Ways of St. James connect Europe
“May the road bring us together”
The Way of St. James connects Europe
Presentation by Prof. Dr. Petra Kurten (30 September / 1 October 2009 in Neustift/Brixen)
Overview
1. The Way of St. James – a symbol of European identity
2. History of a political-religious guiding principle
3. How James came to Europe:
The origin and function of the James legends
4. The positive legacy: a “road that brings people together”
5. “There is nothing more powerful in the world than an idea whose time has come” (Victor
Hugo). Ways of St. James today
5.1 We need legends, rites and symbols
5.2 Out and about in nature: active wellness for body and soul
5.3 We are all pilgrims: experiencing community without masks and differences
5.4 Shared value experiences
1. Introduction
What is the Way of St. James? Many things at once:
A concrete path, military road, trade route, historical and now touristically important pilgrimage route, testimony and museum of European history and culture, but also a religious-political idea that creates myth and identity, a parable of the personal path of life (Hape Kerkeling), a meditative method of self-discovery, a mythical star path and a path in nature.
It integrates history, culture, religion and nature.
1. The Way of St. James – a symbol of European identity
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a symbolic figure of European culture, is credited with the oft-quoted phrase: “Europe was born on pilgrimage and Christianity is its mother tongue.”
Given that the Way of St. James takes one back to the historical and spiritual origins of Europe, and that cultural exchange and knowledge transfer along this route continue to function today as they did in the past, the Council of Europe has attributed to the Way of St. James a "highly symbolic value for the creation" and unification of Europe through the European Union. In 1987, when it declared the Way of St. James the first European cultural route, the Council of Europe aimed to strengthen a common European identity. A task that remains relevant even more than 20 years later.
Identity is based first and foremost on being born into a family, a people, a region, but also on a culture that shapes a group through its intellectual and emotional experiences, including religious and spiritual ones. The acceptance of shared values creates communities of values.
The Council of Europe Declaration states: “Cultural identity is and has been made possible by the existence of a European area with a common history and with a network of connections that have overcome distances, frontiers and languages.”
The Council of Europe therefore encouraged the revival of the centuries-old and partly forgotten Europe-wide network of the Way of St. James and recommended "that the authorities and citizens research, maintain and mark the Ways of St. James in their regions, so that, as in the Middle Ages, the transfer of ideas, art and culture between the regions and nations of the European borders is encouraged and language barriers are overcome."
Many of you contribute to ensuring that the Way of St. James can be started in almost every European country, in keeping with the medieval wisdom: "right on your doorstep." Research into the pilgrimage trails in one's own homeland, such as St. James's patron saints, brotherhoods, hospices and inns, old trade and military routes and legends, as well as a scenic route away from major highways, determine the route selection and correspond to the motives and expectations of the modern pilgrimage movement.
The Council of Europe also explicitly refers to the spiritual dimension of shared experiences, beliefs and values when it states: “May the faith that has moved pilgrims throughout history and brought them together in the same spirit – beyond all differences and national interests – also impel us in this time, especially young people, to continue walking these Caminos, in order to build a society founded on tolerance, respect for others, freedom and a sense of community.”
2. History of a political-religious guiding principle
In all cultures and religions, the pilgrimage to a sacred place of encounter with the divine is rooted in the human longing for healing and wholeness and the need to understand the mystery of life, its meaning and purpose, and to find a holistic interpretation of the world and life.
Their identity-creating and community-building power can be deliberately used by religious and secular institutions, abused for nationalism, intolerance and war, or integrated to promote value and life.
The idea of "One God, one faith, one sanctuary, and one ruler" can unite peoples and create identity and peace. This guiding principle runs through history, from the biblical people of Israel, to whose sanctuary, according to Isaiah's vision, the peoples peacefully traveled and forged their weapons into plowshares, through the Roman Empire since Constantine, the Christian Western Empire of Charlemagne and his successors, to the modern, democratic, and largely secularized European Union, which finds its starting point here in the search for European identity through the Way of St. James.
