The wonders of the Jacobean treasury

The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela houses the remains of the apostle St. James, an important attraction for the faithful that led the temple to become one of the main pilgrimage centres of Christianity.

The remains of St. James the Apostle are not only preserved in the Apostolic Urn. In addition, various relics are associated with him. This reliquary, from medieval times, is the first that seeks to represent him as a pilgrim, giving rise to a new iconography.

Given the belief that the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela housed the entire body of the Apostle James, the arrival of the relic of a head attributed to him caused confusion. Finally, this was put in relation to Santiago the Lesser, becoming a piece of great devotion.

However, not only remains of the body of the apostle James are preserved, but also objects, such as the staff contained in this column, which would have been found next to him in his tomb. This type of relics, called contact relics, were common in the cult of the saints.

But the cathedral also houses relics of other saints. Among them the reliquary that contains the arm of Saint Christopher is particularly interesting, since it adopts the shape of the part of the body that it houses. This type of reliquary is known as a talking reliquary.

In the Treasury, Santiago continues to be the main protagonist. This piece is a short cloak, an attribute of the pilgrim, made to be placed over the image of the saint on the main altar. Today, the original piece is in the museum, since it was removed due to wear and tear.

During the Baroque period, the image of Santiago Matamoros spread, an iconography that did not exist until then. This is the one represented in this silver piece, an example of the many pilgrimage offerings that the cathedral received throughout the 17th century.

However, the most representative image for Compostela is that of Santiago on pilgrimage. This is the one chosen by Enrique Mayer for this piece, in which the main protagonist is jet. It was his father who, at the end of the 19th century, revived the art of jet in Compostela, a tradition of the city that had practically disappeared.

Another type of pieces found in the Treasury are medieval crosses. The cathedral would have had a rich collection, although only some have survived to the present day. This example is a Lignum Crucis, since it contains a fragment of the cross of Christ.

Objects that would have been used in the liturgy are also included, highlighting the relevance of the chalices. An example of this is this piece from the time of Archbishop Monroy, who gave a great impulse to the baroque in the cathedral of Compostela.

Processional monstrances were one of the most coveted pieces by cathedrals as a symbol of prestige. For this purpose, this one was commissioned by Archbishop Fonseca in 1539. It should be noted that it is not only exhibited in the museum, but it is still taken out in procession on the feast of Corpus Christi.

According to the rite of opening the Holy Door, the Archbishop of Santiago has to strike the door three times with a ceremonial hammer. This was the one used in the Holy Year of 2010.

The opening ceremony of the Holy Door in the Cathedral has no clear origins. It was probably modeled after the one performed since the 16th century at the Holy Door in Rome, in which the Jubilee year began with the opening of the Door and ended with its closing.