- A hug of clear international vocation
WITH THE NEW MEMBERS INVESTED IN SEPTEMBER 2017, THE FIGURE OF THE TWO THOUSAND ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONALITIES WHO ARE PART OF THE ORDER OF THE WAY OF SAINT JAMES, REPRESENTING MORE THAN 20 COUNTRIES, ARE BECOMING EVER CLOSER. THEY ARE COMMITTED TO THE PROMOTION OF HIGH VALUES OF THE CENTENARY TRADITION
"Think that death is always threatening us and that our life lasts only an instant, think how false are delights, how deceitful honors, how mortal riches, how brief uncertain and false what all this can serve us, therefore depart from evil and do good to these poor people. " This is how the Hostal de los Reyes Católicos reminds us how the thousands of pilgrims and travelers that cross the entrance of the emblematic building of Santiago de Compostela, raised by the famous architect Enrique Egas, must assume their existence.
Right in the Royal Chapel - National Monument since 1912 - located in the oldest hotel in the world with its five centuries, the General Chapter of the Fundación Orden del Camino de Santiago has been developed for many years.
This July the 21st edition was held in the significant Renaissance jewel that served as venue for the inauguration of 35 members of the Order, exactly one week before the 25th, when the Apostle Santiago is especially remembered.
With around 200 people as witnesses, before the presence of the Tourism Director of Galicia, Nava Castro, the new five ladies and 30 knights were sworn in, among them Gustavo Santos, Argentine Minister of Tourism. Coming from the aforementioned nation, the headquarters of the Embassy of the Order in the province of La Pampa was inaugurated, from different Spanish communities, as well as from other countries like Angola, Ecuador, England, Portugal and Venezuela, the illustrious personalities who signed their commitment to promote the values of the Way, which shows a clear vocation of internationalization.
But in 2017 the Order of the Way of Santiago did not finish gathering in its bosom important figures linked to the business world and tourism. The most recent ones that promised to keep alive the centenary tradition, they did it in the middle of Termatalia, the International Fair of Tourism of Health and Welfare that welcomes the city of Ourense and that, as is customary, organized an Extraordinary Chapter with the in order to give it greater force and superior visibility to these two great tourist values of Galicia.
Undoubtedly this is one of the evenings that attracts the professional participants of Termatalia, especially to the illustrious visitors of Latin America, who show their satisfaction at being part of an act with centuries of history, as happened with Lic. José Napoleón Duarte Durán, Minister of Tourism of El Salvador, who now swells the select payroll.
This time the program planned by the Foundation planned to leave early in the morning of Saturday September 23 from the Railway Station of Ourense to the city of Santiago de Compostela to be able to arrive in time to the Mass of the Pilgrim in the Cathedral. Then came the visit to the tomb of the Apostle, before moving to the Forest of Pilgrims, in the municipality of Melide, where the most recent members planted their tree.
Finally, the Extraordinary Chapter took place in the Church of Santiago de Allariz. Pleased with a concert performed by the Real Banda Gaitas of the Provincial Council of Ourense, the knights and ladies proclaimed undertook their pilgrimage.
The Order of the Way of Santiago arose in 1170 by order of the king Ferdinand II of Leon for the defense of Caceres in front of Almoharades, with the mission to defend the Muslim-Leonese border. Its present followers, the knights and the ladies, have as obligation to realize once in the life a section of the Way, to gain the Jubilee thanks every Year Xacobeo and to participate in the acts convened by the institution. •
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