The young, dynamic Christianity, which saw itself as a people of the "new way" (Acts 9:2), was discovered by Constantine through a religious dream, as legend later tells us, as a means of unifying the multi-ethnic state of Rome, whose pantheon of gods had lost credibility, and used it to preserve the Pax Romana. Supported by the construction of roads and forts, the Roman Empire expanded through military conquest throughout the West, as far as the province of Hispania, and at the same time proselytized.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, a power struggle broke out between the Visigoths and the Moors in the West and later the Franks fighting for supremacy, with Charlemagne adopting the Roman idea of uniting the various tribes in one empire through the power of the one Christian faith.
The origins and history of the Way of St. James are shaped by clever secular and ecclesiastical unification and power politics, which ultimately led to the emergence of a rich, specifically Western Christian culture in Europe. A spiritual heritage, albeit fraught with political and ecclesiastical problems, was also a promising one for the future. The path to Santiago was spiritually enriched by the piety of many pilgrims and their search for a merciful God who helps them through St. James. St. James is the blessing-bringing companion and, at times, the most popular patron saint of all mobility.
Both aspects, the political and the spiritual, are supported by various legends that are constantly adapted to the needs of the time.
3. How James came to Europe: The origin and function of the James legends
Legends are rooted in interpreted history, but they also contain guiding principles and offers of identification that shape behavior. Since 711, in the still Christian Kingdom of Asturias, the fear of conquest by Muslims was countered by a binding idea for all believing Christians that served to preserve Christian identity: the legend that James evangelized Spain and his veneration as patron saint. This begins a process of identification, the next step of which, at the beginning of the 9th century, is the legend of the discovery of the apostle's bones in a Christian cemetery from Roman times. Similar to other discovery legends throughout Europe, light apparitions are said to have shown a hermit or shepherd the way there. The place name is therefore derived from the Latin compostum - meaning small cemetery - (Unamuno, Miguel de, quoted in Yves Bottineau, The Way, 36). The miraculous lights also allow for the spiritual-symbolic interpretation of campus stellae - field of the star.
A legend from the 11th century, the time of the Reconquista, or Reconquest, tells that a bishop brought the head of the apostle from Jerusalem to Santiago. James became the patron saint of the conquest of the cities along the pilgrimage routes. At the turn of the 12th century, with the construction of the fourth church and today's Romanesque cathedral (1077), the medieval pilgrimage movement reached its peak. Islam was perceived as a threat to the Christian West. France, the abbots of the association of the important French reform monastery of Cluny, and the Pope called on Christian knights to a new form of pilgrimage, to a holy war or crusade against Islam in Spain. The legend of James was thus expanded. The image of the Prophet Muhammad riding ahead in holy war is contrasted with James as Matamoros (Moor Slayer). At the legendary Battle of Clavijo, he is said to have appeared on horseback in knightly armor and led the Christian knights to victory. Even during the later Spanish conquest of Mexico by Ferdinand Cortés (1519-1521) and the conquest of the Inca Empire by Pizarro, the battle cry was "Santiago, help me." Treasures from there are also found in the Cathedral of Compostela, and many depictions of Matamoros date from this period.
To justify the Frankish claim to Spain and the Crusade, a story of a vision of Charlemagne, allegedly written by Bishop Turpin in the 8th century, was created and disseminated in the Historia Karoli Magni et Rotholandi.
James calls on Charlemagne to be the first pilgrim and warrior missionary to make the pilgrimage to Santiago, to fight the Muslims, and to liberate the Way of the Stars. There are also two different versions of the legend of the discovery of the Apostle's tomb. All of this is later incorporated as the fourth book into the pilgrim guide "Liber Sancti Jacobi" (Codex Calixtini), thus simultaneously serving to promote the cult of St. James and the pilgrimage to Compostela. Charlemagne, the European figure of identification, the Reconquista, and James as a symbol of Christian Europe are linked to one of the most influential narratives of the Middle Ages.
The legend and veneration of James of Compostela was therefore “from its original idea a bulwark against the Moors and an engine of the Reconquista” (Michael Rosenberger, Wege, 131).
