Saint Anthony monastery (Castrojeriz)

“I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me”

Saint John 14, 6

There are places along the way that leave a mark on our soul. The Monastery of Saint Anthony is one of them. It is a place of Peace and Spirituality on the Way of Saint James.

Countless people through the centuries have travelled, rested and healed at this site. You too, dear pilgrim, have arrived at this extraordinary enclave of the Way, attracted by the majesty of its stones, by its extensive Jacobean history or perhaps looking for something that not even you know.

When travelling the Way of Saint James, our goal is the tomb of the Apostle. During so many days on the road, you sense that there is a higher and more transcendent goal; the encounter with Christ and the following of him, as did the Apostle Saint James, who gave his life for his Lord and for the proclamation of the Gospel.

Through the Apostle Saint James, commend yourself to the Lord and abandon yourself to his divine providence. He will accompany and protect you on your way, he will act with all his strength and power, and miracles will happen in your life.

“The Way is a path of conversion and penance, in the classic sense of Metanoia, inner change. If one does not change the way to Santiago, it is useless to repeat pilgrimages over and over again”

Thanks to the San Antón Foundation and especially to its president, the pilgrim Campo Ovidio, in May 2001 a contract was signed with the owner of the ruins of the Saint Anthony convent to create a hostel for pilgrims and consolidate and restore the inaccessible ruins for decades.

A year later, on July 7, 2002, this singular Hospital for pilgrims opened its doors. It was born from the authentic spirit of gratuity and Jacobean hospitality. Since that day, thanks to their dedication and closeness, hundreds of hosts from the five continents have welcomed and served thousands of pilgrims to experience the true meaning of the Way.

SAINT JAMES APOSTLE. Chronology

• Origins of the Apostle Saint James. He was a native of Bethsaida, a town on the Sea of ​​Galilee. He was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and the brother of Saint John. Before following the Master, he was a fisherman like his father.
• Closeness of the Zebedeans with Jesus. Salomé, mother of Saint James and John, was possibly the sister of the Virgin Mary. This would explain her closeness to Jesus. -Mt 20, 20-
• Personality of Saint James. Strong-tempered and impulsive in nature, like his brother John, Jesus nicknamed them Boanerges or «sons of Thunder.»
• The Master’s call. “Further on he saw two other brothers: James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were with his father in a boat mending the nets. Jesus called them, they immediately left the boat and their father, and followed him” Matthew 4. 21
• Disciple of the Lord and privileged witness. Saint James and his brother, John, together with Peter, are the closest disciples of the Lord, accompanying him in relevant moments such as his revelation as God in the Transfiguration of Mount Tabor and his spiritual agony during the Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.
• Saint James away from his land. It is very strange that from the Resurrection of the Lord until his death there is no mention of Saint James. The silence about his presence is understood as the Christian tradition points out, that man, disciple of Christ and fisher of men, was preaching in the distant lands of Hispania.
• Witness to the first Marian apparition. Virgin of the Pillar. According to tradition, on January 2 of the year 40, while the Virgin Mary was in Jerusalem, where she still lived, she miraculously visited the Apostle Saint James, in Caesar Augusta -Zaragoza- to comfort him in his hard evangelizing work in Hispania Roman.
• Saint James was the first Apostle martyr. According to the Acts of the Apostles -12, 2-, Herod Agrippa, king of Judea, beheaded Saint James around the year 41-44. He begins to fulfill Jesus’ promise to the Zebedeans that they would drink “the cup that he had to drink and be baptized with the baptism with which he was to be baptized”. His disciples carry his remains by sea to Iria Flavia, in the Roman province of Gallaecia, receiving burial in the place where he had preached.
• The discovery of the tomb of the Apostle took place between 825 and 830, when the hermit Pelayo observed strange lights at night. He informed Teodomiro, bishop of Iria Flavia, who went to that place and found that light which came from a bright star – Campus Stellae. Compostela- revealed the place where the remains of the Apostle were.
• The Way of Saint James. The tomb of the Apostle attracted many pilgrims from various backgrounds. The Jacobean Route became the most emblematic pilgrimage route of medieval Christianity. Alfonso II proclaimed Saint James patron saint of his kingdom and made a pilgrimage to Compostela for the consecration of the temple raised above his tomb.
• It is Compostelan Holy Year when July 25, commemoration of the Martyrdom of Saint James, falls on a Sunday. It occurs with the periodicity 11, 6, 5, 6 years. It has its origin in 1122, with Pope Calixtus II, confirmed by Pope Alexander III in the Bull «Regis aeterni» of 1179, conferring it in perpetuity.
• The Codex Calixtinus is a manuscript jewel made in the 12^th century, and is considered the first and most famous guide to the Way of Saint James. Its creation was promoted by Archbishop Diego Gelmírez and it is one of the most important treasures of medieval culture.

“Why do so many people have the need to make a pilgrimage today?Is it not perhaps because in it they find, or intuit, the meaning of our passage through the world?”

HOSPITALLER BROTHERS OF SAINT ANTHONY (Antonians)

Its origins date back to the year 1093. It was in Vienne of the French Dauphiné, when the nobleman Gaston de Valloire, in gratitude for the miraculous healing of the «sacred fire» suffered by his son Guerin, obtained through the intercession of Saint Anthony the Abbot, founded the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint Anthony, “Order of Saint Anthony” or Antonians. The congregation, confirmed by Pope Urban II in 1095, dedicated itself exclusively to caring for pilgrims suffering from this disease.

Members of the Antonian order wore black robes with a blue Tau cross on the chest. The Greek Tau, also called «Cross of Saint Anthony», corresponds to our T and the Hebrew Tav, the last letter of said alphabet, as well as the Omega in the Greek alphabet. The Tav designated God as the End of all creation.

For all these reasons, the Antonian monks took, in honor of their patron, this original sacred symbol from the East and spread it along the Way of Saint James as a hallmark and protection of the pilgrim.

“The TAU is the seal of God that identifies his chosen ones. It is the signal that protects, the security of the walker and the sign of health and salvation”

Antonians in CASTROJERIZ

Just fifty years after its foundation, in 1146, called by King Alfonso VII the Emperor, the Antonians settled in this place. It was his first convent-hospital in the Iberian Peninsula. Through the Jacobean Route their presence increased, they ran numerous hospitals and this hospital in Saint Anthony of Castrojeriz became the headquarters of the General Commendation of the Order of San Antonio in the kingdoms of Castile and León and Portugal.

The Order of Saint Anthony attended to the physical and spiritual needs of the pilgrims. They especially combated ergotism or “Saint Anthony fire”, a disease caused by prolonged consumption of rye bread contaminated by the ergot fungus. Rye bread was widely consumed in Central Europe. Countless pilgrims were healed thanks to the intercession of the monks and the consumption of Hispanic wheat candeal bread, blessed and signed with the Tau before baking.

Upon departure, pilgrims received the TAU as a sign of protection. Tradition has transmitted to us the name of innumerable characters who received the TAU in Castrojeriz; kings such as Ferdinand III the Saint and his son Alfonso X the Wise who dedicated four of his Cantigas to the Virgin of the Apple Tree, venerated in the Collegiate Church of Saint Mary (Castrojeriz).

Saint Francis of Assisi also made a pilgrimage to Compostela as recounted in «The little flowers of Saint Francis», probably between 1213 and 1215. There is no doubt that he had to pass through the convent – hospital of Saint Anthony where he would receive the care and attention of the monks, and where the abundance of the enigmatic cross, emblem of the Antonians and present throughout the enclosure, would catch his attention. Surely, all this contributed to the fact that on his return to Italy he traced the red TAU in all his temples and convents, being a distinctive feature of the Franciscans to this day.

“Passing through Castile, Francis blessed the flat land; naked and austere, he took her for a Franciscan. He took her for a Franciscan when he saw his poor land as his convents, brown as his sackcloth”

With his blessing, countless Franciscan and Poor Clare convents sprang up along the Way. An example is the Monastery of Saint Clare in Castrojeriz which, since its foundation in 1264, intercedes for all pilgrims with their prayers and sacrifices.

