The Way of St. James (Camino de Santiago). Pilgrims | Documentary Part 7

The Way of Saint James (Camino de Santiago) is the perfect mix of touristic-sports adventure and religious sentiment. This documentary shows all of the story from the origins until today.
▶ SUBSCRIBE! http://bit.ly/PlanetDoc Full Documentaries every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday!
▶ Documentary "Way of Saint James (Camino de Santiago)" http://pdoc.es/WayStJamesPL

The discovery of the sepulcher of the Apostle Santiago, in the first third of the IX century, compelled many Christians to make pilgrimages to Compostela to worship his relics.
This required the construction of a church. This building, besides guarding and honoring the relics of the Apostle and his disciples Teodoro and Atanasio, had to take in a greater number of pilgrims coming from the Peninsular kingdoms, as well as from the rest of Europe. The purpose of its builders was not only to construct the most perfect church dedicated to the cult of the pilgrims; they wanted to make Compostela a religious and artistic reference for the world, like Rome and Jerusalem.
These are the beginnings of a fascinating story, a fabulous saga spanning centuries carried out
by thousands of people united in their devotion to the figure of the Apostle Santiago, in a remote corner of Finisterre. They called it Compostela: the field of stars.
The present state of the Santiago Cathedral is the result of numerous changes, projects, works, remodeling; in short, an evolving and impassioned architectural and artistic creation developed throughout many centuries.

Pilgrims: seventh part of the documentary The way of ST. James (Camino de Santiago). The Temple of stars.

The Renaissance reached its zenith in Spain in the XVI century and it is evident that the Santiago Cathedral and its surroundings absorbed its influence. This is precisely when the new cloister, substituting the medieval one, was built. Also in the XVI century, the Plaza del Obradoiro begins to take shape when the Hospital Real for pilgrims and the sick is constructed.
The Catholic Monarchs undergo a pilgrimage to Compostela to thank the Apostle Santiago for their conquest of Granada. Seeing firsthand the great number of worshippers, they promote its construction. Currently, it is known as the Hostal de los Reyes Católicos, and it is one of the most beautiful buildings of the Spanish Renaissance.

A series of events had caused a reduction in the number of pilgrims to Santiago since the XIV century. The horrifying black plague that decimated the European population, as well as the great schism that divided Catholics in 1378, rang in this crisis. During the XVI century, Martin Luther’s Reformation caused a whole new schism that fully affected Compostelan pilgrimages:
after harshly criticizing this practice, he effectively uprooted Jacobean devotion in central European nations.

In 1589, Archbishop Juan de San Clemente was warned that the pirate Francis Drake had leveled A Coruña in response to the failed invasion of the Spanish Armada.
The Archbishop proceeded to bury – in complete secrecy – the relics of the Apostle behind the main altar of the cathedral. The disappearance of the remains of the Apostle worsened the crisis of the Jacobean route.

Although the Way of St. James managed to recapture part of its prestige in the XVIII century,
a crisis relapsed with the great social changes of the XIX century. The low point came on July 25 1867, when only 40 pilgrims attended the Apostle’s festivity. But during the course of the 1879 dig, canon López Ferreiro found the relics that had remained hidden for three hundred years. In 1884, Pope Leo XIII declared their authenticity and extolled the populace to undertake pilgrimages to the holy sepulcher.
The papal document was key to the revitalization of Jacobean faith. Since then – and until today - an increase in the number of pilgrims to Compostela has not waned.
The visits of Pope John Paul II and later Benedict XVI in the Holy Compostelan year of 2010, surrounded by a fervent multitude of pilgrims from all over the world, are a testimony to the magnificent vitality the Jacobean cult has today.

But notwithstanding all the changes, the works of Peláez and Gelmírez, of Masters Bernardo, Esteban, Mateo, and countless others, still remain unaltered and recognizable. In the spaces within its naves, columns, tribunes, chapels and porticos, the spirit of all those who contributed to its erection is conserved.

▶ SUBSCRIBE | http://bit.ly/PlanetDoc
▶ FULL DOCUMENTARIES | http://bit.ly/Full-Docs
▶ HISTORY DOCUMENTARIES | http://bit.ly/PlHistory

▶ FACEBOOK | http://bit.ly/FBPDoc
▶ TWITTER | http://bit.ly/TwPDoc
▶ TUMBLR | http://bit.ly/TbPlDoc