It’s the End of the World as They Knew It

It’s the end of the world as they knew it…

To finish up the journey following James, disciple of Jesus’s travels, we went to Finisterre, or the end of the world as they knew it until Columbus sailed and somehow people figured out the world is round. When I see Finisterre, I hear REM singing about the end of the world in the background of my mind, and now you should, too. You’re welcome.

Since we now know the world is round (and since a couple weeks ago we visited what the Celts to believe to be the end of the world, too—not real original those flat-earthers), let’s move on to the highlight of the day and part of what motivated my trip to begin with: Múxia.

Legend tells us that James, disciple and brother of Jesus, came to Spain to share the Gospel around the same time Peter headed to Rome and John went to Asia Minor. This, the stories tell us, is where he landed and started. Muxia.

Now called The Coast of Death because of its dangerous waves and rocky shoreline, it was for centuries among the most dangerous coasts on the planet. Starting from here, James went through what is now Spain and gathered followers.

This part I can believe. There are other tidbits of the story that grow to mythical proportions and I leave with you to decide for yourself.

Tidbit 1. James was having a hard time starting the church here. As the stories tell it, the Virgin Mary showed up on a stone boat (the mountains here are granite, so it was a granite boat, specifically) to help him. Since the Bible refers to James as the brother of Jesus, it could be surmised Mary is James’s mom as well. Many believe Mary remained a virgin her whole life and Jesus had step-siblings. I don’t know. I wasn’t there. But regardless of how many times Mary gave birth, the stories say she showed up in a stone boat to help James. These huge rocks, they say, are the sail and rudder of that boat. She arrived, helped start the church, gave James some motivational encouragement, and went on about her Holy Mother things.

Tidbit 2. After starting the church James returns to Jerusalem. Things were pretty dicey there for Christ-followers, so after some life and persecution finally, on July 25th sometime in James’s mid-40s, he was beheaded. To honor the work he did in Spain, two of his best buddies are commissioned to take his body and decapitated head to Spain and let that be his final resting place. (How’d you like to be on THAT cruise?) To commemorate his martyrdom, July 25 is a holy day in Spain and that is why any year that Sunday falls on July 25 is a holy year for the Catholic Church. During the holy years, making a pilgrimage to see St James (Santiago, in Spanish) relieves you of your sins and cancels out your time otherwise spent in Purgatory upon death. It’s a darn good deal.

Tidbit 3. James wasn’t buried right away. Or, maybe he was, but his bones got lost and then rediscovered 800 years later. In 832 what was believed to be James’s bones made their way to what is now Santiago de Compostela and the church built a cathedral in which to house them. The cathedral has been built and rebuilt many times since then, until it’s the magnificent, grand edifice you see today. It is the ending point for the Camino de Santiago (The Way of St James) and the third most significant pilgrimage in the Christian faith after Jerusalem and Rome.

Tidbit 4. Cultures around the world have embraced James as a patriarch of the church. I was raised in a solid Peter and Paul family, so I am just learning this—I didn’t know. Legend has it that James shows up throughout the ages. He’s told to have led armies in Spain to help fight back the Moorish invasion in 820. He’s done quite a bit of work in South America as well. These are the stories. I don’t know—I haven’t personally seen him and I wasn’t there. One tour guide in Santiago said “It is a matter of faith. If you believe it, it is true for you.”