From The Miracles of Saint James,, edited by Thomas F. Coffey, Linda Kay Davidson & Maryjane Dunn. Italica Press, 1996, pp. xxi-xxx, xxxiv-xxxvi.
Saint James’ powers are evident on both land and sea. He is skilled with ships and helps those who cry to him in need, no matter where they may be. His appearance during the battle of Clavijo in the late ninth century is one of his first miracles in his militant aspect. The relic of his hand, while housed in Reading Abbey, England, wrought cures during the twelfth century, which are attested to in a collection of twenty-eight miracles. In 1539 in Tetlán (Jalisco, Mexico), the saint aided Spanish troops in their battle against the Indians.
Correspondingly, knowledge of Santiago’s miracles span Europe and the Americas, medieval and later time periods. One miracle, which in its later versions recounts how roasted chickens returned to life and crowed the innocence of a pilgrim, is so famous that versions and representations appear as widespread as Switzerland and England and appear as late as the nineteenth century. Detractors, on the other hand, retort that the greatest miracle related to Saint James is that his cult managed to sustain itself over so many centuries, and that the story of the translation of his body from the Holy Land to Compostela, in Spain’s northwest region of Galicia, was capable of generating belief.
Whatever the historical facts might be, the cult of Saint James flourished throughout the Middle Ages. Although we do not always have exact tallies of the numbers of pilgrims that visited Compostela, current research indicates numbers in the thousands in ordinary years and perhaps even hundreds of thousands in special years. Even after the Reformation sounded the death knell for certain aspects of medieval Catholicism, apparently the saint’s popularity continued unabated in some Catholic regions of Europe. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Saint James was carried by the Spanish to the Americas. His miraculous appearances purportedly helped the Spaniards defeat the indigenous populations from Acoma, New Mexico to Cuzco, Peru. Town after town carries vestiges of his cult in their names of “Matamoros” and “Santiago.”
SAINT JAMES/ SANTIAGO
The history of the saint known as James the Elder, or the Greater, (Santiago el Mayor in Spanish) is a work that evolved slowly during about nine centuries, was authored and embellished by several authors, and spans the eastern and western parts of the early-known world, Whether or not we believe in all or part of this biography has no bearing on his story, nor on the subsequent value of that biography to world history. We do not pretend to offer any solutions to the issues that still remain unsolved. We report here the germane portions of his legend so that readers of his miracle tales can understand their place in medieval religion, history, and culture.
The biography of the fourth apostle to be chosen by Christ is chronicled in only a few places in the New Testament. We read that James, son of Zebedee and brother of John, was a fisherman. When Jesus saw these brothers repairing their nets, He called them into His service. It was James who witnessed the transcendental moments of Jesus’ life, for example, His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane and His Transfiguration. At the Last Supper, James and his brother begged to be placed on the right and left hand sides of Jesus in the next world, a request which He soundly rebuffed. It befell James to be the first of the apostles to be martyred, by Herod Agrippa in 44 AD. For some, James’ relationship with Jesus was that of a strong arm protecting and supporting the Savior; in this regard, because of his temper, James was called Boanerges, Son of Thunder. For others, the references to James and to his temper indicate that Jesus may have regretted his choice of this apostle.
During the early centuries of Christendom, Saint James was not a particularly important figure. For nearly seven centuries, for all intents and purposes, he played no strong part either in the liturgy or in the formation of the Catholic Church. He left no letters and there is no account before the seventh century that documents his activities or sermons. When he is compared to Paul and his numerous writings and status in the early Church, or Peter, whose church in Rome became the locus of the Catholic Church, James played an almost insignificant role. Except for the listing of his name as one of the twelve apostles, he virtually disappeared from the sight of the early Christian community.
