Zaragoza: Walking with Blessed Chaminade

Before beginning to walk the Camino, we spent a few days in Zaragoza. During the French Revolution, Fr. Chaminade (the Marianist Founder) was forced into exile for three years and chose to spend this time in Zaragoza where one of his brothers and other French priests were living in exile. He spent a lot of time in prayer before the shrine of Our Lady of the Pillar. It was there that he received some sort of inspiration so that when he returned to France, the l work of his life began - rebuilding the faith in France by gathering men and women into communities of faith and mission under the guidance of Mary. 

As the name suggests, Our Lady or the Pillar is a statue of Mary on top of a pillar. You can’t actually see much of the pillar because it is covered with an apron of sorts. The statue itself is relatively small - less than two feet. But the basilica itself is quite huge. 

The Basilica also provided a nice view for lunch. 

The story of “El Pilar” is that the apostle St. James was sent to the Iberian peninsula (what is now Spain) to preach the Gospel. However, he wasn’t having much luck and was ready to throw in the towel and return to Jerusalem. To encourage him, Mary appeared to him (while still living, no less) standing on…….a pillar. Buoyed by this visit, St. James continued his mission and the rest is history. 

Don’t forget that we are walking the Camino de Santiago - Santiago is the Spanish name for St. James and the ending is at the Cathedral of Santiago where the tomb of St. James is reported to be. So Zaragoza and the Camino are linked together by St. James. 

There’s St. James!

One of the HIGHlights was going to the top of one of the towers of the basilica. The views were incredible. 

We were able to arrange to celebrate Mass at the parish church of San Gil. When he was in Zaragoza, Fr. Chaminade lived very close to this parish and his name appears in its registry. He would have celebrated Mass there himself many times. What a special place to be!

We stayed at the Marianist community at Santa Maria del Pilar school. They took good care of us, and staying there allowed us to rest up for the adventures to come.

The community chapel. Yep, there’s an Our Lady of the Pillar in there. 

The school chapel from the road. 

It also allowed the group to come together and get to know each other better. Last night’s dinner was full of much laughter, including from my colleague Dr. Nick Rademacher, a professor in Religious Studies at UD. 

While in Zaragoza, I also celebrated my birthday. We got ice cream. I might need to celebrate subsequent birthdays out of the USA. 

I’m writing this on a train headed to Astorga, our launch point for the Camino itself. The next post will come from El Camino de Santiago! One editorial note: this time on the Camino, my plan is to post every few days rather than every day. 

Buen Camino!