The pandemic has led to an historic event: Santiago is celebrating its Xacobeo Holy Year in consecutive years - 2021 and 2022. This concession has been granted by Pope Francis and provides important support for both St James’s Way and Galicia as a whole, which saw their globally renowned pilgrimage affected last summer, and which will remain attentive to the situation of the virus in the coming months.
With an agenda of events and cultural displays pending the epidemiological situation and the development of the vaccination process both in Spain and in the rest of the world, St James’s Way and Galicia are asserting the region’s status as a safe destination. This first year will be more focused on the national pilgrimage, but a more international horizon is hoped for in 2022. It should not be forgotten that before the outbreak of Covid-19, the capital of Galicia received some 350,000 pilgrims each year, of which some 170,000 were foreigners, particularly Italians, Germans, North Americans, Portuguese and French.
What is Xacobeo?
Image of the Codex Calixtinus, the "guide" to the Camino de Santiago written in the 12th century
The Xacobeo Holy Year is held when St. James’s Day – 25 July – falls on a Sunday, which takes place in a 6, 5, 6 and 11 year sequence. The origin of this tradition dates back to 1122, when the last stone of Santiago Cathedral was laid. Pope Callixtus II, who had walked the Way in previous years, granted the city of Santiago de Compostela the privilege of celebrating its Jubilee Year as from the year 1126, so that pilgrims in Compostela could be favoured with the same graces as those in Rome in jubilee years, which tended to coincide there every 25 years. In other words, during this year, the Diocese of Santiago could grant the faithful a series of conditions of full indulgence; in other words, have their sins forgiven.
This privilege led to the rise in the Middle Ages of pilgrimages from throughout Europe to Compostela along the so-called St James’s Way and its different routes. The most recent Xacobeo Holy Years were in 1993, 1999, 2004 and 2010, and now 2021.
“The high street of Europe”
“Europe was built on pilgrimages to Compostela”. This phrase, attributed to the great German writer Goethe, stresses the importance of St James’s Way in the shaping of the Old Continent. The French Way, which is the most popular and most travelled of the many routes that end up in the capital of Galicia has even popularly been coined “the high street of Europe”.
The birth of what we today know as Santiago de Compostela took place with the discovery of the tomb of the apostle in 813. According to the legend, the Hermit Pelayo, while wandering along the old Roman roads, saw strange lights among the bushes. As he got closer, he discovered an abandoned mausoleum which he identified as that of the apostle James, whose decapitated body, according to legend, had been brought by his disciples to Galicia after his martyrdom in Palestine. Both Bishop Teodomiro and the King of Asturias, Alfonso II, acknowledged the tomb of the apostle, declaring him as the patron saint of the kingdom.
Since the foundation of the city, around the year 830, the pilgrimage has taken on tremendous importance and become the spiritual centre of Western Europe. Since the 10th Century, thousands of travellers from France, Italy, the British Isles and the Germanic territories began to arrive on the Iberian Peninsula, from kings to the most humble people. Due to this constant flow, craft workers and merchants began to set up shop on the different routes of the Way, attracted by trading opportunities.
Accordingly, both in the inland part of the Peninsula and beyond the Pyrenees, an important cultural and economic exchange began to develop, which contributed to understanding and harmony between Europeans. Even the Crown, aware of the many economic and cultural opportunities, provided protection and privileges for travellers.
The routes to Santiago
Hundreds of routes lead from almost any point in Europe to Santiago de Compostela
Although people talk about St James’ Way in the singular, it is true that there are a great many routes to take, from any point in Spain and Europe that have served as roads for the pilgrimage to the capital of Galicia for centuries. We shall highlight just five of them:
The French Way is the route to Santiago with the longest historical tradition and the most recognised internationally. It begins in the town of O Cebreiro in Galicia, as described in the Codex Calixtinus in 1135 – the founding book about St James’ Way.
The Primitive Way is the oldest route, which links Oviedo with Santiago, tracing the route of the old Roman roads. Together with the Northern Way, it was designated a World Heritage Site in 2015.
This way – the Northern Way – passes along the coastline of Asturias, entering in Galicia via the River Ribadeo. Pilgrims from the whole of the north of the Peninsula arrived along this route and even by land and by sea from other territories such as England, Flanders, Germany and Scandinavia.
With its origins also in the old Roman road, the Silver Route or Mozárabe Way joins southern Spain with Santiago. This is the longest St James’ Way to Galicia, arriving in the region via A Mezquita.
The international dimension of the worship of St James cannot be understood without Portugal. Accordingly, another of the most important ways is the Portuguese Way. This route became particularly important as from the 12th Century, independently of its neighbouring country, which travels along the route of the Roman roads that structured Gallaecia back in those times. This enters Galicia via Tui, although there is a secondary route that runs along the coastline, crossing the River Miño at A Guarda.
There are other additional routes, such as the English Way, the Finisterre-Muxía Way, the Sea of Arousa and River Ulla Way and the Winter Way, among others.
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