El Botafumiero: Fumigating Pilgrims And Civil Servants 😆

It was a cold autumn morning when I found myself on top of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, walking on its roof and history. I joined a group of Spanish tourists and being the only non-Spaniard in the group, I could barely keep up with the conversation led by Lidia, our assigned Cathedral tour guide. 

I figured, even if I didn't quite understand a few sentences, with some palábras not yet in my Spanish vocabulary and conjugation way beyond my Level 4 Spanish at Instituto Cervantes de Manila, I was determined to enjoy the Spanish-language tour.😄

But after almost two hours of discovering the hidden corners of the Cathedral not accessible to the pilgrims below, we finally found ourselves at the loft watching the crowd of pilgrims at the nave and the glorious altar of Saint James, the Great from afar.

As the tour ended, we all descended the stairs hidden on the left side of the nave and went on our separate ways. I, on the other hand, went right up closer to the altar and chose a spot on the right, next to a huge column that supported the same roof I was just standing on earlier. The reason for choosing this spot?

The botafumiero.😍

(The Archbishop Julian Barrio Barrio celebrates the holy mass with the pilgrims from all over the world)

The botafumiero is the most famous thurible in the world. A thurible is a metal censer that is used in many churches and religions around the world. In Santiago de Compostela, the botafumiero ('smoke expeller' in the Galician language) is used at the Cathedral as part of the tradition that's more than 600 years old.

It was almost noon when I claimed this spot. Soon after, the mass officiated by no less than the Archbishop Julian Barrio Barrio of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela began.

And right in the middle of the mass, it all happened for all the pilgrims to experience.

Eight men clothed in red robes went in front of the altar and pulled the botafumiero while a nun sang a hymn in Spanish. The metal censer weighed about 54 kilos and those eight men pulled the ropes to create momentum for the botafumiero to swing across the nave. According to a story from the 16th century, the ropes holding the botafumiero snapped and the metal censer landed on a pilgrim, killing him (or was it her?) on the spot. The other pilgrims believed that the soul of the unfortunate pilgrim went straight to heaven as the pilgrim just completed the camino and died right inside the Cathedral.

And as the botafumiero swung across the nave, from left to right and back, the pilgrims below took out their cameras and trained them high up to the heavy metal censer, now weighting more than 150 kilos due to the momentum. The botafumiero was now spreading the incense from high up, fumigating the sacred halls.

In the olden times, other than lifting the prayers up to the heavens, the botafumiero subdued the smell of the sweaty pilgrims below, who, along with a pack of their unwashed clothes, must have carried with them a few diseases.

My botafumiero experience lasted for a few minutes but it stays with me for a lifetime, fumigation anecdotes and all.

That's why, these days, when some uninformed government official suggested steaming one's self to kill the corona virus, the botafumiero tradition came to mind. 

Other than giving pilgrims an experience of a lifetime, the botafumiero could probably fumigate these public officials' minds. 

For some divine enlightenment.😀 

A botafumiero video: