The good thing about most of the saints is their legends were created when people weren’t so fussy about the facts and science and all that. They let their imaginations run wild and over time the myths become accepted as articles of faith.
Today is the feast day of Saint James, one of Jesus’s twelve apostles. He is credited with bringing Christianity to the Iberian peninsula so today is a national holiday in Spain. James left town after Christ’s ascension (a whopper) and traveled to Hispania (modern day Spain and Portugal) to preach the Gospel. He had limited success and eventually returned to Jerusalem, where he was beheaded by King Herod Agrippa in 44 AD (Acts 12:1–2). Nothing gets you sainthood quicker than a beheading. After his martyrdom his disciples placed his body in a stone boat and set it adrift (a stone boat!). Guided by divine forces it floated to the Galician coast in northwestern Spain, where he was buried. In the 9th century, as Christians tried to drive the Moors out of the country, Saint James was said to have appeared on a white horse, wielding a sword. He led the Christians to victory and became known as “Santiago Matamoros,” the patron saint of driving a sect out of the country.
For centuries now admirers and non believers alike walk the Camino de Santiago leading to Santiago de Compostela. Peggi and I walked from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in the French Pyrénées to Santiago de Compostela and then on to Muxía on the western coast. Vieiras, scallop shells, were the symbol of the camino as the grooves in the shell meet at a focal point (representing the many different paths to Santiago de Compostela). Scallop shells were used by pilgrims as eating and drinking utensils.
Peggi found a Saint James scallops recipe online. We planned to have our first batch of pimientos de Padron this year but we left them in the refrigerator. We had some Spanish wine, Campo Viejo, and green salad from our garden. We celebrated the feast day of Santiago with a feast.
Saint James is credited with bringing Christianity to the Iberian peninsula. One of Jesus’s twelve apostles, he left town after Christ’s ascension. He traveled to Hispania to preach the Gospel. He had limited success and eventually returned to Jerusalem, where he was beheaded by King Herod Agrippa in 44 AD (Acts 12:1–2).
Today is his feast day. around the time of the Christian Reconquest, St. James also appeared alongside the Christian army to fight with them against the Moors.
Here is Chat GPT’s visual depiction of this myth.”
