On 4 October 2003, the Feast Day of Saint Francis, I arrived in Santiago de Compostela, having completed the Camino Frances, the pilgrimage route which crosses northern Spain from the Pyrenees. After queuing for our certificates of completion, my walking companions and I hurried to the midday pilgrims’ Mass at the magnificent Gothic cathedral.
It was overwhelming. Having barely ever attended Mass before and speaking no Spanish, I had only the vaguest understanding of what was going on. It was with high drama that the great botafumeiro, a huge thurible almost as tall as a man, was swung from the vaulted ceiling using a complicated system of ropes and pulleys. Incense billowed down the aisle as the thurible swung high up into the transepts. The ropes are said to have failed on more than one occasion – according to legend, once in the presence of Catherine of Aragon – which added a slight frisson of danger to the ceremony.
