The german pilgrim's cross

[Aspi]

The German Pilgrim's Cross
(Article by José Ignacio Díaz, former priest of Grañón)

The albergue of Grañón is a place of welcome and mercy. This round phrase can be seen as a simple declaration of intent that looks good in an information brochure or in a review about what the pilgrim can tell about the Camino de Santiago.

However, my experience tells me that behind this phrase there are many concrete realities that support this statement. Many pilgrims in the hostel find themselves welcomed and freed from their usual burdens. This can be seen in the following story that happened around 1999.

It was a Sunday in early summer. In the albergue there was a very happy hospitalera because that day her daughter arrived in Grañón as a pilgrim. She was accompanied by other pilgrims whom she had met along the Camino and whom she had suggested stopping at Grañón. In this way we had about 10 pilgrims from the morning point. Almost everyone was at the midday mass in the parish and afterwards we all ate together in the albergue.

At the end of the meal, a rather elderly German pilgrim told me that he wanted to talk to me. We sat by the fireplace accompanied by the daughter of the hospitalera who acted as translator, since the German did not speak Spanish.

He told us that 40 years earlier, he had been enlisted in the French Foreign Legion and stationed in Algeria at the time of the Algerian war of liberation. One morning, his platoon was advancing spread out along a beach. He, who was going to the side of the sea, discovered a body that was floating next to the shore. He approached and with the bayonet moved the body until he saw that he was wearing a French military uniform and that he had been dead for some time. As he resumed his march, something shone on that corpse, approached and saw that that soldier was wearing a small cross on the lapel of his uniform, which was the usual badge of military chaplains. Our friend undid the cross from his lapel and thought that he could not leave the body of that priest abandoned there unburied, but he saw that his companions had already moved away and that he would have to carry the corpse alone and take care of everything, with the danger of being left behind in a field that was still a war zone. He finally decided to leave and leave the body there, but he took the cross with him.

At that moment in the story, the pilgrim took his wallet out of his pocket and looking in one of the sides he took out a small cross and told us: “For 40 years I have always carried this cross with me with the feeling of guilt for having abandoned the corpse of that priest. Today at mass I asked God and that priest for forgiveness once again, and I think I feel forgiven. I think it's time to leave this cross here that I no longer have to carry with me. “And he handed me the little cross and gave me a hug.

Months later we put that cross in a small wooden reliquary and I hope it is still in the hostel as a reminder of that German pilgrim who in this albergue felt freed from a burden that he had carried for many years.

.

 

[J Willhaus]

Grañón is a special place.

 

[mspath]

Aspi,
Thank you for sharing this very special story that is part of the long history of Grañon, a place that so many pilgrims cherish in memory.
Could you please cite where the article by José Ignacio Díaz was published? I would like to try to read the original text.

 

[J Willhaus]

Aspi,
Thank you for sharing this very special story that is part of the long history of Grañon, a place that so many pilgrims cherish in memory.
Could you please cite where the article by José Ignacio Díaz was published? I would like to try to read the original text.

I am wondering if it is from the book that was published at a significant Grañón anniversary (20 years I think???) It was in Spanish and had essays written by people who had served there and who had connections to the albergue.

 

[mspath]

I am wondering if it is from the book that was published at a significant Grañón anniversary (20 years I think???) It was in Spanish and had essays written by people who had served there and who had connections to the albergue.

Thank you for this info! Now I'll try to search for more re the book.

 

[J Willhaus]

Thank you for this info! Now I'll try to search for more re the book.

We were gifted a copy when we served there in Christmas 2018. It commemorated either the 20th or 25th anniversary of the albergue and was published a few years before we were there I believe. It was in Spanish and I have moved a few times since then. If I can find it I will PM the title it to you. During our time there, several former hospitaleros on winter pilgrimage came and stayed with us and pulled the volume in the bookshelf out and showed us their written contributions. Many wonderful stories...

 

[mspath]

We were gifted a copy when we served there in Christmas 2018. It commemorated either the 20th or 25th anniversary of the albergue and was published a few years before we were there I believe. It was in Spanish and I have moved a few times since then. If I can find it I will PM the title it to you. During our time there, several former hospitaleros on winter pilgrimage came and stayed with us and pulled the volume in the bookshelf out and showed us their written contributions. Many wonderful stories...

Again thank you for this info. Using my very basic Spanish I will try a Google search. Please don't go out of your way to do a search. ...Stay safe and please do keep on enjoying the snow.

 

[pasiño a pasiño]

thank you Aspi for sharing this!
I love Grañón, specifically the round in the old choir stalls with the candle.
I still get goosebumps!

 

[Anniesantiago]

We all love Grañon!

 

[pepi]

Grañon, I have a little story, but first let me say that I don't believe in any religion or in any God, if anything I find the Chaos Theory interesting.

In my active days, I had a business friend named Santiago, a German with Spanish roots. When I asked him about the origin of his name, he told me about the Camino and its history. A dozen years later, now retired, I decided for some unknown reason to walk the Camino from Pamplona, and to this day I don't know why I did so. (People around me said that this wasn't me) By the time I reached Puenta de Reina, I was suffering terribly from tendinitis in my right foot, but I dragged myself on the following days all the way to Grañon, where I finally had to see a doctor, who promptly sent me home.



I decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in a café across from the village church and invited a couple
of pilgrims to share my bottle of wine.

Shortly before 6 p.m., everyone was gone and I was alone. Bored, I finally decided to hobble over to this church and sat down on a bench right next to the entrance to watch the pilgrims' vespers. I felt a warm sense of community with the pilgrims present, some with familiar faces, but nothing spiritual.

After the Mass ended, people gathered in the small square and I sat down on the ground with my foot hurting. Suddenly the priest who had been saying Vespers stood in front of me speaking Spanish.
I signaled to him that I did not understand him, and we found that we could converse in French.

He said, "I was watching you when you came in, you looked a little lost; I don't think you are a member of my club," laughing I agreed. After a brief small talk, he said he had to go and if there was anything he could do for me. Not knowing what to say, I was a little embarrassed, but suddenly remembered Santiago, my almost forgotten friend, and told the priest that he had brought me to the Camino.
"So he brought you here to Grañon, I think I will include him in my blessings tonight," he said and left.

I spent the night in the little hippie donativo on the main road and the next morning decided to call Santiago to tell him I was on the Camino. A lady, his wife, answered, sobbing and halting, told me that her husband had passed away that same night after a long bout with cancer.

All coincidences, right? (I finished in SdC, btw.)

On the many Caminos I walked in the years that followed, (still don't know why) I never failed to pause at this café in Grañon and have a glass in memory of Santiago, although I could never bring myself to enter the church across the street. As said, I am not a believer.

 

[mspath]

Those of us who have stayed in Granon remember the special caritas fondly; here is one of my many favorite memories.

 

[pasiño a pasiño]

All coincidences, right? (I finished in SdC, btw.)

Thank you Pepi!
You walked this Camino for your friend Santiago.....

 

[Aspi]

I am wondering if it is from the book that was published at a significant Grañón anniversary (20 years I think???) It was in Spanish and had essays written by people who had served there and who had connections to the albergue.

That's it

 

[Kim 59]

Grañon, I have a little story, but first let me say that I don't believe in any religion or in any God, if anything I find the Chaos Theory interesting.

In my active days, I had a business friend named Santiago, a German with Spanish roots. When I asked him about the origin of his name, he told me about the Camino and its history. A dozen years later, now retired, I decided for some unknown reason to walk the Camino from Pamplona, and to this day I don't know why I did so. (People around me said that this wasn't me) By the time I reached Puenta de Reina, I was suffering terribly from tendinitis in my right foot, but I dragged myself on the following days all the way to Grañon, where I finally had to see a doctor, who promptly sent me home.

View attachment 118599

I decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in a café across from the village church and invited a couple
of pilgrims to share my bottle of wine.

Shortly before 6 p.m., everyone was gone and I was alone. Bored, I finally decided to hobble over to this church and sat down on a bench right next to the entrance to watch the pilgrims' vespers. I felt a warm sense of community with the pilgrims present, some with familiar faces, but nothing spiritual.

After the Mass ended, people gathered in the small square and I sat down on the ground with my foot hurting. Suddenly the priest who had been saying Vespers stood in front of me speaking Spanish.
I signaled to him that I did not understand him, and we found that we could converse in French.

He said, "I was watching you when you came in, you looked a little lost; I don't think you are a member of my club," laughing I agreed. After a brief small talk, he said he had to go and if there was anything he could do for me. Not knowing what to say, I was a little embarrassed, but suddenly remembered Santiago, my almost forgotten friend, and told the priest that he had brought me to the Camino.
"So he brought you here to Grañon, I think I will include him in my blessings tonight," he said and left.

I spent the night in the little hippie donativo on the main road and the next morning decided to call Santiago to tell him I was on the Camino. A lady, his wife, answered, sobbing and halting, told me that her husband had passed away that same night after a long bout with cancer.

All coincidences, right? (I finished in SdC, btw.)

On the many Caminos I walked in the years that followed, (still don't know why) I never failed to pause at this café in Grañon and have a glass in memory of Santiago, although I could never bring myself to enter the church across the street. As said, I am not a believer.

Pepi, you may not believe but the Camino gives to every pilgrim exactly what they need. I am a poor example of a catholic, I often feel like an imposter, a non believer. But when Santiago’s wife needed you the Camino delivered. While on Camino several years ago, my first, I developed severe shin splints. Every time I reached a down hill my face turned white as a sheet in anticipation of the pain ( according to my husband and Camino partner who could not stand to walk beside me because I winced and gave a slight moan with each painful step on the downhills). As we approached yet another such downhill we were standing a few yards away and my husband was trying to convince me to quit, get a taxi. When two girls walked by, getting our attention with a Buon Camino. With that, one girl turned around backwards, locked arms with the other who guided her to the bottom of the hill. They went on as quickly as they had appeared. My husband looked at me, I turned around and every hill thereafter I was able to navigate with ease. We never saw anyone else go backwards downhill. I believe in Camino Angels.

 

[Phil W]

Yes Granon is a special place. I've stayed there as a pilgrim more than once as well as blessed to be able to serve as a hospitalero with @J Willhaus in December 2018. I cried reading some of the experiences there. Those were not tears of sadness but of gratitude for the miracles that happen there.
Phil