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What is the Year?
Holy Year or Jubilee is a time when the Church grants unique spiritual thanks to the faithful to imitate what the Bible says about the Jubilee Year of the Israelites: every 7 years it was Sabbatical Year.
The fact is that it was Pope Calixto II, in 1122, who, given the magnitude that reached the pilgrimage to Santiago, decided to distinguish the Compostel shrine with the "Retired Privilege" or the "Holy Years", dispenser of very singular thanks. Once this award was ratified by Alejandro III for the Bula in 1179, it is established in it that "Años Santos Compostelanos" will be those in which on July 25, the festivity of the martyrdom of Santiago, coincides on Sunday. So far there have been 118 retirement celebrations. It is strange to note that last 1993 coincided with the full entry of the 'Single Act', which marks a new Europe without frontiers, a situation which is closely linked to the European phenomenon of pilgrimage throughout the years.
Thank you for the Holy Year: Plenary indulgence
It is given under the following conditions:
- Visit the cathedral by reciting some prayer for example the Father Ours or the Credo, praying for the intentions of the Roman Pontiff.
- Receive the Sacraments of Confession (15 days before or 15 days after the visit).
- Communion after confession.
La Puerta Santa:
A special chapter deserves the "opening of the Holy Gate", with which the Jubilee Year begins. Opens in the afternoon of 31 December of the preceding year.
Then, the Archbishop of Santiago knocks down from the outside, after hitting him for three times, the murete that taps the so-called "Santa Door", nestled in the Professor's bedside.
From that moment, the whole "Year" will remain open until the next 31 December when it will be replugged.