Thank you Chris. You are most kind as always.
Being a left-brain, OCD person, I naturally wanted to know and understand in context, the basis of all the myths and legends. So, while I am at Santiago for a month each summer, I noodle around and ask questions. I visit libraries, I look in bookstores. My Spanish improves annually.
I usually get answers. The trick is to piece together information from different sources to develop an assessment of the most likely fact pattern. In fact, this is what I did the final six years of my professional career as an intelligence analyst.
One of the most interesting things is that several of the folks connected to the Cathedral have told me over several years, is that the cult of Santiago is so important to so many people across Spain, and so much of Western Civilization, that nothing would be served by publishing every stone cold fact, especially if out of context.
I was reminded that historical context is everything here. Unless you understood the historical and cultural context, you could not fully understand the meaning of the pieces of information and facts.
In other words, WE know enough of the facts to support what is celebrated and perpetuated as the cult of the Apostle Saint James at Santiago de Compostela.... There is no practical point to dispelling popular myths and legends, to the extent that they do not contradict parochial teaching. Put another way, some sleeping dogs are best left laying...
That was in response to the question..."is all of this in writing in one book, for anyone to read?" The answer, very diplomatically delivered, was that the facts are known. They are available to researchers who seek the truth. Evidently, the Cathedral has semi-closed archives, not available to the general public. Ooooh! I see a future Dan Brown novel here... Whoa, Tom Hanks walking the Camino in his search for 'the truth." ...my head explodes...
Most of the key facts are recorded in very ancient texts. Some of the information is first-hand, based on, then contemporaneous writing, letters, and diary accounts... Some of it is second-hand. The Cathedral works with the Vatican to accumulate everything learned about the life of the Apostle, evangelist, pilgrim, and martyr saint. I am told that the archives at the Cathedral are second only to the Vatican for thoroughness and scope.
But, like me, the researchers 'stitched together' what is KNOWN for fact, with what is believed with a very high degree of reliability based on the source. Unsupported beliefs and legends are only present in the Church's understanding insofar as it is absolutely necessary to bridge a remaining gap. As the years go by, more pieces to the historical puzzle are uncovered and fitted to the mosaic that is the cult of Santiago.
To paraphrase Yoda, the Jedi master... "...you either believe or you do not believe...there is no middle path..."
Thanks again for your kind words.
Hope this helps.
:
! Think the boats of stone/stone carrying boats has been thoughtfully rationalised. The Camino to Santiago is mentioned in the marvellous visitors experience at Stonehenge! Well worth a visit....now the existence of the stones...there’s a plethora of theories and “urban myths”
:
