GOCAMINO Digest - 25 Jul and more about Castrojeriz

[Rosina Lila]

Hi Donald,
Thank you for the endlessly amazing information about how feastly Saint and
church days are determined.  I recently read somewhere a narrative of how the
dates for Easter are fixed, and I was spellbound. I don't remember it exactly,
but it was a Byzantine formula about a Friday after the second Monday
following a full moon on the 14th week of a year begun on a certain day of the week,
or something like that.  Fantastic!
Because I was born a Catholic and all my life I have been as happy and
comfortable in my religion as a fish in water, I've never had to really study it.
Consequently, my ignorance of Catholic dogma and formulae is abysmal, which
doubles my pleasure, and my bemusement, when I come across pieces of information
related to technical approaches by church clerics to arrive at certain dates
and observations.  Fascinating!
But I guess the extraordinary convolutions are the logical consequence  of
the impossibility of ever knowing for  certain.
I do have a question of my own that I have been ruminating over for years:
the times, the places and the occasions when Santiago appeared fighting
alongside the Christian warriors, brandishing a sword and riding a white horse, have
been endlessly commemorated in verse, legend and song; we also know the names
of some of his companions, but,.... did his horse have a name? It was the
custom of the time for knights and noted riders to name their steeds.  What was the
name of Santiago's horse?
At the entrance of Castrojeriz there is the Colegiata of our Lady del
"Manzano" (apple tree in English, but in the Castilian dialect the word was derived
from the Arabic Al-mazan). Local lore holds that the image of the Virgin Mary
venerated in the Colegiata's church was found in the hollow of an apple tree,
and that it was discovered there only because Santiago himself, atop his white
horse, took a prodigious jump from the castle and landed at the foot of the
tree.  Nailed onto the church wooden door there are four horseshoes who are
believed by the locals to have been left at the site by Santiago's horse as a
testimonial to the miracle.
(One has visions of Santiago taking that jump in the same magnificent manner
as Brunhilde jumping onto the fire, in Gotterdamerung, on the back of her
beloved Grane).
As to the San Fermines, Michener, (I believe), wrote a travel book called
Iberia some twenty years ago; the book reiterated the endless polemic as to which
is the most worthwhile of the two  famous Spanish madnesses: the Fermines or
Holy Week in Seville.  He opted, as do I, for Holy Week in Seville.
I've been to the Fermines and observed the bulls run's carryings on from the
safety of a second story window; and while I partook of the merriment, and the
wine, at no time did I wish to be amidst the crowds at street level; I grew
weary of the whole thing before long, and much preferred pretty Pamplona in
other times.
In Seville, however, I'm always in the thick of it; there one gets
intoxicated not by the wine, but by the music, the beauty, the devotion, and the shared
love and affection for something so soul-inspiring that when the Week is over,
the afternoon of Resurrection Sunday, there is a deep melancholic feeling, as
though pieces of one's heart were being carried away by waves into the sea;
invariably one begins to prepare the following year's return to alleviate the
sadness somewhat.... There's nothing like it; not for me.
.....But, as to the horse.  Here in New York City we are sort-of celebrating
a horse from some decades ago: Seabuiscuit. A movie about it just opened to
great acclaim and the book has been on the best-sellers' list for 68 consecutive
weeks (although I couldn't get into it). Horses are notable, remembered and
admired. Surely, Santiago's horse must have had a name. Has anyone ever written
a book about famous horses in history?  If not, will someone please write it?
Warm regards,
Rosina
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