September 22 Extraordinary Event at San Juan Ortega

[mspath]

When walking as pilgrims we often pass wonderful treasures, some well known and others less so. One such special place is the Monastery of San Juan Ortega in the forest of the Montes de Oca. The monastery is named for Saint John of the Nettles, a follower of Santo Domingo de la Calzada and like him a builder of roads, bridges and hospices for pilgrims. San Juan is buried here in the Romanesque monastery church within a splendid Gothic mausoleum.

However there is more. Marvelous Romanesque capitals top the lofty columns. One four-sided capital is truly EXTRAORDINARY. As described by Dom Millan Bravo Lozano in his Practical Guide to Pilgrims , "..showing the Annunciation, Visitation, Joseph's Dream, and Christ's Nativity. Each equinox(21March and 22nd September) at precisely 5pm solar time, a single shaft of sunlight strikes this capital, illuminating it alone in the surrounding gloom and causing the marvelous illusion that the Holy Ghost is alighting on Mary's belly. Miracle or artifice, it is clear that this is no ordinary place."

If you are nearby don't miss the illumination on Saturday ! You can overnight here in the pilgrim albergue. >>http://caminodesantiago.consumer.es./albergue-de-san-juan-ortega

For a contemporary account of this phenomenon see El Fenómeno de la luz Equinocial en San Juan de Ortega (Burgos) in today's Mundicamo.com. >>http://www.mundicamino.com/noticias.cfm

Margaret Meredith

 

[grayland]

We were there in 2009 for the event. Nothing happening when we went through a little later in the year in 2010.
We just happened to walk into San Juan and noticed all of the people at the church. Lots of cars in the parking lot. For those who have not been to San Juan...there is simply a church and a building that contains an albergue and a bar/cafe, both on a parking lot. You walk out of the woods and there it is.
We were able to get the basic understanding of what was happening but our Spanish was not good enough to get fine details.
We were very happy to have been there.