Why Santiago Apostol is celebrated in Spain

Away from religious fervor and if we stop to study history as a science , turning away the ornaments and going back to the original events, data that can be verified through writings, prints, paintings, etc.If we turn to the popular tradition , we will realize that there is no worthy church in Spain, that it does not have a relic of some saint or the so manic clove of Christ, without forgetting the amount of splinters of the cross , scattered throughout the churches of a certain entity throughout the Christianity.

Santiago el Mayor

Legends , myths, miracles, that there is truth and lies .One of the stories perhaps less known despite everything, is the relationship between Santiago Apostol with Spain. Why a day is dedicated to this saint, becoming the Patron of Spain, what was his true story or what is real in it, let's reveal Why Santiago Apostol is celebrated in Spain.

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Why Santiago Apostol is celebrated in Spain | Who was Santiago Apostol

Santiago de Zebedeo or also known as Santiago Matamoros , called in the new testament Santiago el Mayor or old, was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ.He received the nickname of the Major, to distinguish him from James the Lesser, brother of Judas.

Ruins of the city of Bethsaida

There is not much information about his birth or his childhood, but it seems possible that he was born in Galilee , more specifically in Betsaida .His family was reduced to his parents Zebedeo and Salome and a brother Juan better known as Juan el Apostol, author of the Gospel according to Saint John.

Martyrdom of Santiago

Santiago el Mayor fa He arrived in Jerusalem around the years 41 and 44 AD We could from this point extend on the life of Santiago el Mayor, but the purpose of this article is to know why Santiago Apostol is celebrated in Spain and with what we have seen there is no relationship so far with Spain.

Why Santiago Apostol is celebrated in Spain | Medieval Tradition

According to the tradition that goes back to the medieval era, when Christ died on the cross and after his resurrection, the Espiritu Santo appeared in the form of tongues of flame, before the disciples, this happened 50 days after his resurrection, what we know today Pentecost .The message was to spread the word of God.

From from this moment, the Apostles dedicated themselves to evangelizing, distributing the different regions of the Roman Empire.It may be that James the Elder had to preach in Hispania.

From here the different theories:

There is a theory that Santiago would have crossed through the Mediterranean , arriving at the Island of Sancti Petri, where I consecrate the Temple of Her cules up there, to San Pedro.Subsequently, he managed to reach the Betic coast, a coast that borders the current Portugal, a practically uninhabited place.He climbed along the Portuguese sea coast until he reached the Roman region of Gallaecia.

Sancti Petri, where we can see the temple dedicated to Hercules

Other traditions or legends, speak of the arrival of Santiago to the Mediterranean Region of Tarraco , now Tarragona, from there continued through the Ebro Valley until it reaches the Roman road of North , which helped to tour the Cantabrica Range and finish in Gallaecia.

Vias Romanas, made with pavimentum, whose width of 6 m allowed the passage of two cars that circulated in different directions

Another version informs us d and the arrival of Santiago el Mayor to Carthago Nova (The new Carthage or the current Cartagena), disembarking near the neighborhood of Santa Lucia, from there travel the peninsula until you reach Gallaecia.

Church of Santiago Apostol neighborhood fisherman from santa lucia-Cartagena

Why Santiago Apostol is celebrated in Spain | History

What is known is that the evangelization of the Apostol was not very fruitful. Hispania was a Roman province and initially the story that Santiago did not pump among the population, more worried about surviving.

Santiago preaching in Spain-Church of Villarreal de los Infantes in Castellon

Santiago during his entire evangelizing journey through the peninsula got only a handful of followers , among these there were only 7 who continued their evangelizing work in the Roman province of Hispania.

Herod Agrippa

Santiago finally returned to Jerusalem around year 44, when he was arrested, tortured and posteri ormente beheaded by order of Herod Agrippa , utter humiliation, his burial was forbidden.

It was during the night, when his disciples secretly, They took his body and deposited it in a boat that had previously been prepared to sail, but this should go unmanned, we cannot forget that Christianity was harshly persecuted.

Transfer of the Body of Santiago Apostol

In a box made of marble the body was deposited , the boat with the body of the Apostol guided by the tides arrived to the coasts of Gallaecia, traced the river Ulla and I finish in the capital of the Roman province, in Iria Flavia.

Those who found the boat and the body, decided to bury it in a nearby compostum, in the forest of Liberum Donum , there and on the marble ark an altar was erected.

Forest of Liberum Donum.Iria Flavia

Little by little and after different prohibitions, oblivion took over the place. It was not until almost 8 centuries later, when Pelayo , a hermit who lived in that area, was surprised at a glow and a song coming from the forest.

