Wednesday, August 27, 2008 Leon to Mazarife

Villar de Mazarife, Albergue de Jesus

Bell tower with stork nests, Iglesia de Santiago, in Mazarife.

It was an easy day’s walk here, even though much of the morning was spent on the concrete of west Leon.  We left early from the Benedictine convent after breakfast in a little room full of pilgrims jostling for space for coffee and toast. We were out of the city center well before daylight.  Accomodations in Leon were very clean and overtly Christian.

We attended the pilgrims’ service with the nuns at 9:30p last night.   A good number of the pilgrims did.  It was nearly all spoken in Spanish, but it didn’t take too much to figure out what was being said. And one nun did translate a bit of the welcome and a prayer into English.

We were very glad to get out of Leon, as interesting as the city itself was. It’s a big city and the roads we walked along and the sidewalks were dirty and noisy.  The path finally leaves the city in the suburb of Virgen del Camino where, it is said, a 16c. shepherd had a vision of the Virgin.  The modern church that memorializes the vision had a beautiful large frieze of the Twelve Apostles over the doors.

Speaking of the quality of the paths we walk, it really varies.  Some days you’re on a single dirt track through fields, others you’re on a rocky old Roman road.  Some times you’re walking on city sidewalks, other times, you’re padding down a proprietary senda of crushed limestone along a highway.  And this is all within the past week.  I’m sure we’ll see even more variations by the time we get to Santiago.  It doesn’t take long to become knowledgeable on walking path surfaces. My feet already tell me that the concrete of the cities is the most difficult of all to tolerate.

We went to mass tonight here in the local church, Iglesia de Santiago, in Mazarife. Our German priest friend, Hartmut, held service  for some of the people he’s been walking with as well as for the locals who wanted to come.  He says he has done this before.  When he gets to a village, he inquires who might have the church key and offers his services.  He says that many of the small villages do not have their own priests and so are usually happy to have mass, whenever they can.

Fr. Hartmut, me, Jim and Mathias

Today is the feast day of St Monica, the mother of St Augustine. He spoke a nice homily about her Christian example for her son, and for all of us to be example for our own children, to pray for them, and for their conversion.  When he first spoke, he spoke in Spanish, but then translated it all into English just for us two.  Not many in the congregation went forward for communion so we didn’t feel uncomfortable when we two Protestants didn’t either.

When we walked out of the service, Jim and I took a stroll around town, looking for the tienda for food tomorrow.  We bought the usual packaged pastries, a few pieces of fresh fruit, bread and cheese, etc.  We also got some ice cream which we’ve not had much of.   It tasted pretty good that warm evening.   Somehow in the store the cashier found out we were Americans, who then mentioned it to the two customers who were standing behind us.  One old fellow spoke up and excitedly said something which we did not understand at first, but then found out he was celebrating for us the day’s news that the American Olympic athletes has won their one hundredth medal today.

I think of my family often as I walk.  Jim and I have agreed to pray for our families every day as well as read the three Psalms.   We pray for our safety, we pray for our churches, and then for our families.  This has been a nice purpose for the walk, a sort of developing answer to those who ask us why we are here.  We are here to pray.

We met a local and well-known Leonese artist this afternoon.  His professional name was MonSenor. He has a gallery and studio here in town, in a couple of adobe buildings right along the Camino.   He’s very old and he moves around very slowly with his oxygen tank.  But the guidebooks said that if you can catch him home and moving around, it is worth the stop just to see his work.  It was.

In MonSenor's gallery in Mazarife. He is signing a print Jim bought.

He is so well known that, we were told,  he was once featured on a Spanish postage stamp celebrating Leonese artists.  Jim bought a couple of prints for himself and for his daughter who just got engaged the other day.  We couldn’t afford his big original stuff that was hanging on the wall of the gallery.  We didn’t have the room in our packs, anyway.

Recalling the church again here in Mazarife, it possesses some great old paintings of the tradition of St James.  There were  a half dozen of them behind the altar, all telling some part of the Santiago story including the stone boat and his role as Moor slayer.

The altar and paintings behind it in Iglesia de Santiago, Mazarife.