Pilgrimage close to the Cathedral. The interior of this classical building has been brilliantly reimagined as a sequence of contemporary spaces in which artefacts relating to pilgrimage are beautifully displayed. I learned a lot about the history of the Santiago pilgrimage, not least its political role in the Reconquista, the seven centuries it took to re-Christianise Spain and drive out Islam. In the galleries I saw many depictions in art and sculpture of St James Matamoros, the “Moor-Slayer” brandishing his sword for Christendom and trampling down the Muslims. It was sobering - painful actually - to see these representations of the Son of Thunder (which you find all along the Camino) in the light of the history of relations between Christianity and Islam and the tensions we are acutely aware of in today’s world.

I’d recommend any pilgrim in Santiago to visit this museum. Not only does it shed light on the Camino and how the Cathedral at Santiago developed into the world-famous shrine it has become. It also explores pilgrimage as a spiritual concept, why people of all world faiths undertake it, what aspirations and ideals it represents. And as you move from floor to floor, the museum’s striking architecture opens up to offer glimpses of the Cathedral towering above you across the square, and to remind you where you are, and why. 

The Cathedral itself is the high point of any visit to Santiago. It is undoubtedly one of the most important Romanesque churches in Europe. This year, essential conservation work means that it is heavily scaffolded and access is severely limited. In particular, we couldn’t climb the steps at the west end and go in by the celebrated Portico of Glory, one of the most marvellous creations of the twelfth century anywhere in the world. (An exhibition on the Portico in the Bishop’s Palace next door does go some way towards helping the visitor at least imagine what it looks like.) But we could still visit the crypt shrine to honour the reliquary of St James, and we could also go up the steps behind the high altar to hug his statue, a traditional act of greeting by pilgrims as they arrive in the Cathedral at the climax of their long journey. 

It’s too early to frame reflections on this unforgettable week. There has been a lot to think about. But I do want to pay tribute to the clergy of Llandaff Diocese for the way they engaged with the pilgrimage. It was clear from my conversations and from social media posts how much colleagues were getting out of the experience. Being there together with their Bishop was a big part of this, the sense that this shared journey to Santiago symbolised the hope-filled journey the Diocese itself was making as it approached the centenary. It was heartening to see the Bishop and her clergy so much at ease with one another. There can’t be many bishops who get a standing ovation from their clergy!

Speaking personally, I’ve not often spoken to a group of clergy who were more attentive, more responsive to what I was trying to share with them or more appreciative. A surprising number of people chose to take up themes from the talks over walks and drinks and meals, or simply wanted to tell me that something I’d said had touched them, or resonated in their own experience. On the final evening one priest, intrigued by my presentations, asked me about my aims as I’d set about preparing my addressses, the chief influences on my thinking, the theologians and spiritual writers I most admired, the part literature and the arts had played in my formation. I wasn’t expecting to be asked those thing, but I love the kind of candid conversation that fellow-travellers get into on pilgrimage. So I asked him the same questions in return! It made me aware of how privileged - and humbling - it is to be entrusted with a part to play in the spiritual development of colleagues in ministry. 

As always happens, I found myself deeply enriched by what fellow-pilgrims were giving back to me. Perhaps they weren’t aware that they were doing this, but I want to thank them all the same for such a generous “time of gifts”. And for the warmth of their hospitality, and for the best possible companionship on this pilgrim-adventure we shared together. 

And now that we’ve reached the time of homecoming, we know that our pilgrimage continues as the risen Lord walks alongside us in our ordinary days. He will keep alive in us the same joy and hope and companionship that we experienced in Santiago. Inspired by our memories of this week we travel on, thankful for all that these days together have meant for us. Ultreia!