zafir
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1. It's a city in Galicia, north-west Spain.
2. The cathedral claims to hold the tomb of the Apostle St James, so the city has long been one of the three main pilgrimage sites in Catholicism, the others being Rome and Jeruselem.
3. Google - it's a long story, and the city has been a pilgrimage site for 1200 years.
4. As in 2. it's the tomb of St James. The city name Santiago (San Tiago) is actually Spanish for St James.
5. Traditional things pilgrims do:
In the Cathedral:
a. place one's hand on the Tree of Jesse
b. bang head against the statue of Maestro Matteo (Cathedral's architect and builder) in the hope of getting some of his wisdom.
c. climb the stairs behind the altar and hug the golden statue of St James.
d. visit the crypt under the altar where the body of St James is purported to lie. and
e if they've walked the last 100kms or more to Santiago, they receive a special certificate from the cathedral.
7. People get many things out of such a visit. A sense of great achievement and accomplishment if they've walked across Spain to the cathedral; a sense of grace; a feeling of being blessed; strength against the difficulties of life. Think the church still gives a number of days off from purgatory, but not many people believe in this today.
While you seem to be aware of Santiago's relevance as a pilgrimage site, and is visited by many millions of people each year on pilgrim bus trips etc, you need to include the fact that modern pilgrims still walk across Spain (800kms) to visit the cathedral, and many even walk from their homes in France, Italy, Germany etc. In fact, 100,000 pilgrims per year walk into Santiago, a huge number in this day and age.
OK, so you don't want websites, why not? How will you verify the information you get, how will you get additional facts, what slant will you put on it, how will you prove your research? Using any information you might receive here amount to plagerism, so I strongly suggest that, using the information already given, you do a bit of research yourself.
Here are a couple of websites to begin your research. The first is for pilgrims walking what is known as the Camino de Santiago: http://www.caminodesantiago.me.uk/ Even Wikipedia's got an entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James
St James Day is 25 July, when this falls on a Sunday it's considered a Holy Year. So, find out when the next Holy Year falls, and what it's significance is to pilgrims.
EDIT: I've just noticed than an answer to another of your posts on this subject mentions that, in answer to your question 5: what do pilgrims do at this site, 'they kiss a golden mollusc shell on the front of the altar'. This is definitely not true, you won't find this mentioned anywhere as it's not done, and pilgrims are not allowed up to the altar anyway. |
SUE
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If you are not looking for links to sites, then why are you asking about sites???????
If you want to know something about Santiago de Compustela for your report, then you need to do some research on your own. Otherwise, you are merely putting your name on someone else's research, and I believe that is called CHEATING or maybe PLAGIARISM.
YOU are supposed to be doing the work, so that YOU can do the learning.
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