Beginning sometime in the seventh century and continuing over the next two hundred years, the transformation was relatively rapid. The additions to this bare-bones biography convert the few early references into a full-blown history. In the early seventh century, the Latin Breviarium apostolorum recorded Saint James’ death in Jerusalem and his burial in “achaia marmarica,” a phrase that has captivated nearly everyone who is interested in the location of the saint’s bones. That two-word phrase, which intimates a specific site, is repeated, revised, respelled, and reused throughout the Middle Ages. Isidore of Seville (d. 630) may have included it in his description of Santiago’s activities, now making the phrase “intra marmaricam.” Isidore’s disciple, Braulio, named this very same Isidore as Saint James’ successor to preach in Spain. By the early eighth century, James had become closely and firmly connected to the Iberian Peninsula. Aldhelm of Malmesbury (d. 709), a respected and respectable Church writer, referred to James as the apostle who christianized Spain. Other writers picked up that attribute. The saint had a new chapter in his biography: he traveled to the Iberian Peninsula, Galicia in particular, to preach and convert, although he did so with little success. He returned to Jerusalem and was beheaded shortly thereafter. By about the middle of the ninth century, the biography is clear: not only did Santiago preach in Spain, his grave was located in Galicia. By about 900, the writings of Notker Balbulus of Saint Gall show that the biography-legend of Saint James had acquired most of its parts: James preached both in Palestine and Spain, he died in Jerusalem at the hands of Herod, and his body was brought for burial to Galicia.
In the early ninth century, perhaps around 813, a tomb or crypt was discovered in Galicia. The legends vary but assume supernatural aspects in a literary sense and religious import when interpreted within the framework of the Church. The most popular of the legends relates that some shepherds were guarding their flocks when they saw a bright star in the sky. They dug where the star shone on the ground and found a tomb. The local bishop, Teodomiro of Iria Flavia, pronounced the body to be that of St.James the Elder, and yet another chapter was added to the saint’s biography. Additional information was supplied concerning the saint’s burial: after his death, the saint’s disciples somehow spirited away his body from the Holy City and transported it to the port city of Joppa. There he was placed in a boat and his body was taken westward across the Mediterranean Sea and northward along the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula where, when the boat landed, other disciples, knowing that he was coming, removed his body from the boat and buried it. It may even be that two of his disciples were buried alongside him. Further elements from folklore attached themselves to the saint’s legend: the boat was magical, it had no oars, no sails, no sailors; and permission to bury the saint’s body had to be secured from the local ruler (Queen Lupa), a permission granted only after the disciples with the holy body managed several miraculous escapes.
At approximately the same time in the Iberian Peninsula, a land of several small Christian kingdoms and a large area of Muslim control, the battles between the Christians and Moors over territory waxed and waned. Alliances were made and broken but the Christian groups barely edged their frontier southward. According to some historians, the outnumbered and more poorly-armed Christians were especially disheartened during the battles against the Moors because the latter carried the arm of Mohammed with them into battle. What the Christian troops needed was a talisman. Not much later in that century, in the particularly difficult battle against the Moors at Clavijo, Christian troops were aided to victory when Saint James purportedly descended from the heavens, mounted on a (usually, white) horse and brandishing a sword. This miraculous appearance, which may well represent the first of his miracles, afforded him the name St. James the Moorslayer (Santiago Matamoros).
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA
The discovery of the saint’s body took place at a site now called Santiago de Compostela. While it is obvious that the word “Santiago” is derived from the Latin of the saint’s name “Sanctum lacobum,” the source of the word “Compostela” is far less certain. Among various suggested etymologies, one finds “Compostela” derived from words meaning “pretty place” or words indicating “burial land” or “cemetery.” Some wish the town’s name could refer to the campo de las estrellas (“field of stars”), but that etymology has been discarded by all but a few.
The city is situated on a hill named Libredón, probably from Latinized Celtic words meaning “hill” or “inhabited place.” There may have been a Celtic population there that was Romanized early, as evidenced by the presence of pre-Roman and Roman tombs, moneys and ceramics. There are also Suevic tombs in the area, which indicate later habitation, although excavations indicate that there is a time when the burial site was abandoned in the eighth and ninth centuries. In the ninth century the area may have been abandoned, or there may have been a small population nearby.
The city of Compostela grew quickly in importance and size. Its prominence in medieval history is linked with the fame of the saint himself, the only apostle buried west of Rome. The association between Saint James and the Christians’ efforts at reconquest meant the association of Galicia and Compostela with those efforts. The various religious and secular officials who would in turn benefit by this connection completely supported the relationship and gave incentives to the Christians to ally themselves with the apostle. After the discovery, or inventio, of the saint’s tomb, construction began on a small altar. By 883, a church document gave Bishop Sisnandus (879-920) of Iria Flavia control of the saint’s grave. The Sampiro Chronicle relates that Alfonso Ill (866-910) ordered a new church built and made donations for its maintenance. Extant copies of the earliest decrees of donations are fraught with problems and many are now generally considered forgeries, but the fact remains that by the mid-tenth century considerable land was held by the monks who cared for the basilica that housed Saint James’ relics.
