2021-028 | THREE MIRACLES OF THE CAMINO CEBU

WHEN COMPOSTELA, CEBU, PHILIPPINES decided to establish its own Camino de Santiago on July 6, 2017, many of the Cebuanos do not know what it looked, smelled or tasted like. Even of those few who have an idea about the Camino de Santiago raised an eyebrow and a scorn on our prevailing Filipino trait of copying anything from foreign singers to K-Pop and now this Camino de Santiago. Well, they may be partly right and they may be wholly wrong. 

Surely, the Camino de Santiago belonged to Spain and it is a fact. Originally, it was that route that King Alfonso II took in the 9th Century which started from Oviedo, Asturias, going to the burial place of St. James the Apostle in Compostela, Galicia. It became the Camino Primitivo in later times because pilgrims lengthened the Camino de Santiago starting from France and called it Camino Frances. Then they have a route for the English which they called the Camino Ingles and another for the Portuguese which they named Camino Portugués.

To connect Camino Primitivo with France, more pilgrims created another Camino del Norte along the Bay of Biscay. Inside Spain and the rest of Europe, there are more than a dozen mutations of the Camino de Santiago, all converging in Compostela. Just because these were not Filipinos it is not called imitations from the original? And they have their origins and inspiration from no other than St. James the Apostle, which also is in Cebu. Right? Now let me continue. 

Cebu should not be left behind since our Roman Catholic faith came from Spain, on account of an earlier journey of St. James to the Iberian Peninsula from Jerusalem. And it is in Cebu, where the first mass baptism of natives, now known generally as Filipinos, happened on April 14, 1521. Whether we liked it or choose not to like it, the faith that Jesus Christ introduced to this sinful world, was propagated by his disciples throughout the known world, of which St. James has a big role on ours, thru Spain.

It does not stop from there, a friar from Zaragoza, Spain came to Cebu in 1865 and established a parish known as Señor Santiago de Compostela on a place which eventually became the Municipality of Compostela. Our very own Compostela became a namesake of that famous pilgrimage city in Spain. So was our small parish that became the Archdiocesan Shrine of Santiago de Compostela in 2007, is also a namesake of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela where St. James is laid to rest in eternal repose.

 

Who would not, in his right mind, establish a Camino de Santiago here in Cebu with all the right historical ingredients and perspectives fed not by human ego but by something close to divine in origin? It is not coincidence. It is planned Up There and it moved on its own graceful time through centuries, not years. Right? It is for those who have no means to travel to Europe and why deny this pilgrimage to them? It is for those who nurtured their pride of their place and why again deny their desires? It is for those who need miracles in their lives and why deny these spiritual gifts to them?   

Anyway, the former parish priest of the Archdiocesan Shrine of Santiago de Compostela, Fr. Scipio Deligero, has this close-to-divine inspiration by involving the people of Compostela and this writer to help establish a Camino de Santiago here. The townsfolk were electrified of such development that the municipal government worked with the parish to have this realized. And so it did when the Honorable Mayor Joel Quiño decided to walk with Fr. Deligero as the first pilgrims of this Camino de Santiago, known by its other name: the Camino Cebu. 

Stories of miracles attributed to St. James the Apostle have been told and found its way in books and theological manuscripts by pilgrims and non-pilgrims through the years. This writer barely knew this intrepid apostle until I walked with the first pilgrims on July 6-15, 2017, which started from Badian and ending on the tenth day at Compostela. I was part of history, so to speak, and I was privy to the sacrifices and pain that the first pilgrims of the Camino Cebu endured.

 

One of those that I came to learn and admire was Fr. Deligero. During the Camino Cebu, he was not walking. He hobbled and dragged his heels from end to end, all 175 kilometers of undulating terrain of the Central Cordilleras of Cebu. He had gouts on both ankles but he insisted to be on that Camino de Santiago even when everyone scoffed at his decision. So he did join and the pain was almost unbearable for him but he had a wooden staff to lean on. 

Those gouts, according to him, were so painful and it hindered his movements and his pastoral obligations like visiting his parishioners in the far-flung areas, walking to the altar and back to the rectory, climbing that flight of stairs to his inner sanctum and even standing for a few minutes. His courage to endure, just like everybody else, of pain, the distance, the Spartan living, fatigue, the elements of nature, the higher elevations and his fear of heights, the cold and his disdain for early-morning baths. 

