Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Jan 4, 2010 / 13:41 pm
In his greeting to Spanish-speakers after yesterday’s Angelus, Pope Benedict XVI recalled the recent opening of the Holy Year of St. James at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The Pontiff urged the faithful to remain open to being “illuminated by Christ” as throngs of pilgrims have sought to do on The Way of St. James pilgrimage for centuries.
The Holy Door was opened on December 31 to begin the Holy Year of the Apostle St. James at the supposed site of his burial in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
The Door is re-opened at the beginning of every year in which the feast day of St. James, July 25, falls on a Sunday. The last time this took place was in 2004, and the next time will be in 2021.
In a letter sent to the Archbishop Julian Barrio Barrio of Santiago de Compostela for the inauguration of the Holy Year, Benedict XVI wrote that theme for the Year, “On a pilgrimage towards the light,” should serve “as a call to evangelization for the men and women of today, recalling the essentially pilgrim nature of the Church and of Christians of this world.”