By the mid-tenth century raiding Vikings were so successful that they simply remained in Galicia from 968-70. In 997 the Moorish army led by Almanzar destroyed important parts of the city. In the eleventh century, Bishop San Pedro de Mezonzo and Bishop Cresconio had to undertake the reconstruction of the city, including the building of fortification walls and two towers. Yet, by the early twelfth century, Compostela had become the Metropolitan See and the archbishop’s seat, wrested from the original seat of Iria Flavia by Diego Gelmirez. Larger and more ornate chapels, basilicas, and finally a grand twelfth-century Romanesque cathedral were constructed, and around the cathedral rose the necessary associated religious structures, such as monasteries, other churches, and the archbishop’s palace.
As more and more pilgrims came to the city, their lodging and sustenance could no longer be provided for by the religious groups. Similar to the growth in Lourdes in the early twentieth century, and as we see developing in Medjugotje (in former Yugoslavia), the secular aspects of travel occasion the development of commercial enterprises. In Compostela private homes turned into boarding houses offering lodging to the pilgrims. Candle makers produced more tapers for pilgrims’ devotional use. Extra food was sold to the hungry pilgrims. Souvenirs were made available to those wishing keepsakes. Again, as one can see in the area surrounding the sanctuary at Lourdes, vendors placed their wares along the streets so that pilgrims pass by them on their way both to and from the holy site. As the popular emblem of the pilgrimage to Compostela, shells were collected from the sea and sold, and craftspersons began molding other materials into their shape. For all of these purchases, the pilgrim needed the coin of the realm: moneychangers were of high importance, so important that a guild of moneychangers was already a thriving community in the twelfth century.
PILGRIMAGES
The visit to a sacred place is not new or unique to Catholicism nor to the Middle Ages. It was mandated to Old Testament Jews and became a law for Moslems, but for Christians it was not a requirement. In the abstract, the theme of pilgrimage was one that the Church used in its view of earthly existence. It became a cornerstone of the broad view of life as a pilgrimage. Old Testament references to exile and wandering became a prefiguration of the New Testament journey of Jesus Christ here on earth. As such, Adam became the first pilgrim, condemned to earthly exile and wandering, a kind of pilgrimage that the Jewish people would repeat in search of a homeland. This type of pilgrimage would later become a motif for the Celtic journeys in the sixth century. In the New Testament, Jesus’ journey into Jerusalem prefigured every Christian’s journey toward death and the expectation of eternal salvation. After His death, Jesus journeyed once again on earth, joining his apostles along the road to Emmaus.
In the concrete, Christian pilgrimage is closely intertwined with the desire to see or touch relics. Where a holy body lay, the faithful would visit, whether at local shrines or far-away locations. It was important to be as close as possible to some fragment left on earth by a holy person. Throughout Europe and the Holy Land people sought relics, large and small, ranging from the crown of thorns worn by Christ, to His Mother’s milk and her house, to the apostles’ bones and their belongings. We have names of and references to persons who, as early as the second century, visited the Holy Land purposefully to see or pray at such places as the site where Christ was born or where events in the Scriptures had taken place. The Catholic superstructure generally did not restrain its flock’s impulse to go on pilgrimage, but there was no dearth of sermons on the evils of pilgrirnage. Even Guibert de Nogent, who relates tales of miracles at various shrines, was a critic of the idea of pilgrimage. This bi-polar attitude is reflected in the twelfth-century sermon in the Liber Sancti Jacobi. The author encourages his listeners to make the pilgrimage, stresses the miraculous possibilities and the promise of heavenly salvation, and simultaneously decries the evils found on the route to the pilgrimage site and the sins of and strife among the pilgrims themselves.
Other motives for the medieval pilgrimage were almost as varied as the number of travelers. In general there were three classes of pilgrims. Some pilgrims went to a shrine ex-voto, that is, because they had made a vow to visit a specific shrine in order to ask a special favor or in thanks for the fulfillment of a request. Others, as the author describes in the “Veneranda dies” sermon, were sent, usually by church officials, as penitence for a specific sin. Occasionally, government officials would also exile a criminal from a community by sending him or her to a distant pilgrimage shrine, effectively ridding the community of the troublesome element. A third kind of pilgrim, perhaps best symbolized by those in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, were those for whom pilgrimage was simply an escape – religious or otherwise – from everyday life and a chance to explore new regions.