He fought on hour after hour, day after day, and kilometer after kilometer, until he arrived triumphantly in his own Archdiocesan Shrine of Santiago de Compostela, together with the rest of the first pilgrims. The constant movement, so much under the stress of arriving at our nightly stopovers, have removed these annoying gouts from his ankles. But it was the power of prayers and of his faith; of giving up everything for the Camino de Santiago. This was the first miracle attributed to St. James that I instantly came to know of.

My second knowledge about another miracle attributed to St. James came from a pilgrim whom I guided through the Camino Cebu on July 8-17, 2019. This pilgrim is Dr. Marianne Leila S. Flores, a professor of veterinary medicine in UP-Los Baños. She was with her daughter, Frances Marie. On the seventh day of the Camino Cebu, she was placed under severe stress upon learning of the death of her mother-in-law that she gave me an instruction to abort their pilgrimage. 

It so happened that she had a change of mind and continued with their Camino de Santiago. Upon arrival at the Cross of Triumph on the last day, she unloaded her pebble and special prayer intentions at the bottom of the cross. She repeated these same prayer requests before the relics of St. James in the Archdiocesan Shrine of Santiago de Compostela. She mentioned that friends sent her messages about their special prayer intentions which included a friend of her sister. 

On July 25, 2019, during the feast of St. James the Apostle, I received a message from Dr. Flores. It was a forwarded message which came from her sister whose contents was a message from her sister’s friend. It was about her sister’s friend’s niece. The girl has a rare type of brain cancer – pineal gland glioblastoma – but she is the youngest to have this. They gambled on to proceed with radiation treatment and it was a deviation from the conventional plan of care for brain cancer patients.

Previously, on July 18, the girl could not walk, nor talk, and has no focus. Movement was compromised. On July 25, however, there was a miracle. The doctors cannot explain why she responded to the treatment. Aside from her age and determination, the sudden development, they averred, was all God's work. When I read the complete text of the message, I felt goose bumps all over. It was a prayer heard that was said during the Camino Cebu. God is Good! 

This last miracle which I personally know is small by standards and it happened to me. It was my fourth Camino de Santiago as a guide and as a pilgrim. I was guiding three pilgrims on January 3-12, 2020. What sets apart this latest Camino Cebu from the others is that I was walking in great pain due to sprains I received on my upper spinal column and in my upper right chest which happened on separate occasions last December 2019.

The last sprain got worse after a guided hike with paying clients from Boljoon to Santander before Christmas Day 2019. I suspected a slight fracture caused such great pain. Breathing in deep was very painful. Turning my body left or right was limited and also painful. A sneeze would send me into fits of great pain as if an ice pick is stabbed through my lungs. I persevered and complained not. No alibis as I toiled to lead pilgrims from Badian to Compostela with a heavy bag over extremes of terrain and weather and distances.

 

I just prayed and wiped camphor oil on the affected parts every night. As the journey reached its eighth day, I felt stronger. The pain caused by sneezing and breathing are no longer felt although I still experienced a stiff neck and back. I really thought that the sprains would go worse and I gambled on just a few days’ rest, hoping I would recover. I could have re-scheduled this but I cannot disregard my commitment. It was my faith that kept me going and I placed all my trust in Him on the Camino Cebu.

The Camino de Santiago here in Cebu, just like in Spain, have evolved into three different routes. The premier route was the one I was talking about: 175 kilometers long and walked in ten days from Badian to Compostela. Another route, still undergoing refinement, is the one coming in from Sogod. It is 65-70 kilometers long and walked in five days. The third one is popular because it is shorter at 28+ kilometers and walked in just two days in a loop from Compostela to Liloan to Compostela.

Both Badian and Sogod has parishes which carried the name of St. James the Apostle. All the three Camino de Santiago would pass on their respective last day at the Cross of Triumph, a huge cross built on top of a hill in Bagalnga, in memory of the late Gloria Jordan. The owner decided to let the Archdiocesan Shrine of Santiago de Compostela use the area for the Camino de Santiago. Second-class and third-class relics of St. James are housed in separate reliquaries and are found beside the main altar.

An 11.5-foot botafumeiro is placed on another side of the parish, waiting for its time to be hung and swayed from a rafter. The structure from which the botafumeiro is to be placed is already finished and is found across the parish, 40 meters from its frontage. Currently, the parish is undergoing expansion under the direction of the current parish priest, Msgr. Ildebrando Leyson. 

Last, but not the least, the Camino Cebu receives the same spiritual rewards and plenary indulgencies as if you are walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain by virtue of the Spiritual Bond of Affinity. This was possible when Compostela hosted the 2nd National Congress of St. James the Apostle Parishes and Devotees in February 2019.