Images of St James (3): the Moor-slayer

It is a very imposing image, represented in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela by this 18th Century statue. Though this example is relatively recent, the representation of St James as the "Moor-slayer" takes us back to a much earlier time in the history of Spain.

From the early years of the 8th Century, the major part of the Iberian peninsula was occupied by the Moors, a people who originated on the northern coasts of Africa and who occupied the peninsula. These peoples were Muslim in their religious belief, and so the political conquest also led to an adherence to the religion of Islam. Only in the most northern parts of Spain did the power of the Moors not hold sway. Small kingdoms held out, kingdoms whose religious faith was Christian. Over a period stretching from 718, when the Asturians successfully held out against the Moors at the battle of Covadonga, up to the end of the 15th century the "reconquest" took place. By the mid-13th century, most of the peninsula was no longer under the control of the Moors, an enclave around Granada being all that remained of their original conquest. The "reconquest" was not a consistent and organised campaign against the Moors, and only really took off in the 11th Century when the unity of the Moorish government broke down. The Christian kingdoms of the north then gained a greater unity and (at least according to the on-line library edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica article) were affected by an anti-Muslim, crusading spirit.

The image of St James the Moor-slayer dates from the battle of Clavijo in 844, during the earlier times of the resistance to the Moorish conquest. At this battle, St James is said to have appeared on a white cloud and to have spurred the soldiers of the northern kingdoms (the Encyclopaedia Britannica refers to them as "Spanish soldiers", but I am not sure that "Spain" existed as a united concept at the time) on to victory against the Moors. In the traditional depiction, followed by the statue in the Cathedral at Santiago, St James is shown astride a white horse striking off the heads of Moorish soldiers beneath the hooves of his horse.

It is not difficult to see that this particular image of St James is much more challenging to contemporary sensitivities than the images of St James as apostle and as pilgrim. So how can we understand its place today?

A historian might ask whether or not it is an image which accurately represents the life of St James, the Apostle. Clearly, the answer to this question is "No, it is not an image that represents St James' life". A historian might also ask about the veracity of the appearance of St James at the battle of Clavijo, and seek to come to a judgement on the basis of the historical texts and traditions that relate the story. I do not know enough to be able to say what that judgement might be; but I would suggest that what is  represented by the received tradition is a seeking of the intercession of St James in support of the Spanish (but see above) soldiers and the effectiveness of that intercession. This image represents a received tradition of seeking the intercession of St James on behalf of Spain, the status of St James as the patron saint of Spain.

Even understood in this way, the underlying violence of the image continues to pose a challenge to today's world. This is in part a difficulty that arises from looking at an image rooted in the 9th century, which had its own outlook and context, through the very different outlook and context of the 21st century. In the 21st century - and this colours the way in which I have deliberately tried to present the history in what I have written above - we are used to separating the political dimension of life from a religious dimension. We are used, for example, to seeing the invasion of Iraq as an overthrowing of the regime of Sadam Hussein - a political phenomenon - and not as an attack on Muslims. Indeed, we would not see the invading forces as having been in any sense corporately "Christian" forces, though many of those taking part might have been Christians at an individual level. In the period from the 8th century to the 15th century, this separation of the political and the religious would not have been part of the outlook and context; quite the contrary. So  a "Christian" reconquest of Spain and an overthrow of a "Muslim" people is not distinguished from its political dimension, the gradual overcoming of the Moors by the predecessor kingdoms of the unified state of Spain. If the image of St James the Moor-slayer is perceived today exclusively as being an image of a Christian slayer of Muslims, this is to neglect the distinctly political aspect that is bound to that religious aspect in the original conception of the image.

A second aspect of the difference of outlook and context is that of seeking the intercession of a Christian saint in favour of a particular outcome of a political or worldly event. In an outlook where the political and religious are not distinguished, this is quite natural to the sensitivity of people of the times, and it is experienced as an intercession in favour of one religion over another. In the 21st century, with a distinguishing of the religious from the political, the person of religious faith will still pray for a particular outcome, but with a less direct sense of it being a prayer in favour of the politcal success of one religion over another. It is a prayer whose priority is in the spiritual realm, with the particular (political) outcome sought being at the service of this primacy of the spiritual. This can be experienced in the contemporary sense of St James as the patron saint of Spain, where the idea of protection and care is at the forefront rather than that of victory and conquest. One can perhaps see here an authentic development, in the sense of John Henry Newman, in the progress from the earlier understanding to the present day understanding.