As Saint James was the only apostle buried west of Rome, pilgrimages to the site of his tomb became very common by the mid-eleventh century. Early documents mention a trickle of pilgrims even earlier. Alfonso III’s church in Compostela, consecrated in 899, was a three-aisle structure. In the mid-ninth century revision by Ado of Vienne of the Martyrologium of Florus of Lyons, the writer asserts that the tomb of the apostle is “splendorously kept in veneration by the people.” Records list specific pilgrims’ names for dates beginning about 950, and continuing throughout the following centuries. Gotescalc, a French pilgrim, is known to have visited the tomb in 950. A Viking chronicle relates that a Nordic pilgrim made the journey sometime between 968 and 971. The list for eleventh-century pilgrims is quite long and includes religious and laypeople, commoners and nobles, poor pilgrims and pilgrims with large retinues. The records speak to Italian, German, Spanish, French, and English pilgrims. By the mid-twelfth century Compostela may have become the most frequented of the various destinations for pilgrims, with Rome and Jerusalem in second and third places. Some estimates of the Saint’s popularity claim that as many as one million pilgrims a year visited the tomb, although numbers in the thousands seem more likely.
FEAST DAYS AND DATES
Visiting a saint’s tomb is an important event, on whatever day one might arrive. However, early in the Middle Ages, the Church began to designate special days when the visit to a specific site took on more importance. Sometimes the Church granted special indulgences. Each saint in the Catholic calendar has a special day or, in some cases, days devoted to him or her, called a “feast day.” On that day the mass and other offices of the liturgy celebrate that saint’s life and works. Prior to the 1070s the Catholic Church on the Iberian Peninsula used the Mozarabic rite which differed in various details from the Roman rite used in the other parts of Europe. In the Mozarabic calendar, Saint James’ feast day was December 30. When Pope Gregory VII and King Alfonso VI caused the introduction of the Roman Rite into the Iberian Peninsula, Saint James’ feast day became July 25. For a while there was strong opposition to the change of religious rites, and the Compostela Cathedral celebrated both days. By the time of the composition of the Liber Sancti Jacobi, December 30 commemorated both the choosing (or calling) of Saint James and the translatio. The Roman date, July 25, was dedicated to James’ Passion (or martyrdom). Thus the Liber Sancti Jacobi celebrates and has portions of liturgies for both dates. In addition, there is material for a third feast day of October 3 for the miracles of Saint James. A fourth date, March 25, to celebrate the martyrdom of Saint James, is mentioned in Book III, chapter 3, but apparently was not as important, perhaps not even celebrated officially.
THE CONTINUING CULT OF THE SAINT AND HIS MIRACLES
By the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the Reformation had dampened the pilgrimageardor for much of Europe. Yet at this same time Saint James, or Santiago, as patron saint of Spain benefited from two strong sources of continued support and devotion. The first was colonization of the Spanish Americas: both conquistadors and settlers were taking the Catholic religion and stories of saints there. Santiago went with them and settled in many places: Santiago de Chile, Santiago de Guatemala, Santiago de Guamote (Ecuador), and Matamoros (Mexico). Not every region in the Spanish colonies was awarded a town named for St James, but many were, and his powers went with him. In New Mexico, Govemor Oñate saw the white horse and its rider over the Anasazi village of Acoma during a battle there in 1598.
The second impulse for continued devotion to St. James within the Iberian Peninsula was the threat to his status as patron of Spain. During the early years of the seventeenth century there was a movement to supplant Saint James with the popular Saint Teresa of Avila. Arguments, letters, appeals, and sermons appeared on both sides of the issue until the final debate in 1629, when the matter was decided in favor of Saint James. The result was a rather extensive literature on both sides of the issue. Concerned members of the clergy and of the political realm found it necessary to write long tomes about Saint James: his biography, his translatio to the Iberian Peninsula, and accounts of his many miracles on behalf of his devoted faithful. These authors used available texts, other miracle collections, and a great deal of emotion to convince their public not to remove James from his position as patron. Writers such as Hernando Oxea (who wrote a 365-page book in 1615 on behalf of this position), Francisco de Quevedo, and Miguel de Erce Ximenez took the side of Saint James in this struggle. Erce Ximenez is especially relevant to the present work, because he repeated information from the Liber Sancti Jacobi and asserted that he believed the twelfth-century work was authored by Calixtus and Turpin. Thus it is obvious that the Liber Sancti Jacobi and the Codex Calixtinus were works that were known and available for use and consultation.
