Legends of the Camino de Santiago

Imagine walking along gloomy, dusty paths and trails with only the sound of your own footsteps for company, in fear of watchful bandits, or some other accident or disaster befalling you … The Camino de Santiago has fed the imagination of many travelers over the centuries.

A multitude of magical legends and miracles emerged around the transport of the remains of Saint James alone. Having arrived in Galicia with the apostle's body, his disciples Theodore and Athanasius were looking for a way to transport his remains inland to an appropriate final resting place. They asked the powerful Queen Lupa for help, though she had already tried to trick them and thwart their plans.

The mythical queen told them to climb Mount Ilicino (now called Pico Sacro), which was in her kingdom. There, they would find some supposedly tame oxen that they could use to pull the coffin. But in reality, this magic mountain had a door to hell that was guarded by a dragon, which emerged as soon as the unknowing disciples arrived.

Theodore and Athanasius were protected by the power of their faith, and they easily defeated the dragon by making the sign of the cross. They then rounded up the oxen, which were really two wild beasts, but they also succumbed to the apostle's power and became tame. The disciples returned to Queen Lupa, who was astonished by the power of their miracles and converted to Christianity.

The Coastal Portuguese Way is home to the famous story of the Knight of the Scallops (Caballero de las Conchas). The story goes that the disciples Theodore and Athanasius were sailing north with the apostle's remains in a stone raft when they came across the fishing village of Bouzas, which today is one of the most charming towns along the Vigo estuary. From afar, they heard people celebrating a wedding.

The wedding-goers were playing abofardar, a game in which men threw a spear, or bofarda, into the air and had to catch it while riding horseback before it hit the ground. When it was the newly-wed husband's turn, a sudden wind blew up and sent the spear into the sea. But the young man was determined to win and chased after the spear, plunging into the waves.

As the minutes passed, neither the man nor his horse rose out of the water, and the congregation feared the wedding would soon have a tragic ending. At that moment, the disciples' stone boat came near the spot where the man had dove in, and a miracle happened: both man and horse emerged from the sea covered in scallop shells.

The apostle's disciples later said that, as a sign of devotion and in remembrance of this miracle, anyone who decided to make the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela should carry a scallop shell as a symbol. This is how one of the most symbolic icons of the Camino de Santiago came to be.

This story is said to have taken place in the 14th century. Hugonell, a young German man who was making the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela with his parents, stayed the night at an inn along the Camino. A young woman fell in love with him and hoped he would be interested in her, but he turned her away. The young woman could not stand being rejected by him, and to get her revenge, she staged a theft and used false evidence to accuse the young man.

The authorities found him guilty and condemned him to the gallows. The fates of both the young German man and his parents were in the hands of Santiago de Compostela. Then the first miracle happened: when his parents came close to his body, the young man spoke and told them he was alive and that he had been saved by the grace of the apostle. Filled with joy, the couple ran to the tell the magistrate, who they found eating a bountiful feast.

The magistrate mocked them, saying the famous phrase, "That boy is as alive as this rooster and chicken I was feasting on before you interrupted me." And with that, the second miracle occurred: all the birds at the feast jumped up from their plates, crowing and clucking.

It was soon discovered that sending the sick on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela seemed to cure them. Not to subtract from the spiritual nature of pilgrimage, but it seemed there were other motives behind sending people there. For example, monks and pilgrim's hospitals offered care and healing to pilgrims throughout the Iberian Peninsula.

As part of this care, these hosts made sure that travelers never went without bread. The bread they gave to pilgrims was usually made from white wheat flour, which would have been free of ergot mycotoxins, so pilgrims would usually be cured by the time they reached Santiago de Compostela. This might explain many of the miraculous stories reported there, though that does not make them any less appealing or interesting.

Of the many Danish saints, the story of Saint Andrew is well known. He was the parish priest at Saint Peter's Church in Slagelse, Denmark, until his death in 1205. Translated by historian Vicente Almazán, the story goes that Saint Andrew was saying mass with a group of pilgrims in Jerusalem when the rest of his company decided to board ship and return to Slagelse.

Just then, on Easter Day 1200, a man riding a white horse appeared and pulled Saint Andrew onto his horse. He flew through the air to bring Saint Andrew back to Slagelse. The very next day, Saint Andrew traveled by air and visited the tomb of the Apostle Saint James the Greater in Santiago de Compostela. On his way back, he took a detour to visit another pilgrimage site: Olav's Shrine in Trondheim, Norway.

Their journey ended at the Hill of Rest (Colina del Reposo), which marked the entrance to the city in Denmark. Today, the site is marked with a cross. He arrived home well before his party had even reached the holy sites, and they were surprised by the stories they heard. In light of this story, as well as his kindness and generosity, he was beatified Saint Andrew of Slagelse.

Many other miracles and stories feature in the Camino's history. One is of the pilgrim ghost of Praza da Quintana, a famous shadow that appears every night on the walls of the cathedral. And at Carmen's Bridge (La Fuente del Carmen), in Padrón, it is said that water miraculously flowed when the Apostle Saint James struck the stones three times with his staff.

There is also the story of Santiaguiño do Monte, where the Apostle Saint James the Greater apparently preached the gospel and made another miraculous water spring by striking his staff. At this site lies a stone called Cama do Santo (Saint's Bed), where Saint James is believed to have slept. There is also a chalice from the legend of the Holy Grail of O Cebreiro. It became famous following several miraculous events in Europe and was incorporated into the Coat of Arms of Galicia.

Wherever pilgrims and travelers came together to share wondrous stories worth telling, multitudes of myths and legends have sprung up and inspired generations of pilgrims coming from all over the world.