7 oct

Was reading today in Les Pèlerinages au moyen age, pilgrimages in the middle ages, but I want to make clear I am reading it in French. I do get three quarters of the words and love to guess what the other words might have meant. I mean, this is the way I got through four years of studying Latin, with, to the unbelief and even disgust of my father, a classics teacher, reasonable results at the end of High School.
This reading is all in preparation for the pilgrimage which I want to undertake next year, starting in France, at la source de la Meuse, and ending two months later in Santiago de Compostella. I have to repeat this now and then just to make sure that I will start to believe it myself.
Santiago was the favourite pilgrimage in the Middle ages, although it was considered a little bit inferior, a little less ‘holy’ than the ones to Jerusalem, the best one, and to Rome, next best. But Santiago had the attraction that it was a bit more safe than Jerusalem, and a bit more adventurous than the one to Rome. I mean, most of Spain was still safe in the hands of the Saracens, as Tim Holland calls them. These days they are called muslims. It was also the end of the world as we knew it then, which made it also interesting.
Santiago is the place where the relics from the apostle James where found. This happened in about the year 800, just when the Spanish needed some inspiration in their fight against the Arabs. It was odd, to say the least, his relics were found in Northwest Spain. James (Jacob in het Nederlands, Santiago in Spanish) had been in Spain in his life, but died, was murdered, in Jerusalem. The story goes that his dead body was put on a sail-less ship that ended up on the coast of North Spain. Not that anybody noticed it at the time. But just about 800 years later, Charles the Great, Carolus Magnus, had a dream that the body of St James was to be found at the end of the Milky Way, which happened to be, he was sure, Santiago. They started digging and found not only one but three bodies. A good look at them was enough to make sure which one was James. The story goes that Carolus himself went over to have a look.
Well, this was serious stuff. All relics are equal, but some are more equal than others. James was an apostle and he had been martyred, like in fact most of those apostles. And because relics were the equivalent of the sun in those days, looking at it from a travel industry perspective, Santiago became a favourite destination for thousands and thousands of travellers.
All of this is beyond doubt of course. Come to find out that, reading the little book about Pèlerinages, the writer Denise Péricard-Méa is my favourite historian for the moment, that there are quite a few relics of James around. I understand this. All those pilgrims to Santiago happened to snatch a little bone here, a little bone there and brought them to their homeland were they would be just as venerable as the ‘real’ thing in Santiago. A human body has a lot of bones, n’est ce pas.
There is the story that the mother of Henry II visited Santiago and came back with the right hand of James, which seems indeed to be missing on his body. The right hand was for centuries in the abbey of Reading, till that was demolished, but is still to be seen in a church close by, I forgot which one.
I was stunned to read what Denise had found out. I won’t repeat the whole list of relics she found, but will write down some of the highlights. Come to find out there is not only the body of James in Santiago, but five other churches claim to own his (complete) relics. One in Angers and one in La Chapelle d’Angillon (which is close by, can’t wait!!!). And then there are three in Italy, in Verona, in Rome and one in Zibiti, wherever that is.
These are whole bodies, except for the right hand in Santiago.
In Echirolles (France) and in Aix-la-Chapelle they have bodies without heads. In Toulouse, at the mighty Saint-Sernin, they even have two of his bodies without heads. I am very, very curious how those are displayed.
In Toulouse they also have one head, but obviously they do not know to which of the bodies it belongs. No problem, there are heads in Santiago (next to the whole body), in Royaumont, in Nevers, one other one in St Jacques de Toulouse (that explains a lot) one in saumur, one in Saintes-Maries de la Mer, One in Cormery, One in Bourges, one of course in Rome, one in Sain-Georges de Venise, and one in Arras, which has been cut in two. The other part has been donated to La Collegiale Saint Pierre d’Aire sur la Lys.
This list goes on and on. Fascinating, isn’t it. Jesus could multply bread, but St James could multiply himself. This might be ample proof that cloning was a customary habit in the Middle Ages, because James was not the only saint that happened to have more than one body after his death.
Well, I am delighted by al this. I do realise that I could cut my pilgrimmage short and just walk from Langres to Angers, but then again, the easy way has never been the most attractive to me. And, as every pilgrim to Santiago de Compostella knows, the body they first found (made up) was in Santiago, which makes it far more important than the others.