Spirituality
Every pilgrimage is a religious undertaking, whatever the time, place or religion. The pilgrimage to Compostela is unique in that it is an individual process, a conscious or unconscious response to the “call of the Way”, a march towards the sacred.
Even for non-believers, the act of walking, of crossing a space illuminated from above and within, towards the extraordinary of the sacred, the sublimating presence, the humility of the sources where between heaven and earth, between God and man, the bond of unity becomes flesh, participation, nourishment of energy to complete man’s perennial work, in itself divine.
Alphonse Dupront, “StudiCattolici”, 1968
On their return, the pilgrims sought to join forces, both to worship the Apostle St. James, to help each other and to offer future pilgrims the help and advice they needed.
The Brotherhood of Saint James
In France, the Confrérie Saint-Jacques de Compostelle was founded on September 10, 1994 in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Chartres, in accordance with the new Code of Canon Law, canons 298, 299 and 321 to 326. Its aim is “to bring together in a spiritual fraternity all those who have made the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela and wish to preserve its spiritual teachings by putting into practice the message that His Holiness Pope John Paul II launched in Compostela at the World Youth Gathering in 1989″.
The brotherhood is affiliated to the Archconfraternity of the Apostle St. James, which grew out of the brotherhood founded in 1501 to contribute to the construction of the Hospital of the Catholic Monarchs, and has held this title since 1942, following a decision by Pope Pius XII.
At meetings, members of the brotherhood must wear a medal, the insignia of the brotherhood, suspended from a red and white cord, a reproduction of the medal of the former “Confrérie des pèlerins de Saint-Jacques de l’Hôpital de Paris” (1506). Members of the brotherhood meet annually in Chartres to celebrate the feast of St. James.
History of the Brotherhood
In Paris, the Saint-Jacques brotherhood, attested as early as the end of the 13th century, administered a hospital near the Porte Saint-Denis.
It was recognized by the Holy See in 1325, and by King John II in 1350. Men and women were required to have made the pilgrimage to Compostela, and to be present for religious celebrations and the July 25 banquet wearing the confraternity livery, made of red buckram and decorated with embroidered or painted shells.
The brotherhood administered the large Hôpital Saint-Jacques, built between 1319 and 1323 near the Porte Saint-Denis. Accounts for the hospital, which welcomed all pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela, Rome, Mont Saint-Michel, Sainte-Catherine de Fierbois, Notre-Dame de Liesse, etc., reveal that in 1368 it housed 16,690 people.
Pilgrims arriving from the north would thus meet up with the same people as they crossed Paris:
- the Saint-Jacques-aux-Pèlerins hospital at the entrance to the town,
- Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie parish, attested as early as the end of the 11th century,
- the Dominican convent of Saint-Jacques on the outskirts of town,
- the church of the Commanderie de l’Ordre de Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas outside the town.
By the end of the 16th century, the Confrérie de Saint-Jacques in Paris was experiencing financial problems, as spending on processions, masses and banquets continued to rise, and complaints were heard about all kinds of excesses committed on these occasions. At the time, the brotherhood was made up of middle-class members of society, and had a foothold in the spheres of power.
Over the course of the 17th century, the brotherhood lost sight of its original purpose – to welcome poor pilgrims – and devoted itself solely to the sociability of its members around annual processions, masses and feasts. The brotherhood disappeared at the end of the century, well before Turgot’s edict of February 1776, which abolished all brotherhoods and guilds.
This drift, which led the brotherhood to focus solely on its own members – for whom masses, processions, marches and feasts were organized – at the expense of welcoming poor pilgrims, was common to all brotherhoods and still threatens those that followed.
Christian home
Hospitality is welcoming the traveler, the stranger, the person about whom we know nothing. Neither who he is, nor where he comes from, nor what he’s looking for. We only know that he is a passer-by, alone, far from home and family. Perhaps, like Jacob (Gn 28:11-19), he feels alone in the world, but from God’s perspective he is a beloved son, called to discover a new life, even if he doesn’t know it.
The Christian presence on the road is essential if we are to preserve the religious tradition of the great pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela and be active witnesses to the faith in Jesus Christ: aren’t we in fact on a privileged terrain for evangelization, thanks to the personal welcome, the cultural offer and the sacramental liturgy?
The directory of Christian welcome centers is available from the WebCompostella association.
Being Hospitalized
The task of the hospitaliers, of each and every hospitalier, along the Way of St. James will gradually lead the pilgrim to meditate, to find himself, to discover God within himself: “Conversion, although the preacher’s discourse disposes to it, is not a conviction engendered by this discourse, but a free encounter between the listener and Christ, who eludes the preacher himself”.
So that when pilgrims reach their destination, at the end of their long wanderings, they may find hope and, by receiving the sacraments, understand in the depths of their being the meaning of “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one goes to the Father without passing through me”.
A number of monasteries in France and Spain call on the services of volunteer hospitaliers during the summer months.
To become a hospitaller in one of these monasteries or in a parish welcome center in France, go to: www.webcompostella.fr
To welcome French-speaking pilgrims to Spain at the end of their journey to Santiago de Compostela, or to welcome them to one of the Spanish monasteries on the Way, see the À Compostelle page.