History and Legends of Santiago de Compostela

This north-western part of Spain has its history of people converting to Christianity. The Romans used to call it Finis Terrace meaning “end of world”. The work Santiago was named after Saint James who was known as Santiago. As the name suggests this region is well known for the preaching of Christianity. Many people converted to Christianity after the incident and since then, the place stays crowded with pilgrims. Herodes Agrippa were the ones who took Saint James as prisoner and he was tortured to death in 44 A.D, after he came back from Palestine. The king was cruel enough to give him a burial place however; his disciples stole the body in a sarcophagus of marble and boarded him on a small boat. The boat was driven with the current to the Spanish coast. This port was inside the capital of Roman’s province Iria Flavia. Here Saint James was buried in woods at a secret place. In 1813 Pelayo was listening to music when he saw something shining in the woods. Due to that shining the place is now called Campus Stellae i.e the field of star. Later on it was changed to Compostela. History states that the shining in the woods was witnessed by people from far too. There was an investigation that was initiated by Teodomiro after which the tomb was discovered. Later King Alphonse II got a chapel built of Saint James at his place and declared the Saint an important patron of his empire. This was the first time Saint James actually started getting popularity and his teachings came in front of the people. After that reports state that many miracles were shown by the Saint, and it is believed that he fought against the Moors with King Ramiro I in the battle. Furthermore, the chapel became a cathedral known as Santiago de Compostela and many pilgrims started to follow the Santiago way of living. Since then the pilgrims of Santiago have been increasing in numbers constantly. Like Rome and Jerusalem in the centuries12th and 13th Pope Alexander III named this town a Holy Town. Further, it was declared by the Pope Calixto II that any pilgrim visiting spain villa will be free from all the sins, if they visit the place in the Holy Year. Therefore, Apostol’s day is celebrated on 25th July and it is known as El Ano Santo.