The Camino de Santiago de Compostela is often translated into English as The Way of Saint James. It’s all based on legends for which there is apparently little to no evidence. We know that St. James was one of Jesus’s disciples. The legend in Spain is that after Jesus was crucified and the disciples scattered, Saint James came to Spain and preached the gospel of Jesus across northern Iberia. This is where the image of Saint James the Pilgrim (Santiago Peregrino) comes from. The image is of a bearded St. James with a pilgrim’s hat, one or more scallop shells on his clothing, and a wooden staff, with a gourd hanging from it. Generic images of pilgrims appear all along the Camino, but most look like Santiago Peregrino. Many churches and cathedrals along the way have statues of St. James Peregrino.
Whether the legend is true or not, we do know that James was back in Jerusalem because he was killed, beheaded by Herod in 42 A.D. Followers of St. James are believed to have brought his body back to Iberia where it now resides in the cathedral of Santiago, Spain.
Later in Spanish history comes another image of Saint James. During the “reconquista” (reconquest of Spain), as the Christians battled to drive the “Moors” or Muslims from the peninsula, there was a crucial battle. In 844 the Battle of Clavijo, the Christians were seriously outnumbered, but during the battle, the legend has it, Saint James himself appeared as a knight on a white horse. He led the Christians to a great victory by helping to kill and defeat the Moors of Spain. This explains different image seen along the Camino, that of Santiago Matamoro, best translated as “Saint James the Moor Slayer.” This image has the bearded Saint James astride white horse, sword raised, with slain Muslims below the feet of the horse.
Santiago Matamoro is not nearly so common as Santiago Peregrino, but it is frequent, and the image is most often found within churches and cathedrals. In one cathedral we visited, Santiago Matamoro appears at the top of the main altar, above the presentation of Christ on the Cross.
The idea of a great saint as a slayer of Muslims is surely bothersome to most of us today. But we must understand this in its historical context – think of the time of the crusades. Sad but true, there was a time when both Christians and Muslims thought it good to kill the “infidels,” that is, each other. Let us hope that the true Christian message today is based on love and openness, rather than murdering your enemies.
