Tonight is the vigil of the feast of St. James the Greater. Tomorrow, we are going to celebrate his feast by having Coquilles St. Jacques, and hopefully I will be able to get to Mass tomorrow on my lunch hour. We've never cooked this particular meal before and as the scallops are quite expensive, I hope that it turns out. Anyway, it will be an adventure.
When we had been married about ten years, maybe 1981, we were walking on the beach at Yorktown, VA and found this petrified scallop shell. At the time, it was encrusted with all sorts of other shells. Bill took it to the museum where he worked and they said it was probably about 45,000 (correction--now I'm told million) years old. When my daughter was in the fourth grade, she cleaned it and used it in her science project, and she and Bill made a box for it that looked a lot like this. That one fell apart, but about 7 years ago when we started praying about walking the Camino, Bill got someone to make a new frame and this one has been hanging in our living room ever since.
About the same time, I started looking for a statue of St. James. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to find a statue that I could bear to look in the face. This isn't exactly what I wanted, but it's different from anything else I had seen for sale, and I like it because I found it at the gift shop at the Chapel of Our Lady of La Leche in St. Augustine, which was the first shrine dedicated to the Blessed Mother in the United States. He usually sits up high on a bookcase, but I've moved him, along with the shell, to a more prominent place for the feast, and probably for some time to come.
We've talked here lately about the Pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, and while most of you probably know why there is a cathedral there, maybe I ought to explain in brief. The cathedral stands in the place where, according to legend, a 9th century hermit named Pelayo found the remains of St. James, which had somehow been miraculously translated to this location some time after James was killed by Herod Agrippa I. A star marked the place, thus the name Compostela, field of stars. There is a ton of discussion and speculation about this story out there if you care to spend some time with Google, or even, gasp, in the library, but these are the basic facts that I've heard before and which concur with the information found here.
I've been thinking a lot about St. James today while I was planning to write this post, and I realized that my thoughts are so compartmentalized that when I think of Santiago de Compostela, I only think of St. James in this relation. I've been conscious that he was an apostle, of course, but today it really dawned on me, "Oh! This is the guy that was at the Transfiguration. He was one of the Sons of Thunder. He was the brother of the Beloved Disciple." I also found that he is the patron of many people and things including arthritis sufferers, and pharmacists (Have you any idea how many pharmacists I've had to do with lately?), so he'll be especially good to have around. He is also the patron saint of rides, which is nice to know in case I should ever be so insane as to get on the back of a horse again. I am not in charge and the horse always knows that I am not in charge, so maybe St. James could help me out.
May you all have a blessed feastday!
AMDG
I never knew that Compostela means field of stars. Nice.
ReplyDeleteI had failed to notice that the Feast of St. James was upon us; thanks for the reminder. Just yesterday I finished watching the recent film The Way, about walking the camino. It's funny how things fit together.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason the picture of your St. James statue is not loading for me. We bought a nice little statue in Santiago when we were there. It's stone -- or maybe pretend stone, but certainly not plaster! -- modeled on the medieval carvings lining cathedral entrances. I am very fond of it.
I'm going to write about that movie in the next couple of days. I've already started, but I'm slow.
ReplyDeleteAMDG
I am writing about it too! I predict that I will be even slower than you.
ReplyDeleteWell, if you write yours first, I won't read it until I post mine. It will be interesting to compare them. I'm writing about two other movies along with it.
ReplyDeleteAMDG
I have to admit that my main thought about the feast of St. James whilst on the camino, and that of all of the other pilgrims I talked to, was doing our level best not to be in Santiago during it. Unless you are a party all night person, it is no fun being in a Spanish town when it celebrates a feast day. People really sped up to get to Santiago and out before the 25th!
ReplyDeleteJanet, I had no idea all of this meant so much to you! I have been doing the camino since 2005, as I may have mentioned. Between 2005 and 2011 I did the camino from Le Puy to Santiago in ten day installments per year, except for one year when I had a headache for six months. Last year I walked the last six days into Santiago with a Methodist minister and a Dominican boy, both of whom had walked from St. Jean Pied de Port, on the French side of the Pyrannees. I felt a bit of a second class citizen, for the 1st time on the camino. So this year I went back and did the whole thing in one go, from St Jean to Santiago, from the 21 June to the 21 July. I need to see a Podiatrist, apparently. The nail is falling off my left toe.
A long time ago, the priest who gives a lot of my retreats talked about a priest friend of his who made the pilgrimage with his sister who was in her 60s. Ever since then, I have wanted to do it. Before my youngest daughter left for college, we talked seriously about the three of us going when she graduated, but my husband lost his job in the meantime (She graduated in 2010.), and several other things have intervened, but every year when you go, it really gets me stirred up. And then, so many little "coincidences" have happened in the past month.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I was perfectly happy just to celebrate in my quiet house with just my husband.
AMDG
It is physically tough, but it can be done. More of that another time. Grumphy
ReplyDeleteI was so happy to read your post this day, the feast of St James the Greater. Thank you for sharing and posting photos. I have been looking for a nice statue to gift to my husband, as he chose him for his patron saint. I will be contacting them to see if they still have any for sale.
ReplyDeleteWell, I called but maybe I called the wrong place. All they have had in the past was the pewter statue. Would you be able to give me an address or phone number for where you purchased it from. Thank you & God Bless :)
ReplyDeleteAll I know was that is was the gift shop at the park where the shrine if Our Lady of LaLeche is in St. Augustine. Maybe I have a postcard at home, but if you have seen my recent posts, you will know that we are having storm damage repaired and we aren't living there currently.
ReplyDeleteAMDG