St. Francis by the Sea Catholic Church & School

Thursday July 27

Written by: Olivia Johnson

Goodbye Lourdes… hello Burgos, Spain ! We safely arrived in Burgos at about 3:00PM. The drive was smooth and there was no traffic. The French and Spanish countryside is stunning with views of the Bay of Biscay, and the Pyrenees mountains. We had our morning prayer on the bus along with praying the rosary.

  We passed lots of beautiful fields and houses. This area of Europe is known for its sunflower fields. Europeans eat sunflower seeds as snacks for movie, whereas we eat popcorn. We have learned many new things in Europe such as hotel floor numbers are different, showers and toilets are different, and most of all - the languages are different! Although there is a lot of new things to learn we are excited and happy for our new experiences.

  The bus ride was 5 hours including mandatory stops for the driver. As soon as we arrived in Burgos we headed straight to the Cathedral of Santa Maria. This is a mid evil cathedral that was build in the 1200’s. This cathedral has a lot of history and would take “years to explain” said our tour guide. So even we don’t know all of the history, we just know the basics.

  This cathedral was the church to kings and queens, bishops, knights, townspeople, and many other pilgrims. The cathedral is in the center of the city. When it was first built many people tried to cut through the cathedral to get to the market. The market was on one side of the cathedral and the houses and villages where on the other side so sometimes during Mass you could hear the townspeople with their livestock because they had just come from the market. The cathedral soon had to shut its doors that way Mass wouldn’t be interrupted with the noises from the markets and livestock.

  We also learned today that the shell is a symbol of pilgrimage because of its cleansing. The shell is a symbol of cleansing because it is used in baptism. Have you ever noticed shells around Saint Francis? Yes, we live at the beach, but it makes you think….have you noticed our church is shaped like a shell? The holy water fonts also have a shell on them. It’s funny how God works in mysterious ways but it seems that the shell is a symbol in our church, as well.  Maybe for all the pilgrims (tourists) that call St. Francis home while they are visiting?

  When we took the tour of the cathedral, one of the things we noticed is that the organ pipes were horizontal. Horizontal organ pipes originated in Spain…another detail about St. Francis - it makes you wonder if our horizontal organ pipes are a nod to the Saint Francis Hispanic community?

  The cathedral was huge and had multiple chapels in it, each one having a specific reason for its making. There was impeccable architecture, and detail in each chapel. Another thing we were impressed with was that there was lots of gold. Everything was gold and made out of expensive materials. Interestingly, most of the gold was from America! Christopher Columbus brought the gold back from the western hemisphere to Burgos — where the queen of Spain was at the time of his exploration.  This truly was an amazing experience and a beautiful piece of God’s home.

  After we took a tour of the cathedral we headed to a certain chapel that was reserved for the Diocese of Charleston to celebrate Mass. Bishop Jacque was the celebrant and several other priests from Savannah and Charleston concelebrated. After Mass we headed back to the bus to go to our hotel.

  Our hotel is beautiful and actually has old walls of a palace. We had a lovely 3-course dinner in a gorgeous dining room. One thing about Spain is that they eat very late we didn’t sit down for dinner til 9:00 PM. We started with our first course and were given a beautiful salad that had tomato’s, watermelon, cantaloupe, lettuce, and spinach leaves. Then our 2nd course was fried steak with French fries and sautéed mushrooms. We finished our meal with a dessert of chocolate pudding. The meal was delicious and we are very grateful to try new foods.

  After dinner some of us headed back towards the cathedral and took some pictures. We took some time to appreciate where we were and took time in the beautiful city at night. We went back to the hotel and said a “night prayer” then went up to our rooms to rest for tomorrow’s big adventure to…Santiago de Compostelo! We take another bus ride tomorrow and will arrive sometime in the afternoon.

  We hope to keep you as updated as possible. We hope you are learning just as much as we are!

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