We have arrived in Roncesvalles to begin our trek across Spain along the Camino de Santiago. This will be our starting point tomorrow.
It is said that in this romanesque church are buried soldiers who fought alongside Roland, one Charlemagne's champions.
While sitting outside this church we heard these chants coming from the direction of the Colegiata where the pilgrim's is held. It was a line of men carrying crosses and chanting in Latin. The participants in these processions come from small villages around Roncesvalles. They come for a special mass and then carry the crosses back to their village, some of them 16-18 kilometers from here.
This is the Church where we attended the pilgrim's mass. It was truly a beautiful and very spiritual experience, especially when one of the priests called all the pilgrims to altar and gave us a blessing of healthy, safety, courage, and stamina. He did in the language of all the pilgrims present. We had a very special experience when we were invited by the priest to come forward and sing for the congregation.
Afterwards we were talking to one of the priests who turned to me and asked if we had time for him to take us on a tour of the Church. Well, you can imagine that the answer was a very quick and appropriately emphatic YES. So, took about an hour to tell us the history of the Church and its place within the context of the Camino. Turns out this is the first Gothic church built in Spain. He then went and got some keys and took us into the Crypt that is under the apse of the Church. It wasn't ever used for burials but was a way of leveling out the floor and create a support for the building that is built on a slight hill.
Here too he invited us to sing. The resonance was amazing.
In the cloister below he pointed out the fountain in the middle of the garden and made it a point to tell us that it had once been a baptismal font (sometime in the 12th century).
Everything about the cloister and church space was breathtaking. Here are the halls of the cloister that had to be rebuilt in the 16th century after a heavy snow storm collapse the roofs and walls of the original structure. You will notice that there are burial niches along the wall. One of them has been replaced by a mega arch footing.
No comments:
Post a Comment