Day 7 - A White Garment of Churches

A White Garment of Churches - Romanesque and Gothic

Today I watched a wonderful film on Romanesque and Gothic architecture.  It really drives home all the developments that were happening during this time in history...  and despite the turmoil of life during the medieval times - war, plague, and savagery great beauty was being developed in homage to God.
After the fall of Rome the barbarians became the new heirs of Rome.  Pilgrimage and the Monastic Movement brought about a frenzied building of great churches.  Western Europe was attacked on all sides and it seemed that the Christian church might not survive, but in the 11th century things changed in their favor and there was a dramatic revival of  monumental building.

People made the pilgrimages for the salvation of their souls, traveling great distances via boat, horse-back, and by foot to offer payment for and to seek out spiritual help for their health and salvation.  Areas along the paths where pilgrims visited raced to keep up with the demand for commerce and spiritual opportunities and churches were built and compete for their attentions.  With the flood of funds and people great churches were built to keep up with the thousands of pilgrims that stampeded through areas on their spiritual routes.  The relics, or remains of saints and religious figures, that a church held determined whether the pilgrims would visit the churches and they fought for and stole relics to establish themselves as visit worthy to the visitors.

One of the most famous cathedrals was Santiago de Compostela on the pilgrimage route of the Camino which is a pilgrimage dating to the 9th century, when the bones of the apostle St. James were supposedly discovered in Santiago de Compostela. A small church was built by Alfonso II. By the 12th century, Santiago was designated by Pope Calixto II in 1270 as a pilgrimage of plenury indulgence (along with Canterbury, Rome and Jerusalem) the completion of which would absolve you from all sin.

Cathedral de Santiago de Compostela

Pilgrimage routes

The symbol of the pilgrim became the scallop shell, the lines representing all the routes and people streaming in to one point from many places.

Symbol of the pilgrim - designating the way to Santiego de Compostela

References:
1. Film: A White Garment of Churches - Romanesque and Gothic - Produced by WNET/New York (major producer). 1989
2.  http://mygaliciangarden.blogspot.com/2010/10/camino-de-santiago.html