St. James Matamoros

[David Foote]

Last summer I was struck by the number of statues of Santiago as the
Moor killer (Santiago Matamoros). I wondered how Muslims in Spain felt
about these depictions of Santiago.  It seems to me that the idea of St.
James as the Moor killer is out of date..

Then last night (2/24/03) I was listening to National Public Radio.
They are doing a series on Muslims in Europe.  Yesterday's segment dealt
with Spain.  A Muslin notes, "It's a nightmare because Spain has a very
brutal policy when it arrests people. They're very violent. There's been
racism there since the 15th century."

Sylvia Poggoili (reporter)continues: Benjelloun is referring to the
Reconquista, the Christian reconquest of Spain in 1492, when the city of
Grenada fell after 700 years of Muslim rule under the Moors. Grenada's
cathedral is a monument to the Reconquista. Here are the tombs of the
Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, who unified Spain through the
persecution and expulsion of the Moors and Jews. It was one of Europe's
most devastating campaigns of ethnic cleansing. ...  A guide indicates a
large painting of Santiago, Spanish for St. James, the country's patron
saint. He sits triumphantly in a saddle, his horse's hoof crushing the
body of a Moor, hence the title St. James Matamoros, the Moor slayer, an
image seen throughout Spain's churches."

You can read the whole segment on the NPR website http://news.npr.org/
although you may have to sign in to access it.

Any thoughts about this particular depiction of St. James? Have those
of you who have completed the Camino been bothered by the statues and
pictures of St. James as an ethnic cleanser?

Peace,
Dave