It would be very easy to remove the challenge represented by the image of St James as the "Moor-slayer" by abolishing this image of the saint. What this post has tried to indicate, though, is that there is a much more fruitful road that can be taken by exploring the meaning of this image in its original 9th century context and in its contemporary 21st century context.

Images of St James (2): the pilgrim

A second image of St James that is represented in the Cathedral at Santiago de Compostela is that of St James as a pilgrim. This image is represented most strongly in the seated statue of St James over the high altar, and in the statue of St James that can be found above the Holy Door through which pilgrims enter the Cathedral during a Holy Year. The statue above the High Altar is embraced by pilgrims during their visit to the Cathedral - reaching from behind the statue, pilgrims place their arms around the shoulders of the Apostle and make their prayers through his intercession. Above the Holy Door, St James is accompanied by his two disciples, Anastasius and Theodore.

St James is portrayed in this image with the cape (decorated with the scallop shell) and the staff (on which hangs the gourd, or water carrier) that are the symbols of the pilgrim. He is also portrayed with a book, intended to represent St James the apostle and preacher of the Gospel.

The historian asks the question as to whether this image of St James accurately represents the facts of the life of St James. The answer to this question is that, clearly, it does not reflect the historical events of St James' life. Instead, it represents a particular devotion that the Christian faithful have held, and which has gained a permanent value because of its great age and fruitfulness. It represents St James as the patron saint and destination of the pilgrimage known as the "Camino de Santiago de Compostela". It represents the Christian faith at the heart of a Europe wide network of roads that, not just today but for centuries, have led to Santiago. In this second sense, it is an entirely authentic image, reflecting a historical and spiritual reality in the life of the Catholic Church and in the life of Europe. It represents a place and an action of pilgrimage in which the encounter with God can be celebrated with a particularly visible transparency.

Pope Benedict XVI, speaking at the welcome ceremony at the airport at Santiago de Compostela expressed the authentic content of the this image of St James:

I have come as a pilgrim in this Holy Year of Compostela and I bring in my heart the same love of Christ which led the Apostle Paul to embark upon his journeys, with a desire also to come to Spain (cf. Rom 15: 22-29). I wish to join the great host of men and women who down the centuries have come to Compostela from every corner of this peninsula, from throughout Europe and indeed the whole world, in order to kneel at the feet of Saint James and be transformed by the witness of his faith. They, at every step and filled with hope, created a pathway of culture, prayer, mercy and conversion, which took shape in churches and hospitals, in inns, bridges and monasteries. In this way, Spain and Europe developed a spiritual physiognomy marked indelibly by the Gospel.

During his visit to the Cathedral in Santiago, the Holy Father returned to the theme of the pilgrimage:

To go on pilgrimage is not simply to visit a place to admire its treasures of nature, art or history. To go on pilgrimage really means to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shone with particular splendour and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness among those who believe. Above all, Christians go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, to the places associated with the Lord’s passion, death and resurrection. They go to Rome, the city of the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, and also to Compostela, which, associated with the memory of Saint James, has welcomed pilgrims from throughout the world who desire to strengthen their spirit with the Apostle’s witness of faith and love.

Some of the pilgrims to Santiago come without any conscious faith, drawn by the idea of the "Camino" in a way that does not include its religious dimension. I think that this reflects the universality of the place of Santiago de Compostela, to which Pope Benedict also referred during his visit to the city.

Images of St James (1): the Apostle

The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela offers three distinct "images" of the person of St James. The first of these is St James seen as one of the Twelve Apostles. It is represented in the Cathedral by the tomb of the Apostle.

In a historical perspective, the strongest evidence for the idea that the tomb in the crypt below the high altar of the Cathedral contains the remains of St James (and his two disicples Anastius and Theodore) is the received practice of devotion on the site. The New Concise Edition of Butler's Lives of the Saints, in its entry on St James, is cautious:

Where St James preached and spread the gospel after the Lord's ascension we have no account from the writers of the first ages of Christianity. According to the tradition of Spain, he made an evangelizing visit to that country, but the earliest known reference to this is only in the later part of the seventh century, and then in an oriental , not a Spanish source. ... He was buried at Jerusalem, but, again according to the tradition of Spain, dating from about 830, the body was translated first to Iria Flavia, now El Padron, in Galicia, and then to Compostela, where during the middle ages the shrine of Santiago became one of the greatest of all Christian shrines. The relics still rest in the Cathedral and were referred to as authentic in a bull of Pope Leo XIII in 1884.

