Warrior Pilgrimage: CAMINO CEBU JOURNAL: Day Ten

DAY TEN :::: AM I IN A DREAM? Today is July 15, 2017 – a Saturday – and, later in the afternoon, the Archdiocesan Shrine of Señor Santiago de Apostol of the Municipality of Compostela, would kick off the novena for the town fiesta which would be celebrated on July 25. What timing? Or that the itinerary for this first-ever pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago is just being true to what it was indicated therein. It is easy to say that but, the truth is, we pushed ourselves hard for eight straight days to reach this threshold. Yesterday’s leisurely pace – Day Nine – was unexpected. A bonus!

We started from the St. James the Apostle Parish in the Municipality of Badian on July 6th and crossed over the high Southern Cebu Mountain Range in 13 bewildering hours for the other side of Cebu, where most of the route of the Camino de Santiago is walked. We stopped and slept in six more parishes located in the most remote places of Cebu and we have their parish seals stamped on our provisional Camino Passports. On one occasion we slept under a covered basketball court which was converted into a chapel, another in a village chief’s home and, last night, in a local resort.

I am the guide for this Camino Cebu, patterned after its most famous ancestor in Spain, a long pilgrimage trail of almost 800 kilometers that St. James the Apostle travelled and it has existed for more than a thousand years. I have dreamed of establishing a Camino here in Cebu long ago but it remains a dream. But when a priest of the Archdiocesan Shrine of Señor Santiago de Apostol of Compostela, Cebu suggested it to me, it became a reality in three months’ time. The Camino Cebu is for those who are underprivileged and who cannot afford the expensive travel to Spain. What you will gain here is the same as what you gained for your soul there. But harder.

I believed I have led the eight pilgrims to walk more than 150 kilometers of rugged highlands terrain under a climate that was already harsh before the advent of global warming. This priest who suggested that Cebu establish a Camino for the poor is Rev. Fr. Scipio “Jojo” Deligero and he is one of the pilgrims. It is ironic. Fr. Jojo disdained walking for he has gout growing in each ankle which is very painful, but he accomplished that distance already in his hobbled pace. In that painful state, he has already performed his sacerdotal duty for his parish. In the Camino? He was simply biblical.

Another pilgrim worth mentioning in length is the incumbent mayor of Compostela. He is the Hon. Joel Quiño. This is his second term. Before he leaves for private life, he would like to see his municipality and his constituents earn the honor of being the pilgrimage destination of the Camino de Santiago of Cebu and for being the namesake of that famous place in Galicia, Spain. He is aware of that and he made himself available for this Camino to experience it, despite all the pressing problems and issues that hound a local executive. He came incognito without a police escort.

There is the couple Jemmelyn and Roderick Montesclaros. Then you have the parish lay ministers, Mizar Bacalla and Roger Montecino, and Alvie Rey Ramirez, a municipal employee, and all are from Compostela. Last is my subaltern, Jonathaniel Apurado. The only non-Catholic among us but he found the Camino a good exercise for the body, the mind, the heart and the spirit. Jon and I are from Cebu City and we are more identified with our Thruhike of the Cebu Highlands Trail, a route that traversed over the mountains from the Santander shoreline to Daanbantayan’s cliffs by the sea, 400 kilometers in 29 days.

All are now wearing the commemorative t-shirts that we carried through the rugged length and the unpredictable weather systems of the Camino. The t-shirts were provided by Bro. Cedee Neo of the Doneo Host Making Community, an ardent supporter of the establishment of the Camino de Santiago in Cebu. His involvement revolves around creating liaisons with the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela and with our own Archdiocese of Cebu, the Philippine Embassy in Spain, in a few offices of the Vatican, even engaging in the Camino Portugues together with his wife, Julie.

After a breakfast of the last two packs of spicy Korean noodles, a half kilo of rice and the remaining fingers of chorizo Bilbao, we leave Gatubod Spring Resort, found in the village of Basak, at 08:35, and proceed on the last remaining kilometers of the Camino to the town center. We just crossed a dirt road fronting the resort and we are now on the outskirts of another village of Bagalnga. We need to climb up a hill through a trail to reach a big cross that was erected and finished there just recently. In all my travels up and down Cebu, I have not noticed this cross but I saw it yesterday for the very first time.

We passed by a remote abode with a small altar infront. The small earthen image of Señor San Roque is broken but it is vintage. Living there are two elderly sisters, in their late ‘70s, who are both unmarried. Both were deprived of cash doleouts afforded to senior citizens of the municipality since both are not registered voters and they have no birth certificates either. They remembered though that they were baptized in the parish when they were young. Mayor Joel promised both ladies that he will personally have their birth certificates and voter’s registration processed and that they will receive their senior citizen privileges before the year ends.

