<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0">Hi Donald,<BR>
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!<BR>
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!<BR>
But I guess the extraordinary convolutions are the logical consequence of the impossibility of ever knowing for certain.<BR>
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?<BR>
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.<BR>
(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).<BR>
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.<BR>
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.<BR>
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. <BR>
.....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?<BR>
Warm regards,<BR>
Rosina <BR>
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