Sunday, April 26, 2020

Third Sunday of Easter: The Journey to Emmaüs from the Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos, Spain

The latest in our work of art features

The Journey to Emmaüs, c. 1150, carved bas-relief, main cloister of the Benedictine abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos, near Burgos, Spain 

In the Middle Ages, the story of Christ sharing the journey of his disciples to Emmaus was often represented in churches and religious buildings along the pilgrimages routes. Santo Domingo de Silos is indeed not far from the way to Compostela via Burgos. The anonymous sculptor has remarkably well translated the dynamism of the disciples’ walk and how intensely they are listening to the Lord, who is taller than them. The key point of this sculpture is, however, the representation of Christ himself, recognizable by his halo decorated with a cross but also recognizable as a pilgrim, thanks to the essential attributes of any pilgrim to Santiago: a stick leaning on his shoulder that he holds firmly in his two hands and a bag adorned with a shell. As the pilgrims are trying to do during their long way to Santiago, Christ the pilgrim is inviting the monks of the monastery, and all of us, to undertake a spiritual journey and follow him.

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