[Gocamino] posted for Rosina: San Roque and San Francisco

[David Hough on gocamino]

While some of us were with the Franciscans in Santa
Barbara, Rosina posted the following which did not
succeed so I am reposting it:

There have been quite a few references recently to
Saint Rocco (Saint
Roche,
 San Roque) as a Santiago pilgrim in the Galician
press. The question
whether Saint Rocco had gone to Santiago was raised
here some years
ago, but I do not remember any concrete findings or
conclusions, as to
whether he did, in fact, made the pilgrimage to
Santiago. Certainly he
lived during high pilgrimage season times, and, for
sure, he was a
wanderer. If he did go he must have done so before his
fateful
pilgrimage to Rome in which he was he was hurt, and
subsequent to which
he
 became an hospitalero for lepers, plague victims and
such unfortunates
 for the rest of his life.

Whether or not Saint Francis of Assisi did, or didnt,
go to Santiago
has fascinated pilgrims and scholars for centuries and
persuasive
arguments and indicia go both ways. For one, there is
the question of
the building of the Saint Francis monastery in
Santiago which a less
determined person than Saint Francis may not have
brought about in view
of the fierce
 opposition from the San Martin Penario monks. In
fact, the Saint
 Francis church and monastery are much lower in height
than San Martins
 at the insistence of the San Martin monks. Also,
after the town of
Assisi suffered terrible flooding a few years ago, and
many of its
artistic treasures were washed away or damaged, most
of the priceless
documents in the Assisi archives were confined to the
custody of the
Vatican library in Rome; among them there is said to
be a document
given to San Francis by a
 bishop in Santiago. For some reason, such document
has not been made
available to the general public.

 
The Leyre monastery, in the Aragonese part of the
French Camino, does
allow for viewing a facsimile of a sort of guests book
with Saint
Francis name in it. In medieval times the Leyre
monastery was famous
for giving refuge to pilgrims, and it was the custom
of the abbot to
ask those who had stayed there to write their name on
a book that he
maintained for the purpose; the last name of a group
of five pilgrims
staying
 there in one occasion does read Francesco dAssisi.
But, of course,
 Leyre is a long way from Santiago.

We will probably never know for sure, nor does it
matter. Someone once
 defined faith as believing in something that cannot
be proven, but it
would sure be nice to have some clear evidence.