Day 14: We made it! Awarding of the Compestela

Holy years, or Jubilee years, only take place every 25 years, unless the Pope requests an extraordinary Holy Year to highlight a specific topic. In this case, Pope Francis has declared 2016 a Holy Year of Mercy.

Santiago Cathedral opened  the Holy Door of the cathedral (Porta Santa). When it is not a holy year the door is locked and then bricked over -- just like the holy door of St Peter's basilica in Rome.

When we walked in to Santiago the first order of business was to visit the tomb of St James the Apostle. The holy door opened directly to the tomb that houses the saint's remains below the main altar.

Tomb of the Apostle St. James the Greater

Then we snaked through short narrow passages carrying our backpacks, to climb up into the wall above the main altar where we could reach around from behind and embrace the statue of St James as pilgrims have for hundreds of years.

The second order of business was to go to the Pilgrim's Office and stand in line for an hour or more to get our compostela.

The compostela has been given since the Early Middle Ages. The compostela is a certificate of accomplishment given to pilgrims on completing the Way. At the Pilgrim's Office our credencial was  examined for stamps and dates. We were also issued a distance certificate Showing we started in Leon.

Everything  is in Latin so Shane could read it, but here is the translation:

The CHAPTER of this holy apostolic and metropolitan Church of Compostela, guardian of the seal of the Altar of the blessed Apostle James, in order that it may provide authentic certificates of visitation to all the faithful and to pilgrims from all over the earth who come with devout affection or for the sake of a vow to the shrine of our Apostle St. James, the patron and protector of Spain, hereby makes known to each and all who shall inspect this present document that [Name] has visited this most sacred temple for the sake of pious devotion. As a faithful witness of these things I confer upon them the present document, authenticated by the seal of the same Holy Church.

Given at Compostela on the [day] of the month of [month] in the year of the Lord [year].

It sounds even better in Latin.

Finally to our beautiful Hotel in the shadow of the Cathedral.

The train to Madrid in the morning.