In the last century, dictator Franco remembered this role of St. James and reinstated both the national holiday on July 25 and the obligation to pay tribute to the Apostles' Church. In the "ofrenda de la nación," he deliberately linked the saint's role in the liberation of Spain from the Moors with the liberation of the nation from the hands of the Reds and the end of the Republic.
This can no longer be the goal of the idea and practice of the Way of St. James today, but rather is part of our history as Europeans and Christians, which must not be suppressed but must also be positively addressed through the Way of St. James. The pilgrimage is not only about reappraising one's personal biography, but also about a shared history. It is important to consider support and suggestions for this in the Way of St. James projects.
4. The positive legacy: a “road that brings people together”
The Way of St. James has always been a lifeline that has fostered cultural and economic exchange in Europe. The route has enabled people from diverse backgrounds to meet, thus fostering a culture based on the free exchange of ideas and the encounter between different social and artistic movements. The cooperation between the Spanish kingdoms and the Cluniac monasteries promoted pilgrimages, exchange, and trade through the development of infrastructure (churches, monasteries, hospices, new religious orders and confraternities, castles, bridges, and new towns) and the repair of the road network. Many who had set out on a new life as pilgrims settled as traders or artisans thanks to the tax relief along the way (villafrancas), bringing new life and thus enabling the development of these areas. With the influx of pilgrims, a new economic and tourism sector emerged.
Art historical witnesses include the Romanesque pilgrimage and reliquary churches, which, with their choir lofts and numerous apse chapels, provided space for pilgrims to move around; the Gothic churches of Spain and France; the spread of artisan techniques along the Way of St. James (cf. Yves Bottineau, The Way, 136-167); and epic poetry. The travelogues of medieval pilgrims also testify to their great interest in encounters with people, as well as in the law, culture, customs, and trade of foreign lands (Ursula Ganz-Blättler, Andacht und Abenteuer, 160-166).
Although Christians and Moors fought each other bitterly for power, there was, particularly in the 12th and 13th centuries, an intellectual and cultural exchange among scientists and scholars, with intensive translation and reception activities, for example, of works by Aristotle and Avicenna, as well as the introduction of Indo-Arabic numerals and the zero. The Abbot of Cluny even commissioned the translation of the Koran. This enabled a European transfer of knowledge for subsequent periods.
Then, as now, language barriers were overcome with the emotional forms of expression that unite all people: song and symbol. The Pilgrim Museum in Santiago states: "The pilgrimages were an inexhaustible source of musical inspiration and had a fundamental influence on the development of religious song, which arose spontaneously" (quoted in Andreas Drouve, Geheimnis und Mythos Jakobsweg, 11).
Since the 16th century, however, pilgrimage in Europe has been increasingly hampered by intolerance (the Spanish Inquisition, religious disputes), political conflicts, nationalism, passport restrictions, travel bans, and the resulting destruction of infrastructure. These external obstacles have been overcome within the EU. The new European pilgrimage movement can contribute to the spiritual overcoming of internal barriers, for pilgrims are, in many respects, "border crossers."
5. “There is nothing more powerful in the world than an idea whose time has come” (Victor Hugo). The Way of St. James today
What makes pilgrimage so attractive today?
What should be promoted so that – to put it bluntly – “where it says pilgrimage, there is also pilgrimage inside”?
5.1 We need legends, rites and symbols because they are timelessly human.
Rituals are ceremonial acts embedded in a religious or cultural context that help shape crises and transitions. They are characterized by repetition, tradition, and commonality.
They possess a spiritual power that connects us with one another and with the divine source. They strengthen our fundamental trust in life and thus form the basis for risk and adventure, for setting out into the foreign and unknown. Without them, the pilgrim on the Way of St. James would be missing something essential.
The great rituals of the Way of St. James: the symbolic laying down of a burden at the Cruz de Ferro, the traversing of the labyrinth in Chartres, the lighting of candles in the dark, the touching of the Tree of Jesse in the Portico de la Gloria, the embracing of the statue of the apostle, the burning of old clothes at Cape Finisterre can correspond to invitations to rituals at special places of power on the European Way of St. James.
