I walked through that door in 2010 after 2700km and 3h in the waiting line... It was such a deep and intense experience...!!! The whole cathedral is a fascinating testimony of Saint James' cult through History. I love to sit around, admire its many details and match them to such or such part of SJ's, Christian or pilgrimage cult/traditions/historical event or era
Are you talking about these carvings?
The door's panels are a 2003 bronze sculpture by Suso Loe. The outsides represent Jesus, St James and pilgrims. The insides (on the picture above) represent the major events in the historical and legendary life of St James.
/!\ If you're not ready to learn about the completely human-made construction of St James' legend, read no further...
Spoilers and spoilings of the Golden Legends of Compostela ahead! Still soft material, but be warned...
/!\
"Historical" (H), as reported in the Bible (which
is an historical source). The Bible is your source here. If you want to read only about the occurrences of St James in the Bible,
here is a post on this very topic on my blog. All the following (H) references can be found there.
"Legendary" (L), as created by various sources a long time after St James' life and death (talking of ~200 years later for the earliest basis of the legends to ~800 years later
for the legends depicted on this doors).
So, the panels in chronological order:
1. Top-left (H), text="vocatio": Jesus (character on the right) recruits James as he is fishing with his father Zebedee and his brother John (also a future apostle, and writer of the Gospel named after him).
2. Top-right (H), text="missio": Jesus (character in the middle) assigns his apostles (I believe Judas is not on the carving) to spread his word across the world to . The Bible
doesn't say who went where (apart from Peter)
3. Middle-right (L), text= "pradicatio": James (character in the middle) evangelizes Spain with success
after the Virgin appears to him in Zaragoza on a pillar (character on the top left). This apparition is the "what and why" of the famous
Fiestas del Pilar every year in October in Zaragoza.
"L" because... The first association between James and Spain came quite late in history, with the
Breviarium Apostolorum around 600 (
here's a good link in Spanish about this text) and was definitive by 776 with the
Beatos, which states that St James evangelized Spain (
a link in English but
this page in Spanish tells you about Saint James)(fun fact: right before the discovery of the remains...). Before that, various texts and scriptures slowly prepared this association: ie. by
Theodoret of Cyrus (an apostle was sent West) or by Didyme of Alexandria around 350 (
an apostle was sent in Hispania).
4. Middle-left (H), text="decapitato": James is about to be decapitated in Palestine... refers to his condemnation by King Herod Ist around 44.
5. Bottom-right (L), text="traslatio": James' body is taken by his followers, put in a boat and transferred to Spain: called "translation" in Christian tradition. Many versions of this episode! On the panel version, the boat containing only Saint James is guided by 2 angels.
First mentioned in ~900 (archives of the cathedral of Santiago)(fun fact: written
after the discovery of St James' sanctuary...), then in ~1000 (which becomes the 3rd book of the famous
Codex Calixtinus put together in ~1140 (brief and poor part
about this book on the CC wiki page, in English)
6. Bottom-left (L), text="inventio": (fun fact: in Latin,
inventio means both "discovery" and "invention"...) depiction of the discovery/invention of St James' tomb/remains, around 820. Many versions here again! On the panel version, an angel (character on the right) guides bishop Theodemar of Iria to the Saint's coffin.
Episode first mentioned in the
Concordia Antealtares in 1077 (
here's a good link in Spanish), then in the
Cronicon Iriense sometimes in the s.12 (
link in English). Then in the
De vita et gestis Caroli magni again sometimes in the s.12 (alternative version of the discovery by Charlemagne, recognized as
false since the s.18!); this text (
link in English) will also become a part of the famous Codex Calixtinus that was put together in ~1140.
I hope you got some answers here
Saint James and his pilgrimage is such a complex topic and such a complex History! I find it truly fascinating!
Having researched it myself, I know and understand your struggle to find information, and even worse, reliable and authentic information and sources... History, legends, myths and phantasms are so tangled (mixed and blended!) together that a quick research does't do the trick.
Buen time-travelling Camino!
