Camino Photo of the Day: the Last Holy Door

Compostela in hand, we head at last to the Cathedral. Here, we enter through the Holy Door. This particular door is open only in Jacobean Holy Years – those years where the Feast of Santiago falls on a Sunday. In 2016, however, Pope Francis had declared a special Jubilee Holy Year of Mercy. Holy Doors were opened in Cathedrals and Basilicas and specially designated churches all over the world. In fact, my home parish of Holy Rosary had Holy Doors.

These were not the first we’d seen on the Camino, either. We’d walked through Holy Doors at Pamplona’s Catedral de Santa María la Real (on April 2), Navarrete’s Iglesia Nuestra de la Señora Asunción de María (April 7), the Catedral de Santa María de Astorga (April 20), and Ponferrada’s Basílica Nuestra Señora de la Encina (April 23). But these doors, into this Cathedral, were in part the object of our pilgrimage. Through them we came into the shrine of Saint James – of Santiago – himself.

Date: 02 May 2016
Place: Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, Spain)