A devoção e a peregrinação jacobeias em Portugal

There is no doubt that Portugal is the European country where the Jacobean pilgrimage and cult has had the major influence among the common people. I have mentioned the worship and the pilgrimage, but documentary evidence is required to support this statement. This is precisely what I intend to do in the present work in the hope that more will follow. To begin with the oldest documents tell us that this cult already existed in the IXth century. The parish church of Castelo de Neiva (Viana do Castelo) was consecrated in the year 862! The pilgrimage began when in 899 five bishops went from what is now Portugal to Compostela to the consecration of the second basilica of Santiago. They were not pilgrims, properly speaking, but they opened up a way which quickly became a network of hospitality for taking care of pilgrims. However, there is much more evidence which demonstrates the antiquity and intensity of the pilgrimage, as well as the cult of the Apostle, spread throughout Portugal which will be dealt with in a later article.