People, I have been learning about the most fascinating man: Santo Domingo. Last night’s town was named after him, we walked through his birth town today, and he’s commemorated at the church in the town we’re staying today too. Pretty important man!
So the story goes that after his parents died he applied to enter two monasteries but was rejected from both, so went to live as a hermit. One of the monasteries he was rejected from was here in Belorado, and you can see in the hill behind the church that there have been caves dug out – apparently these are where the hermits of the area went to live, as after Santo Domingo it seems like there was a bit of a trend of hermit-ing!
Somewhere along the way he met Gregorio, a priest who had been sent to the area to help out with a plague of locusts. Together they built a bridge across the River Oja, to help pilgrims on their way to Santiago. Later on, Domingo also built a section of the road that we walked both yesterday and this morning. Also, it turns out that he built the building that we stayed in last night!
There are a few miracles attributed to Domingo, but the most interesting is this: A boy was framed for stealing, and hanged to death, but was prevented from dying by Santo Domingo. When his parents went to report it, they were told that their boy was as dead as the guy’s dinner, and suddenly his dinner turned into a live chicken and rooster. Wild. The cathedral in Santo Domingo (the town) still keeps a chicken and a rooster (supposedly descendants of the originals) because of this, and they live in the building where we stayed last night, right beside the washing lines where we hung up our laundry – we saw them!
The church in the town where we’re staying has two statues of Santo Domingo – one of him as a pilgrim in the Camino, and one of him as a “Moorslayer”. He’s also the patron saint of civil engineers, I imagine because of the bridge, so he’s a very multi-talented man!
Anyways, the walk today wasn’t too challenging, but it’s getting pretty warm by the time the afternoon rolls around. I’m a bit pink from the sun, though nothing too drastic. The sunblock mum brought from home is all gross and lumpy and separating, so I don’t have a huge amount of faith in it despite her insistence that it is fine. I might need to buy some at some point. More familiar faces again at the albergue tonight, but a few new ones too. Longer day tomorrow, then the day after that we arrive in Burgos!
emilyonearth 
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