"Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Chronicle of Love" is the chronicle of one pilgrim's journey along the 1200-year old "Camino francés" from France to Galicia. The book details the story of a non-Catholic man journeying and intersecting with other pilgrims walking to Santiago while questioning and discovering their beliefs in this historical pilgrimage. With accurate depictions of people and place, fragments of prayers and Spanish poetry, this magnificent book becomes a cultural and spiritual odyssey.
While reading a Medieval pilgrim guide, the Liber Sancti Jacobi, Codex Calixtinus (1139), Jack de Groot becomes intrigued by its contents. What exactly is a pilgrim? Why do ten thousands of persons go on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela every year? To what extent have the circumstances changed since the first pilgrims walked in the ninth century? How does one benefit from an experience which, very likely, will include some hardship? What to look for and how to find it? How to prepare? The author decides to become a pilgrim himself to compare his predecessors writings with todays realities.
On his way the pilgrim discovers that he has become the protagonist of his own, private legend. Through profound thoughts, intimate conversations, inexplicable coincidences and through the imprints of his/her footsteps the pilgrim continuously relives and revives a religious tradition. The Chronicle of Love which emerges from this religious tradition proves to be even more intricate than the pilgrimage itself. It provides up-to-date answers to legendary questions.
THE BOOK'S CONTENTS:
* "No Matter How You Leave Home, You Will Arrive as a Pilgrim!"
* Liber Sancti Jacobi. Codex Calixtinus
* Pilgrim in the Making
* Realizing a Dream
* A History of the Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela
* Heaven Knows how to Put a Proper Price on its Goods
* The Muse on the "Meseta"
* Seven Coincidences. One Miracle
* Putting Time on Hold
* The Invisible Pilgrim Arises
* Myth at Arm's Length
* About Somebody Who Became Someone
* Metamorphosis in Santiago
* Back to the Clouds
On his way the pilgrim discovers that he has become the protagonist of his own, private legend. Through profound thoughts, intimate conversations, inexplicable coincidences and through the imprints of his/her footsteps the pilgrim continuously relives and revives a religious tradition. The Chronicle of Love which emerges from this religious tradition proves to be even more intricate than the pilgrimage itself. It provides up-to-date answers to legendary questions.
THE BOOK'S CONTENTS:
* "No Matter How You Leave Home, You Will Arrive as a Pilgrim!"
* Liber Sancti Jacobi. Codex Calixtinus
* Pilgrim in the Making
* Realizing a Dream
* A History of the Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela
* Heaven Knows how to Put a Proper Price on its Goods
* The Muse on the "Meseta"
* Seven Coincidences. One Miracle
* Putting Time on Hold
* The Invisible Pilgrim Arises
* Myth at Arm's Length
* About Somebody Who Became Someone
* Metamorphosis in Santiago
* Back to the Clouds
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| Confraternity of St. James London |
REVIEW OF "PILGRIMAGE TO SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA. CHRONICLE OF LOVE"
IN: BULLETIN, NO. 101, MARCH 2008, PP. 40-42 PUBLISHED BY THE CONFRATERNITY OF ST. JAMES, LONDON.
"De Groot's take on the account of Santiago's life, death and subsequent journey to the westernmost point of Europe is delivered in a coloquial, entertaining style which also succeeds in being informative for those readers perhaps well-acquainted with the Compostela story [...} one feels that the author has sifted from fiction, and layered it with an acutely personal take on the story of James' miraculous journey.
De Groot succeeds in creating vivid pen-portraits of his fellow pilgrims, and one has the sense that, like most of us who have been in a similar dynamic with other travelers, he does so with the knowledge that relationships forged with other pilgrims are, by the very nature of the experience, temporal, not necessarily friendships forged for the journey beyond.
De Groot perfectly evokes, for example, the act of reaching O Cebreiro, skilfully juxtaposing the experience of arriving there with an amusing account of an impromptu concert that just happens to take place, and as a consequence a night of denied sleep.
Elsewhere in the book he gives good account of his meseta experiences, and offsets the legend of the live chickens at Santo Domingo de la Calzada with that of an evening spent in the Cistercian Hospedería, punctuated throughout with the animated banter of those who he encounters over supper there.
By en large, de Groot's Chronicle of Love sustains strong evocation of the pilgrim experience throughout and is a worthy addition to any pilgrim's library."
De Groot succeeds in creating vivid pen-portraits of his fellow pilgrims, and one has the sense that, like most of us who have been in a similar dynamic with other travelers, he does so with the knowledge that relationships forged with other pilgrims are, by the very nature of the experience, temporal, not necessarily friendships forged for the journey beyond.
De Groot perfectly evokes, for example, the act of reaching O Cebreiro, skilfully juxtaposing the experience of arriving there with an amusing account of an impromptu concert that just happens to take place, and as a consequence a night of denied sleep.
Elsewhere in the book he gives good account of his meseta experiences, and offsets the legend of the live chickens at Santo Domingo de la Calzada with that of an evening spent in the Cistercian Hospedería, punctuated throughout with the animated banter of those who he encounters over supper there.
By en large, de Groot's Chronicle of Love sustains strong evocation of the pilgrim experience throughout and is a worthy addition to any pilgrim's library."
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