St. Francis' pilgrimage

[JA Brilleman]

Rosina Lila,

There is a book in Holland, titled "de Weg naar Santiago de Compostela,
kunst en cultuur" in Dutch.
In English: "the Road to Santiago de Compostela, art and culture", but I
don't know if there is an
English version!. It is written by Mireille Madou, 1931 Brugge/Belgium,
historian, teached
art-history at the University of Leiden/Holland till 1992. Published by
Uniepers, Abcoude/Holland, 1999.
She wrote several books about Santiago, the pilgrimage and the medieval art
on the Camino.
In this book she writes also about the place Sangüesa in Navarra at the
banks of the river Aragon.
This place is not mentioned in the "Liber Sancti Jacobi", but once it was
one of the most important
places along the Camino in Navarra at the road from Jaca to Puente la Reina.
Sangüesa is founded by the king of Aragón: Alfonso I "el Batallador"
(1104-1134) who built a bridge
across the river and beside the bridge a palace and a church "Santa Maria la
Real".
In the thirteenth century Sangüesa became a center of religiuous live:
Franciscans, Dominicans and
Carmalites built their cloisters.
"it is said", Mireille Madou writes, that in the year 1212 or 1213 St.
Francis himself founded the
monastery for friars.

Further on in this book of Mireille Madou, she describes a village, named
Cañas, situated
about 6 km south of the Camino after Nájera. In this village is a convent of
Cisterciënzer nuns
(still inhabited), founded in 1170 by Lope Diaz de Haro and his young wife
Aldonza Ruiz de Castro,
both from important families in Navarra and Castilia. Their twelveth child
was a daughter, Urraca,
who was educated in the convent. In 1225 she became abbess of this convent
till she
died in 1262, in the age of 92.
Again "it is said", Urraca, as a nun, met St. Francis in 1213, he on his way
to Santiago.
Unfortunately their are no proves it really happened.

This is all I can find about St. Francis on the Camino.

Jan en Erna Brilleman
janernaahetnet.nl
www.brilleman-2.myweb.nl