THE LIBER SANCTI JACOBI
Sometime in the year of 1172 a monk named Arnaud du Mont from the monastery in Ripoll wrote to his house asking permission to stay some length of time in Compostela in order to copy a portion of a manuscript that he thought worth having in Ripoll. We call the text of these manuscripts the Uber Sancti Jacobi, and we designate the manuscript that resides to this day in the Compostela Cathedral library the Codex Calixtinus to distinguish it from other copies of the text.
The entire work contains five books, each with a different focus. Book I, the longest portion of the text, contains the liturgical material and music for the saint’s feast days. It also presents some of the earliest polyphonic musical notations, as well as monophonic pieces. Book II narrates twenty-two miracles worked by the saint after his death. Book ill, the shortest, narrates the translatio of James’ body in its miraculous boat voyage shortly after his martyrdom in the Holy Land to his preferred resting place in Galicia. Book IV is narrated by Turpin, Charlemagne’s legendary archbishop of Reims, and it describes Charlemagne’s and Roland’s battles against the Moors on the Iberian Peninsula. Finally, BookV, the Pilgrim’s Guide is the only twelfth-century guide to the routes that lead through France toward Compostela, and to what to visit on them. It also describes monuments to see and necessary activities to do once the pilgrim has reached Compostela. Included are cautions about the bad food and water, and colorful descriptions of local inhabitants.
It is generally believed that each of the Liber Sancti Jacobi’s five books was written at a different time and may have existed in earlier versions. It appears that the Liber Sancti Jacobi was probably assembled into its final form sometime between 1140 (the latest miracle placed in the work is dated 1139) and 1172. The actual compiler’s identity may never be determined; even the identity of the authors of the individual hymns, sermons, and miracles is doubtful, although many pieces are (probably falsely) attributed to historical figures. The Liber Sancti Jacobi opens with the Introductory Letter from Calixtus to Diego Gelmirez in Compostela and William, patriarch of Jerusalem. Although the work is ascribed to Pope Calixtus II, he had died well before the Liber Sancti Jacobi was compiled. Toward the end of the manuscript the names of Aymeric Picaud and a companion named Giberga are mentioned as having been the one(s) to carry the manuscript to Compostela. Some scholars ascribe to Aymeric Picaud authorship of the entire work, some just of Book V, while others consider him to be only the scribe or the person who delivered the manuscript to Compostela.
Scholars’ opinions also vary widely about the purpose of the Liber Sancti Jacobi. Some view it as an exaltation of the saint’s cult and propaganda for the pilgrimage route and the aggrandizement of Compostela. Others have pointed to the complex twelfth-century political-religious alliances and relationships on the peninsula, including the pervasive role of the French religious order of Cluny in the establishment of monasteries along the road. Another reading of the text centers on a recurring concern about the reconquest efforts on the peninsula. The importance of feast days and concern for the proper liturgy speak to yet another possible purpose.
THE CODEX CALIXTINUS
The twelfth-century manuscript of the Liber Sancti Jacobi housed in the Compostela Cathedral Archives contains 22.5 folios. It apparently has never left Compostela. It is considered to be the oldest surviving compilation of the various books. The Codex Calixtinus parchment evidently has been cut down at least once, and perhaps twice, judging from the loss of folio numbers and the loss of certain letters and numbers along the edges of individual folios. One of those sets of changes probably occurred in the seventeenth century, perhaps as a result of King Philip’s ambassador Ambrosio de Morales’ comments. When Morales viewed the Codex Calixtinus, he reacted with such disgust at Book IV’s contents that he convinced the archive and cathedral authorities to rip the Turpin story out of the Codex Calixtinus. When they did so, the librarian(s) took pains to change the Guide designation from “Liber V” to “Liber IV.” Later, when the Turpin chronicle was reinserted into theCodex Calixtinus no emendations were made. Anyone viewing the entire manuscript will now see two “Liber IV” titles.