As was practiced in all my hikes, Jon and I leave to the elderly ladies some foodstuffs and items which we have reserved for lunch, to include the extra emergency meals good for one day. The rest of the pilgrims did so with their untouched snacks. Mayor Joel left them a little something for their upkeep. Fr. Jojo blessed them and he just opened the floodgates of grace from heaven on the elderly women and on us all. My backpack is strangely light as we proceed to the higher heights where the big cross is located. That goes also for my footfalls. I am excited for this moment spurred on by my act of charity.

Right in front of me is indeed a cross but it is about 30 feet high and the trunk is about 6 feet wide. It is now almost finished except for the landscaping work. I reach it at 09:00. I learned the story from Fr. Jojo of how this cross came to be. This is a by-product – an inspiration – of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem which a well-to-do couple of the neighboring town of Consolacion engaged in many years ago. The husband had an illness and, before he would leave this world, he would first cleanse his soul by doing that pilgrimage with his wife.

When they came back to Cebu the couple planned to dedicate their experience of their Jerusalem visit by building a huge cross in their own place in Consolacion, then in Liloan. They were not able to do that and, finally, settled on a barren hill in Bagalnga, Compostela. Construction of the cross was stalled. In fact, it had even been abandoned for sometime when the wife suffered an illness instead and eventually died. To honor her memory, the husband brought all his energies, resources and time to erect the unfinished project. It became also a monument of love. The surviving husband is Celso Jordan.

At the base of the cross, I placed the pebble that I brought with me from my home in the earliest hours of Day One and the fossilized scallop that I found in Dagatan, Badian, also on that first day. That pebble represented my transgressions and I carried that weight all through the crests and troughs of the Camino Cebu. I took a knee before the cross and prayed for forgiveness. I wept and I felt static electricity run through my whole body, sending all my body hair on tiptoes. It is a very warm day but my sweat was cold, dropping on the concrete footing.

From behind me, I heard the footfalls of the oncoming pilgrims as I remained on one knee. Everyone reverently placed their pebbles on the foot of the cross and began their personal conversations with the Holy Spirit. I even notice roses included as offerings. I slowly back away and leave them in their own privacy. A cloud passes overhead and shaded the whole place. Cool breeze from the far coastlines removed a little of the day’s heat. I walked around the perimeter of the cross and it is well placed. A new landmark for sea travellers.

It is interesting to note that the base of a pillar that propped at its top an iron cross on the route of the Camino Frances became a mound made by pebbles thrown from the many generations of pilgrims. The pilgrims would pick up a pebble on the way and tossed it there and it would soon become a hill. This I read from a Cadoggan travel guide for Northern Spain. Our pebbles would soon start another one here in Cebu, perhaps in the Philippines and, maybe Asia, but it would not be tossed. The triumph of Jesus, represented by a cross, over sins! The Cross of Triumph.

The cross on the hill was the climax of the pilgrimage. What goes after here is another leisurely walk down the lowlands, among communities and into the national highway. We arrive at the Green Lagoon Park, a seaside resort, at 12:30. We rest for a while as we waited for our lunch to be served. From here it would just be a 20-minute walk to the Archdiocesan Shrine of Señor Santiago de Apostol. We arrive there at 13:30 under a pouring rain and we are way too early for the 15:00 Eucharistic Mass which will be celebrated by Rev. Fr. Gonzalo Candado. We spent the time for wash and rest. How I wished we have a large censer.

The celebration of the Holy Mass came at its exact hour, with bells clanging, and we were, at its timely part, received and presented to the whole congregation and community of Compostela. We were given white capes with the Cross of St. James printed in red at the back, locally-sourced scallops signifying our personal pilgrimage and the Certificate of Completion signed by Fr. Candado and Vice Mayor Fe Abing. Among those who witnessed the ceremony were family members and friends of each pilgrim. There was a feast afterward at the rectory and everyone partake of the food and refreshments.

Thus ended the First Pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago in Cebu; in the Year of our Lord, July 15, 2017, at the Archdiocesan Shrine of Señor Santiago de Apostol, Municipality of Compostela, Province of Cebu, Philippines. I heeded the call of St. James the Apostle. So were Fr. Jojo, Mayor Joel, Jem and Roderick, Roger, Mizar, Alvie Rey and Jonathaniel.