Pope Leo's bull would appear to coincide with the positioning of the relics in the silver casket that is now venerated in the Cathedral crypt.

The guide to the Cathedral, purchased in the bookshop, indicates that the Apostle was originally buried in a tomb that was part of a Roman cemetery, with the tomb on one level and an oratory above it. Over the centuries, this original construction has been lost. The present position of the tomb lies at the same level as the upper chamber or Oratory of the Roman construction. The practice of the pilgrimage to Compostela simply takes for granted the tradition that the Cathedral is indeed built on the site of the tomb of the Apostle James.

In terms of the image of St James that is represented by the tomb, it is one of an Apostle of Jesus Christ. It is the image of one who received from the Lord Jesus the message of salvation, one who preached that Gospel in the world, and the image of one who stands at the very beginning of the Christian tradition that is handed down in the Church to the present day.

Santiago de Compostela (or "hug an apostle")

The little gap in blogging occurred because Zero and I were away for a little holiday. Our choice of Santiago de Compostela had, at the time we were booking flights, as much to do with the fact that the cost of the flight to Santiago was turning out rather lower than that to our other possible destinations. Subsequently, we realised that it is a Holy Year in Santiago (we have 14 days left to get to confession for that plenary indulgence) and that Pope Benedict will be visiting the city ten days after us (he chose to follow us when we went to Assissi two years ago, too).

The poster above was displayed at the entrance to the Holy Door of the Cathedral, through which one enters as part of the celebration of the Holy Year. It gives access to the steps behind the statue of St James over the high altar of the Cathedral, and to the tomb of the apostle in the crypt below the high altar. The pilgrimage custom is to embrace the statue of the apostle and then visit the crypt to pray at the tomb.

This clip at Romereports, about Pope Benedict's forthcoming visit, gives some idea of what is involved in the pilgrimage to the Cathedral and gives a brief glimpse of "hugging the apostle".

It was quite impressive to see how seriously the Holy Year and the pilgrimage are being taken in Santiago. So far as we could tell, there was a continuous stream of pilgrims making their way to "hug the apostle and visit the tomb" all day long. At peak times, the queue extended round two sides of the square outside the Holy Door, but at other times it extended only within the door itself. Whilst there was clearly an element of tourism among those making their visit, the atmosphere was nevertheless very reverent and prayerful.

The Cathedral hosts four pilgrimage Masses each day, two in the morning and two in the evening. The impression we gained is that these Masses attract a full congregation each time, with a special pilgrimage group offering a testimony of faith before the homily at the principle morning and evening Mass. The Cathedral manages them very well, to maintain an environment of silence and prayerfulness despite the nature of the Cathedral as in part being a tourist attraction. There is also daily Eucharistic Adoration in one of the side chapels. For the prayerful visitor this is something that, perhaps without explicitly intending that it should be so, is very welcoming and of which we availed ourselves on two occasions.

[During our visit, a lot of restoration work was taking place in the Cathedral, with some parts inaccessible or partly hidden by scaffolding.This meant that not all the displayed information about where things were turned out to be quite accurate.]

Maryvale Institute: "No Distance" newsletter

The Maryvale Institute keeps in touch with its friends, students and associate staff by way of a newsletter called "No Distance". The January 2008 issue arrived last week. Fr Paul Watson ends his "From the Director" piece on the front page with the sentence:

Fundamentally, for Newman and for us, only education that produces a unity of knowledge and love, both of this world and the next, is, ultimately, authentic education.

I liked this when I read it, particularly because I contribute to the Institute's initial teacher training programme. Later in the newsletter, readers are encouraged to pray in support of Maryvale's striving to be recognised as a Pontifical Institute:

Please pray the Maryvale Prayer as regularly as you can this year to support Maryvale's discussions and negotiations to become a pontifical institute. Some of you may know that in 2003 Maryvale Institute responded to encouragement to follow a path towards this goal, urged to do so by many in the Church. This year the prayer and activity will be intensifying and the Institute is seeking grace, wisdom and strength from the Blessed Trinity for this mission.

Several of the staff from Maryvale, including Fr Paul (below left), are planning a sponsored walk to raise funds for the Institute and its students. In April, they will be walking 100 km of the pilgrim way to Santiago de Compostella. If you feel able to support this fund raising initiative, do contact the Institute.