Representation of the light emitted on the Stellae Campus

When Pelayo recounted this event, he began calling that place as Stellae Campus, or Field of Stars, because of the glare and light that the hermit had described.I would end up deriving from Campus Stellae to Compostela.

Part of the cemetery in which the sepulcher of Santiago subsoil of the compostelana cathedral was integrated

The bishop of Iria Flavia, Don Teodomiro, when I hear from Pelayo what happened, went to the magical place.Departing some weeds, Teodomiro discovered what looked like human remains tucked into a marble box, but that box had an inscription, « Jacob (Santiago, in Hebrew).

After this finding, King Alfonso II was informed, who came to the place of Burial proclaimed Santiago Apostol as patron of the kingdom. Shortly after that same place a Shrine was erected in honor of the Saint.This Shrine would later become the Cathedral.

King Alfonso II

From this discovery, miracles and apparitions began to happen , always around the same place, giving rise to a lot of Legends and stories, stories that were used to infuse the necessary value to the soldiers and warriors who fought against the Islamic advance that threatened the north of the peninsula.

Camino de Santiago

The spectacular history of Santiago el Mayor was spread throughout Christendom. Christians from all over Europe traveled hundreds of kilometers to reach Iria Flavia and more specifically to the Stellae Campus, these roads began to fill up with pilgrims, thus creating the routes Camino de Santiago.

Why Santiago Apostol is celebrated in Spain | Santiago Matamoros

Historical stories that served to raise the morale of the troop, such as the one he narrated as Ramiro I, who defeated the armies of Abderraman II, Thanks to a rider mounted on a white steed that fought during the fight at his side, in the battle of Clavijo , this rider was identified as Santiago Aposto l.Born in this way the legend that would make Santiago a patron of the Reconquest.

The Battle of Clavijo

Another story attributed to Santiago, happened in Las Navas de Tolosa , when Don Diego Lopez II of Haro fighting alongside the spirit of Santiago , got a test of this phenomenon, today heirloom found in the Monastery of Gray hair, it's about las hu they from the horseshoes of the Horse of Santiago , left as a mark in the mud of battle.

Relic of horseshoes of the horse of Santiago of the battle of the Navas de

From here the veneration to the Saint was growing until in the eleventh century, all Christian kings and princes came as pilgrims before the Saint, thus becoming an important source of attraction for Christianity.

Why Santiago Apostol is celebrated in Spain | The Pilgrimage

Over the years and due to the large influx of pilgrims, the first guide for the pilgrim was written and written, where the different routes or paths would be described that assured the arrival to Compostela, that guide was called Codice Calixtino , placing us in the XII and XIII centuries, date of codice dating.

The Codix Calixtino

Later with the Pope Calixto II, the Compostela Church received the title of Plenary Jubilee of the Holy Year. Later Alexander III, declared Santiago de Compostela as Holy City , giving him the same category that Jerusalem and Rome had.

Why Santiago Apostol is celebrated in Spain | Currently

Today there is no evidence that the remains found in the crypt of the Cathedral of Santiago, now collected in a silver urn, c correspond with those of the Apostle James the Elder or the Elder .In the 19th century, a study carried out by the Order of Santiago itself , affirmed that the remains deposited there corresponded to those of the Apostle.But today the church has never given consent to study directly on these remains.

View of the tomb of Santiago Zebedeo, apostol.Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela,

Possibly the remains belong to some important person of the Roman era in Hispania , and it was even suspected that they could be the remains of the Prisciliano bishop .It was as it was in 1884 and to silence the possible doubts, Pope Leon XIII , through a Bull, reaffirm the ownership of the remains in favor of the Apostle.

Since then and due to the different traditions and legends that placed the Saint in different cities of Roman Hispania, together with the fundamental help that the Saint lent to Christians for the expulsion of Islam from the Peninsula, caused him to be a venerated Saint throughout the country, becoming for this reason the Patron of Spain.

In the ornate versions of the previous Spanish monarchs of the House of Borbon the first word of the slogan Santiago could be observed and close , Spain! next to the royal summit.

Holy day is celebrated on July 25, if this day coincides in falling on Sunday, that year is considered Holy Year and therefore Year of Jubilee , where Christians receive the indulgence that the Pope of Rome grants to Catholics who go on pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago.

Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela

That Santiago is held on July 25 , goes back to 1919, after a meeting held in Santiago de Compostela by the Irmandades da Fala , an organization of Spanish origin with an outstanding Galician nationalist idea that developed various political and cultural activities in the region.This Assembly agrees to designate the day 25 as the National Day of Galicia.

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Why Santiago Apostol is celebrated in Spain | Images