More than three centuries after its foundation, in 1477, the order reached its splendor, but due to various social, political and religious events, the order began its decline, until its disappearance in the eighteenth century. The convent of Saint Anthony was suppressed in 1791 and all its assets were handed over to the Crown. It was a sad situation that was palliated by the benevolent reception of those monks in their adopted diocese. 

SAINT ANTHONY. Chronology

• He was born around the year 251, in a village called Qeman on the banks of the Nile. Egypt.
• At the age of 20 he was orphaned. Impressed by the reading of the Gospel, he gave all his possessions to the poor, retired to the Thebaid desert and devoted himself to the hermit life.
• During his life as an anchorite and because of his holiness, he was tormented and tempted by the devil, to which the saint responded by increasing his prayers and penances.
• His fame of sanctity spread rapidly. Numerous disciples joined so he was forced to create a monastery. For this reason, he is considered the highest representative of asceticism and the father of monastic life, although he did not found any order.
• In 311 he travelled to Alexandria to encourage his brothers, as a result of the persecution against Christians decreed by Emperor Maximilian.
• In the year 325 he again left his retirement to join Saint Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, in preaching against the Arian heresy.
• At the end of his existence he visited Paul the Hermit, to whom every day a raven supplied him with bread. The day Anthony arrived; the crow gave them two loaves instead of one. When Paul the Hermit died, Anthony buried him with the help of two lions. Therefore, he is also the patron saint of animals.
• He died around the year 356, on the slopes of Mount Colzim, near the Red Sea, at the age of 105. His feast is celebrated on January 17.
• His mortal remains rest since the 9^th century in the abbey of Saint-Antoine de Viennois -France-, when a group of French knights brought his relics from Byzantium.

After your visit to Saint Anthony, a monastery built by human hands for the Glory of God, we wish you a Good Way. Walk alone or in company, contemplate the landscape, listen to the silence and let yourself be filled with the presence of God, the origin and goal of our existence.

We put at your disposal some prayers that may be useful on your Way. There are also various links to delve into the life of Saint James, Saint Anthony and all the saints who dedicated their lives to follow the Lord and served their brother.

Be sure to visit in Castrojeriz, the Monastery of Saint Clare, the Collegiate Church of Saint Mary of the Apple Tree and the churches of Saint John and Saint Dominic. And, both here and along the Way, celebrate the Eucharist and the other sacraments, ask for the spiritual accompaniment of the priests, and praise and give Glory to the Lord as the Apostle Saint James did.

“The Lord called to the man dressed in linen, “Go through the whole city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the forehead of everyone who is distressed and troubled because of all the disgusting things being done in the city.” And I heard God say to the other men, “Follow him through the city and kill. Spare no one; have mercy on no one. Kill the old men, young men, young women, mothers, and children. But don’t touch anyone who has the mark on his forehead. Start here at my Temple.””

Ezekiel 9, 3-6

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PILGRIMS BLESSING

O God, you brought your servant Abraham out of the city of Ur of the Chaldeans, kept him on all his pilgrimages, and were the guide of the Hebrew people through the desert. For this reason, we ask you, through the intercession of Saint John of Ortega, before whose grave we are, to deign to guard these children of yours who, for the love of your name, make a pilgrimage to Compostela.

Be a companion on the road for them, guide at the crossroads, breath in tiredness, defence in danger, shelter on the road, gentle breeze in the heat, shelter from the cold, light in the dark, comfort in their discouragements and firmness in their purposes so that, with your help, they reach the end of their journey well and, enriched with graces and virtues, they return home safe and sound, filled with eternal joy.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

PRAYER TO THE APOSTLE SAINT JAMES

Towards you and with you, Saint James, each pilgrim finds his own miracle. In you and with you, Saint James, who looks towards heaven feels that he is called to live with Christ, to feel and advance on the paths of life,with the One who, on the way, left a cross with his seal. Amen.

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