We Made it to Santiago!!! (Finally)

Yay!  We made it to Santiago de Compostela, after what seemed like weeks and months, which in reality was only about fifteen days.  We have seen so much up to this point, it is incredible.  One of the first things we did while in Santiago was attend the Pilgrim Mass at the Cathedral of Saint James.

This cathedral and mass are exactly what the pilgrims are traveling for.  Inside the cathedral are the remains of Saint James in a large ornate reliquary that people are allowed to go see, touch, and pay homage to.  This is housed directly behind the altar in the front of the cathedral.  The rest of the cathedral is ornately designed with many other chapels along the sides and in front.  I was surprised at the amount of non-christian carvings that had been etched into the stone by the builders of the cathedral.  Everywhere I looked, there was more "graffiti", something I definitely wouldn't have noticed if my professor hadn't pointed it out.

There is a pilgrim mass offered twice a day, every day, for the pilgrims that are constantly arriving in Santiago.  The mass is given in many different languages, the one we attended was primarily in Italian.  It was a very traditional Catholic mass that I was able to follow along fairly easily with, even though I couldn't understand most of it.  At the end of the mass a large thurible was swung through the Cathedral with burning incense as a sort of blessing on all who were there.  The incense has been always been used as a blessing in this mass, but also as a way to mask the smell of the pilgrims in medieval time.  It was truly a sight to see, and something I will not forget for a very long time.  I hope to someday make it back to the cathedral, but as a pilgrim who has walked the entire camino.

(Pictures are from google, I couldn't get them to upload from my phone.)