Singing Camino across London

Pilgrims at St James, Spanish Place

A mini Camino took place under a glorious blue sky in London on Saturday.

Rafael Montero from El Parnaso Hyspano, led the pilgrimage from Farm Street Jesuit Church to St James' Spanish Place - reciting poems and singing songs that pilgrims will have sung their on way to Santiago de Compostela, Rome, Jerusalem and other places of pilgrimage through many centuries.

Organised by Professor John Sloboda, in collaboration with Young Adults groups from Farm Street and Spanish Place, participants took part in two earlier workshops to learn the songs.

At the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Farm Street, Parish priest Fr Michael Holman SJ welcomed the singers, reminding them that the founder of the Jesuits, St Ignatius Loyola, is known as the Pilgrim Saint. After recovering from his injury at the Battle of Pamplona he famously travelled to the Shrine of Montserrat where he left his sword and knightly clothes and then walked on foot to Manresa, Rome, Paris and Jerusalem.

After singing Stella Splendens, and a reading of Sir Walter Raleigh's The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage, the group walked into Mount Street Gardens where they sang the 14th century Spanish song Polorum Regina.

In Grosvenor Square, by the 9/11 Memorial Garden they sang the Old English Song, Sumer is Icumen In. Pat Gaffney recited Invitation by Mary Oliver. Rafael Montero sang Ondas do mar de Vigo.

From here, pilgrims walked to Hertford House, home of the Wallace Collection where they sang Ad Mortem Festinamus and there was a reading of Our Deepest Fear by Marianne Williamson.

Finally the pilgrims processed into St James's Church, Spanish Place, singing Dum Pater Familias - the oldest-known pilgrim song, which honours St James and is written in a mixture of languages - Germanic, Galician and Latin. They also sang the Spanish Cantemus Domino, at the back of the church. Rafael Montero sang the beautiful Santa Maria, Strela do Dia as the group processed to the front. There was reading by Bozena Karol, from the Letter to the Ephesians by St Ignatius of Antioch.

Mgr Philip Whitmore, Rector of the Parish gave the pilgrims a warm welcome and blessing before their final song: Angelus ad Virginem a lovely 13th song about the Annunciation.

Afterwards the pilgrims some delicious refreshments provided by the parish in the hall.

Reflecting on the day Rafael Montero said: "This participatory workshop was called 'a journey' because it offered participants the opportunity to explore in which stage of their life journey they are. A physical exterior pilgrimage reflects the interior personal journey of every person with the expectations. hopes, and fears that they have. The songs selected for this programme are concrete representations of the stages of the journey or pilgrimage of life. We hope that we can repeat this event so it could become a regular way for people to come together and celebrate these historic songs."

One pilgrim told ICN - "This was a wonderful example of synodality - a completely lay-led event. I'm not an experienced singer, but didn't find these songs difficult. I suppose they've been tried and tested through generations. All the music and poetry was so well chosen and London looked particularly beautiful on this day. I'm looking forward to the next one."

LINKS

El Parnaso Hyspano: www.elparnasohyspano.com/

See more pictures on ICN's Facebook page: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064591363750&ref=bookmarks#