Day 9 - O Cádavo to Lugo

The day began with the usual climb to a pass enshrouded by a heavy fog. 
Once above, we followed a forest path to see a church with Gothic elements and were able to get inside for a brief visit. The main altar depicted St. James in triumph. 
While not able to celebrate Mass in the church, we took advantage of the stone porch around it for that purpose. 
After a picnic lunch, we strolled at length with a good pace in the Galician countryside headed towards our goal of Lugo.
We came across a stone cross, unusual in its form to us, depicting on one side Jesus Crucified with St James below Him and Our Lady on the reverse side. 
A reminder of the Good Shepherd and His flock crossed our path as well as we walked. A lamb paused and appeared interested in following us but the watchful eye of the shepherd kept the lamb with the flock.
We finally arrived at Lugo - 18.9 miles officially! Tomorrow off to Ferreira!




Comments

  1. Jill HartlSeptember 19, 2024 at 2:45 PM

    Beautifully impressive!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ken CottrellSeptember 20, 2024 at 3:59 PM

    Breathtaking!!! Thank you for sharing your pilgrimage with us…almost like we’re along for the (much easier) ride!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 21, 2024 at 8:51 AM

    You may already be aware, but this is a common depiction of St James, particularly in Northern Spain. Most of the time, he is wielding a sword. This comes from the legend that St James appeared riding out of the clouds to help defeat the Moors (who had conquered much of Spain for several centuries) in an important battle. Decades ago, when I was studying in Spain, St James frequently carried the title “Santiago Matamoros”, or “St James the Moor killer”. This somewhat politically incorrect title is rarely heard in more recent times.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 13 &14 - The Pilgrimage Concludes

A step back to yesterday.... Because we had far to go (27.3 km, ~18 miles) and some chronic weariness was evident, we sprang from our beds (figuratively) and began walking before dawn (literally). One gentleman ahead of us had a headlamp, which helped us also. Things went well and the early start was cool, but without rain. We made good progress and had much enjoyable hiking. Our most fun part was when we stopped for lunch with 10km (6.2 miles) to go. We made grocery store sandwiches and ate them on a little bridge wall. We noticed an older man walking toward us, in the opposite direction of the Camino. We both looked up to greet him, and simultaneously had to supress laughter! It was a farmer with a scythe on his shoulder. His knowing grin naturally suggested that Death would greet us on the Camino, or having him come to us.  This caused a needed moment of levity...and we started to walk again. As you might guess, the Camino kept offering us hills to climb, all the way until ...
Read more

Day 3 - Grado to Tineo - A Penitential Day

Image
So today began with a beautiful walk to a waterfall where we discovered the Victory Cross planted as a sign of the region's Catholic faith. However, penance manifested itself in the form of switchbacks, steep climbs, and mud! The Camino path was shared by farm equipment for much of the day and the tractors created mud traps to ensnare pilgrims! The side of the road contained barbed wire fences and thistles while the center was inundated with pools of mud. Many reminders of the passion of Christ and God provided every grace and strength we needed! We were able to stop at chapels along the Way to pray and meet some pilgrims whom we had met on prior days.  As the day wore on, our "shorter" day of hiking (actually shorter in mileage but demanding experientially) kept revealing new challenges in new slopes to surmount!  The day's hike finally in sunshine and natural beauty..... but we still had muddy feet! 😀 Tomorrow we are off to Colin...
Read more

Day 7 - Castro to A Fonsagrada

Image
Our day started with a candlelight Mass (the stars still shining brightly) in the St. Julian Chapel.  We had a delightful breakfast with a couple from Nijmegen (the Netherlands) who were doing their 5th Camino! We set out and passing by a Celtic fort from the Bronze Age, we began the usual starting climb to begin the day.  Today's hike was listed among the hardest - they weren't joking!! However beautiful scenery continued to surround us and we were grateful to be able to experience it firsthand.  We finally left the autonomous community Asturias behind, entering into Galicia (also autonomous) and passing by the halfway point of our pilgrimage! Onward we walk tomorrow- even the rocks point the way! 
Read more