Cathidral de Iria Flavia

[pieterpannevis]

Dear all,

The diocese of Iria Flavia, now know as Padron, has a lot to do with the
Camino, but as far as I know the body found was in Padron and transported to
another site.  Bishop Gelmirez was one of the first to recognise the
importance of the findings of the remains of st James and built his church
better known as: Santa María Adina, on the spot of an earlier church dating
back to the 10 th century, presumably one of the oldest churches in
Christian history. A well-known Spanish poet has been buried there.
The story goes like this: Yet it had not always been this way; the
miraculous finding of the tomb of St. James in what is now Santiago de
Compostella was really the first step in a process of Christianisation of
this ancient route, known also as the Route of the Stars.  According to the
Golden Legend, St. James was martyred in Palestine c. 47 C.E. whereupon his
body was placed in a boat and set to sea accompanied by two of his
disciples, Teodoro and Atanasio.  Because the boat lacked a tiller its
course was left to Providence, and the saintly remains drifted, with its
escorts, ever westward, across the Mediterranean, through the Gates of
Hercules and up the coast of Portugal, arriving finally at the Roman town of
Iria Flavia, today called Padron.  Here they were granted permission by
Queen Lupa - whose name means "wolf" - for the body to be buried near the
Pico Sacro, or "Sacred Peak".  Teodoro and Antasio were later buried with
him, and thus it was that in the year  813 C.E. Pelagio, whose name means
"of the sea", witnessed, over several nights, a stream of stars that shot to
the sky from the Pico Sacro, landing in the nearby forest of Libredon,
Pelagio reported the miracle and later returned with the bishop Teodomiro of
Iria Flavia; together they found a tiny gruta within which lay, flanked by
two other graves, an ark of marble bearing the inscription, "Here lies
James, son of Zebedeo and Salome and brother of John".  Pope Leon III
certified the authenticity of the tomb, and King Alfonso II (791-842 C.E.)
ordered the first chapel built at the site, along with a Benedictine
monastery

A link to the Pico sacro is:
http://es.geocities.com/valdoulla/pico.htm




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