Skip to main content

Cruz de Ferro

Between the towns of  Foncebadón and Manjarín lies the Cruz de Ferro (Iron cross) marking the highest point on the Camino Frances. The cross itself in atop a telephone pole and is surrounded by a pile of stones that Pilgrims leave there. these stones are either brought from home or collected along the Camino and traditionally represent the lightening of the Pilgrim's own emotional burdens (as a metaphor perhaps of uniting the suffering of the Pilgrim with that of Jesus on the Cross).






Nowadays stones are also often carried to be prayers for family or friends of the Pilgrim and the telephone pole itself is covered with photos, ribbons and other things left by pilgrims for this purpose.

The current cross is one of many that have been placed at this high point to guide Pilgrims over the mountain and a visit to the Bishop's Palace in Astorga will reveal an earlier Cross on display.

An alternative explanation for the pile of stones at this point are that it was originally called Montes de Mercurio and was placed there in Celtic times to mark a stragetic location before being later Christianised in the early 11th century by Gaucelmo (who was Abbot of the Pilgrim Hospital in Foncebadon and Manjarin) with a cross.

In 1982 a small Chapel dedicated to Saint James was built at this point.

In the film 'The Way' the below prayer is said at the Iron Cross - I can't find any information about whether this is a traditional prayer or one that was written just for the film, I hadn't heard it before the film came out but that doesn't mean that it didn't exist:
 

Lord, may this stone,
a symbol of my efforts on the pilgrimage
that I lay at the foot of the cross of the Saviour,
one day weigh the balance in favour of my good deeds
when the deeds of my life are judged.

Amen.







Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Camino Primitivo

The Camino Primitivo (or the Original Way) is reportedly the very first Camino Way to Santiago in the 9 th century when most of Spain was under the control of the Moors and it runs from near the city of Ovideo in Asturias as it starts in Villavicosa (which also lies on the Camino Norte so many people follow this Way from   Basque city of San Sebastian (Donosti in Basque) or in from the French border at Irun ( this route then hugs the Bay of Biscay passing through Guernica, Bilbao, Santander, Llanes before going under the Picos de Europa and then heads along the coast to Ovideo) before branching off onto the Primitivo which goes across the mountains and through the city of Lugo before joining the Frances at Melide. The route is 320km long. Image taken from https://viaalpina2013.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/camino-del-norte-camino-primitivo/

Symbols of the three main Christian Pilgrimages

The symbol of the Pilgrim to Santiago is the Scallop shell  of which many can be found on the coast of Galicia and it is actually a symbol of the Pilgrimage (and has become a symbol of other Christian Pilgrimages too) partly because you could find the shell easily there and so could go back home and show it off as proof that you had done the Pilgrimage. It has also been included in carvings in some Churches.

Pilgrims' Trail to Saint Michels Mont, France

I have only walked two of the Camino routes (the Frances and Portuguese) and still want to try many of the others and yet I am also finding other Pilgrimage routes that I want to walk - I did the Pilgrims' Way in the summer which starts from Winchester which is also the starting point for the Pilgrims' Trail a 155 mile route that finishes at Mont St Michel in Normandy, France. The cult of saint Michel was popular in Britain from the 9th century and the Pilgrims walking this way were called Miquelots and many Pilgrims on their way to Santiago. The route is marked by green way markers in Hampshire taking walkers from Winchester to Bishop's Waltham to Southwick and then to Portsmouth where ferries are caught to France and Way markers become blue. Tradition says that, in 709 Saint Michael the Archangel appeared to the bishop of Avranches, Saint Aubert, and told him to build a chapel in his honour on the island. The bishop obeyed and soon sent a group of monks over...