Today, as then, the common waymark and identifying symbol is the vieira, the scallop shell, an ancient symbol of love and life. With its grooves converging in the middle, it is also interpreted as a symbol of the various paths that converge in Santiago. In the legend of the arrival of the body of James in a stone vessel (coffin), it is recounted that one knight is about to drown during the rescue, but both are covered with shells and saved. In this story, the shell is interpreted as a symbol of the saint's protection (cf. Monika Hauf, The Way of St. James, 152), and it connects people to him and to each other. The common logo and waymark of the yellow shell star on a blue background connects the symbols of the legends of St. James with the European flag. Modern legends interpret it in Christian terms as a symbol of the 12 apostles, to which James also belongs, on the woman's protective mantle of heaven, wreathed by 12 stars as an image of redeemed humanity (Rev. 12:1).
James, the proven mediator of divine protection, appears in many different forms along the way and accompanies us as the archetype of the pilgrim and the goal.
The legends along the way
At that time: With numerous legends about the miracles of Saint James, the status and value of the pilgrimage route and its stations were increased: “James helped!” They enhanced the religious experience and provided material for discussion, medieval public relations.
Today: Legends give voice to the silent traces of medieval pilgrims. They bring churches and sights closer to us. They touch us on an archetypal, emotional level. For pilgrims, the historicity of the bones of St. James is not the primary concern; rather, relics symbolize a close encounter with the holy, the healing power. Stories and legends give places and paths their mysterious significance, their consecration" (Alfons Brüning, Von heiligen Orte). "Without knowledge of the legendary material, without the background of the mysterious places, the experience of the Way of St. James remains superficial," agrees Andreas Drouve (Secret and Myth of the Way of St. James, 8).
Legends are a concentrated encounter of leading figures, experiences, and emotions that can be recreated. These are primal experiences of humanity that connect us to one another, "coagulation points of collective identity" (Paul Nora, quoted in Alfons Brüning, "Of Sacred Places"). They enable us to relate our own experiences, feelings, and hopes to the images of the stories.
Some pilgrims also refer to the Way of St. James as a star path and a Celtic path of initiation. This reflects the human archetype of pilgrimage as a sacred journey, a journey of testing oneself and transformation in a strange world, recounted in legends, myths, and fairy tales in the form of soul images.
New Camino de Santiago stories are constantly being created, stories of coping with crises and grief, of finding meaning, self-reliance, and decision-making. These stories sell well as books, are spread online or by word of mouth, and testify: “The path helped!”
The pilgrim trusts that there is truth in the old legends and the new accounts of experiences, such as those of Coelho, Shirley MacLaine, and Harpe Kerkeling. He walks the path and exposes himself to it, open to what he encounters. In almost all pilgrim forums of the newly emerging European pilgrim community, there is talk of "the strength that the path bestows." The pilgrim surrenders himself to a ritual whose relieving effectiveness is based on its time-honored, time-honored nature. In doing so, the person undergoes a primordial and simultaneously religious-spiritual experience. He experiences himself as a pilgrim, as someone who has not yet arrived at home, but rather embarks on the path of transformation, still developing and allowed to be, and experiencing human and divine help along the way. Thus, each arrival awakens anew the desire to set out on the path again.
5.2 Out and about in nature: active wellness for body and soul
Many pilgrims seek the immediacy of experiencing nature, the landscape as a mirror of the soul and a place to experience the divine, self-awareness through walking. Perception of one's own body and nature with all the senses and reflection are intertwined. Feeling alive in meditative movement, connected with all creatures, exposed to the elements and the weather, becomes an experience. 'Experience' means allowing oneself to be enriched – not by taking possession of something, by mastering it technically and subjecting it to my laws, but by allowing myself to be gripped by it and thereby being gifted. I am amazed, gain joy in life, and feel grateful in the face of a sunrise, the lifting of fog, the sun after the rain. I have the feeling of finding my rhythm as I walk, of being in harmony and at one with myself, nature, and the divine. Although God cannot be experienced directly, in certain moments creation can become transparent to the Creator, and pilgrims can experience and touch it as the body of the hidden Creator God.
