Pause here for a moment, visitor!
Perhaps you’re not especially impressed by my appearance, a marble slab without great bas-reliefs … But I have a very long history, and the origins of the city of Santiago were molded around me.
I was dug up from a quarry and my first use was as a funerary monument. I was a funerary stele in a cemetery that existed here in the pre-Christian era. But when the sepulcher of the Apostle James was discovered in the year 813, I was repurposed – and in what way! I became the primitive altar (“ara” means “altar” in Latin) for the first Basilica and home of our Apostle Santiago.
It is believed that the support that comes with me was the original column on which I rested, and that four slender Romanesque columns (one lost, two in the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid and one in the United States) — with three apostles sculpted on each column – held up my four corners… There are a lot of studies about all this history, but don’t forget that more than anything, I’m an altar. And when the monks left the Cathedral as it was expanded, I was donated to the monastic community where I’ve remained ever since – today home to Benedictine nuns.Embedded in the main altar of the Baroque church of this monastery, I’ve also been the place where Christ becomes present in the Eucharist.
Venerate this altar, and may God bless you.
Note 1*: We recommend reading the following interactive article: https://www.arsrituum.digital/espacios/altar-sacrificio