Good walk today. I’m in a large Alberque, lots of pilgrims. I’m running into people that I’ve seen along the Camino…some a week ago, others just yesterday. Last night, I was in the town of Santo Domingo de la Calzada. There was high drama in this town on the Camino…here’s the story….
A long, long time ago, a German couple and their handsome young son were making their pilgrimage to Santiago. They stopped in Santo Domingo for an overnight when a young woman in the town made advances on the young handsome man. The son rejected her advances which made the young woman very mad. For revenge, she hid a silver chalice in his bag, then went to the authorities to report it stolen. The chalice was found in his possession, so he was arrested and hung by a noose in the town square. The parents went onto Santiago to pray for their son’s soul. On their way back to Germany, they stopped in Santo Domingo again, and saw their son still hanging by the neck and still alive. The parents rushed to the town sheriff to report this. The sheriff was just sitting down to his dinner of roast chicken when the parents said their son was still alive. The sheriff replied….” Your son is as dead as this chicken on my plate that I’m about to eat.” With that pronouncement, the roast chicken grew back its feathers and beak and started squawking. The sheriff and the parents ran to the town square, and cut the young man down…and he was indeed still alive. The parents and the son returned to Germany.
Soon after this miracle, the town petitioned the pope to allow them to keep two chickens in the cathedral, a hen and a rooster. To this very day, the chickens live in a cage in a small nave of the church.
Truth or fiction….I’ll let you decide. Crazy stuff happens on the Camino everyday.
Going For A Walk 
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