This is active wellness for body and soul.
5.3 We are all pilgrims: experiencing community without masks and differences
The Latin word peregrinus literally means “the one who travels across foreign fields”.
Going abroad, setting out, offers the chance to be someone else, to no longer be stuck in one's shoes. Max Frisch says we travel "so that we can meet people who don't think they know us," so that we can experience what is possible in life. (Diary, 36)
In a foreign land, at the mercy of the path, the weather and himself, marked by the same hardships, in the effort to expand his own boundaries, dependent and grateful for every help and small act of kindness, the masks of status and role fall away, the pilgrim becomes ready to approach strangers, to give and to share.
We are all just human beings, pilgrims. Nationality, different motives, age, or profession are irrelevant. "The pilgrimage brings people together. The common path, the same goal, the same spirit unites us" (Alfred Löw, On the Way to Santiago, 1974). The exchange of experiences, the sharing of solidarity, and the communication in the hostels, churches, and cafes are a necessity. We always meet again.
Due to the still underdeveloped infrastructure and the lack of pilgrim meeting points on the newly opened Ways of St. James, such encounters are less frequent and are missed. It would be important to strengthen attractive and traditional holy places and hostels as meeting points for pilgrims on the Way of St. James. Therefore, the offer of guided pilgrim groups is all the more helpful, allowing for "taster pilgrimages" and community experiences, and perhaps even for encounters on cross-border pilgrimages.
The Pilgrim's Companion Training Program subproject aims to support and accompany spiritual experiences and community experiences. (According to the experience of the Bavarian Pilgrims' Office, the demand for spiritual guidance is already measurable as a travel service.)
5.4 Shared value experiences.
From a close encounter with nature, perceiving it as creation and a place of encounter with God, appreciation and ecological responsibility can emerge as a shared value. It is therefore particularly important to pay attention to natural beauty when planning your trail and to explore impressive landscapes spiritually.
The three religions of the Book, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, share the conviction that all human beings, as creatures of God, possess true equality before God and thus an inviolable dignity. All are brothers and sisters in relation to the Creator God.
The corresponding fundamental values of equality based on our shared humanity, "community consciousness," "respect for our fellow human beings," and consequently also "tolerance" and "freedom," upon which, according to the Council of Europe, European society should be built, are not merely postulates on the pilgrimage, but can be experienced holistically. Pilgrimage contributes to shaping personal and societal consciousness and action.
May the hope that the Council of Europe places in the Way of St. James be fulfilled. May we, too, be inspired by what has brought pilgrims together throughout history "in the same spirit—across all differences and national interests—...to build a society founded on tolerance, respect for one's fellow human beings, freedom, and a sense of community."
Cited literature:
Declaration of the Council of Europe in: Council of Europe: FUTURE for our p AST No. 32, Strasbourg 1988, p.4.
Bottineau Yves, The Way of the Pilgrims of St. James. Art and Culture of the Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Translated from the French. Lübbe Verlag, 1987.
Brüning Alfons, "Of Holy Places" and "Temporary Homelessness." East-West. European Perspectives. The Journal for Central and Eastern Europe, 9/2008, Vol. 1.
Drouve Andreas, Mystery and Myth of the Way of St. James. Historical Figures, Miraculous Legends, and Mysterious Stories, Marix Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008.
Ganz-Blättle Ursula, Devotion and Adventure. Reports of European pilgrims to Jerusalem and Santiago, James Studies 4, Tübingen 1990.
Hauf Monika, The Way of St. James. The Mystery of the 1,000-Year-Old Pilgrimage Route to Santiago de Compostela, Langen Müller Verlag, 2002.
Löw Alfred, On the Way to Santiago. Self-discovery and Transformation on the Way of St. James. Butzon & Bercker 1998.
Rosenberger Michael, Paths that Move. A Short Theology of Pilgrimage. Echter Verlag, Würzburg, 2005.