Today’s visit was to Girona, a walled town who’s spiritual past dates back to Roman times. I have never been in a place where the ‘old town’ is still so well preserved, cobbled streets, a complete wall that you can walk and a religious past which this time includes a Jewish settlement. Given the amount of the city that is still ‘in tact’ it is no wonder that amounts of Game of Thrones was filmed here. But it has a history which in many respects highlights the intolerance of one faith to another.
Until the 1300’s Christian and Jew lived side by side and Girona was a prosperous city. Then came the inquisition and all that ended. It is a simple statement to make, but nowhere in my understanding of Christianity can the acts of the rulers of that time be acceptable. A dark past indeed, and one which humans still in many ways wish, for some reason, to perpetuate, and the press love to sensationalise.
Anyway, we visited two places of Christian worship whilst here, the Cathedral and the Basilica. One was full of the iconography, gold, silver, multiple side chapels and, would you believe it, a prayer chapel that was closed to the public. It also had a chapel dedicated to the ‘worship’ of Saint Narcissus. Not something that sits comfortably with me. The other had some of the items mentioned, but far less, but it also had religious music playing (did that help?), and an open prayer chapel which was beautifully simple.
Needless to say the Basilica to me had a spiritual presence that the Cathedral did not. Again I ask myself was this because it had the open place for prayer, for people to invoke God, to plead with him, to bring him into their lives and be present with them through whatever was troubling them at the time.
There’s something in this I feel.
Holy Places - a journey of discovery 