Santo Domingo de Silos

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A short distance south of Burgos in Castille, the Benedictine monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos has a double storied cloister which contains on its north eastern pier one of the most sublime images of the pilgrimage roads. It portrays the story of the New Testament when, after the Crucifixion two disciples travelling from Jerusalem to Emmaus chance upon the risen Christ who is referred to in the story as a stranger,a word which is etymologically synonomous with the Latin word for pilgrim. Is this why Christ here is depicted with all the attributes of a twelfth century pilgrim to Compostela, most notably a scallop shell. In a literal sense Jesus is travelling in pilgrimage to the shrine of his own disciple - a strange and anomalous concept but one which says much about the meaning of the Compostelan pilgrimage in the medieval mind.