I promised Santo Domingo a blog posting all of his own, he is a prominent personage of the Camino and a great Camino fav of mine!
Once upon a time……his life lends itself to such an opening……a boy was born in northern Spain in the town of Viloria, sometime around 1019. As was the family business, he becomes a shepherd but he aspired to a life dedicated to God. He applied to the nearby monastery at San Millan, but after miserably failing the entrance exam, he was rejected. Poor fellow never got the hang of writing and reading, and as San Millan claims to be the first place in Spain where the Castilian language was written, this was obviously not a good match for our Domingo.
Rejected but not deterred, he decided to devote his energies to improving the Camino path for pilgrims. Good timing as this was the start of the medieval heyday of the Camino in the 11th and 12th centuries. Through the thick forest, he cleared the trail cutting down the brambles and building bridges. All this opening up discouraged the notorious bandits who had previously preyed on the pilgrims. No mean feat. His efforts did not go unnoticed and a local king gave him a tumble-down fortress where he set up an albergue (hostel). Around the albergue, a village grew up and eventually a town with a cathedral called after him: Santo Domingo de Calzada, a cherished stop on the Camino.
The Saint inspired several legends, my favourite is the legend of the hanged innocent (a story which does crop up in other places in Europe) but that I prefer to call the chicken miracle: Legend has it, or the truth be told, depending on where you come down on these matters, that a German couple and their adult son were on the pilgrimage. They stayed the night in Santo Domingo and the buxom innkeeper’s daughter took a shine to the son. He was a pious lad on a pilgrimage and spurned her advances. She was pissed-off and hid some of the church silver in his pack and then denounced him. He was found guilty and hanged! The parents went to Santiago, with no idea what had happened to their son. Then on their way home, they saw him on the gibbet, and he was still alive! Double surprise! And this is where Domingo comes in–he had kept him alive. So Santo Domingo goes with the parents to the local sheriff and tells him to let the lad go as he was still alive. The sheriff, who was cooking his supper, a nice fat chicken, over the grill, laughs at them.
“That man is no more alive than this chicken!”
Yes, you might guess: whereupon the chicken jumps off the spit, reintegrates its feathers, very much alive. And our pious hero is saved and goes back to Germany with Mum and Dad.
The miracle continues, as the descendants of that chicken are alive and thriving. In the Cathedral, high up on an inside wall there is a hen coop and there they are pecking around. There must be two shifts of chickens, as the Albergue del Santos has in the back garden, a hen coop where the hens who are not on duty, get to hang out. Santo Domingo is buried in the cathedral, where the chickens can see him.
It is a lovely small town built around the Camino trail which goes right through the middle of town past the two hostels and the cathedral. If you walk the Camino you will reach the town on about your ninth day into Spain along the Camino Frances. Do stop for the night.
(Note: I have read that people of the town suffered greatly with Covid-19, possibly brought in by pilgrims at the start of the pandemic before we understood what was happening. My sympathy, condolences and best wishes go to the people of Santo Domingo. They gave me such a warm welcome and pilgrim care.)