Author’s note: Just a reminder that as I stated in Part 1, my investigation into the Islamic heritage of the area where I live in southeast Spain is a personal journey by a non-expert. I was bemused by one Twitter...
In an oft-quoted scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian—a film parody of Hollywood biblical epics—some Judaean dissidents, during the interval in a Roman circus in first-century Jerusalem, discuss their imperial occupiers. They pose the political question, “What have the...
If you own one of those Our Lady barometer statuettes, you will know to expect rain when she turns pink. One of the best-selling souvenirs in Lourdes, in those stores piled high with mass-produced pastel-colored delights of popular piety, is...
Editor’s Note: I have prayed and discerned about whether to post about this topic, and I had more or less decided that it would be against my better judgement. Even after Gareth Thomas submitted the piece below several days ago,...
[Filed 2 October 2021 from the Madrid-Alicante train!] The traditional goal for the Catholic pilgrim to Santiago de Compostela, particularly in a Holy Year, is to visit the shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great and gain the indulgences...
I originally set out to continue walking the Camino de Levante because it is the route that starts from my home province in southeast Spain. I wanted to connect home with the shrine of Saint James during this Xacobeo—the Compostela...
[Editor’s note: I was surprised when I awoke this morning with an email from Spain, sent to me by the author from a breakfast bar in El Toboso. So enjoy this bonus letter from the Camino. The next episode will...
This and the next article are coming ‘live’ from the Camino de Santiago during the Compostela Holy Year, as I walk for two weeks across La Mancha to Toledo and possibly as far as Avila. As always on the Camino,...
Everything feels wrong in the hermitage. Apart from the donkeys. They remain the same, with their usual routine and their daily needs, but above all they contribute their sane equine stoicism. They are very calm, centered animals: just what you...
You don’t have to be gay to find yourself at the center of a moral panic in the Church, but it always helps. When I read the shocking story of the way mobile phone data mining had been used to...
This is the 14th installment in “Postcards from the Camino” by Gareth Thomas, a series of reflections on the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage route leading to the shrine of the apostle Saint James in the cathedral of Santiago de...
This is the 13th installment in “Postcards from the Camino” by Gareth Thomas, a series of reflections on the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage route leading to the shrine of the apostle Saint James in the cathedral of Santiago de...
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