Tom,
What a fascinating story! Thanks for the brief history and the references.
I will look them up.
Kathleen Edwards




"Thomas E. Eichhorst" <[log in to unmask]>@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on 11/08/99
01:32:05 PM

Please respond to Conchologists of America List <[log in to unmask]>

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Subject:  Re: Curiosity


> Here's a curiosity from The Baltimore Sun, October 26, 1999. A picture
> shows a pilgrim in front of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in
> Galicia, Spain, dressed in traditional costume, a cloak and a pilgrim's
hat
> adorned with a large scallop shell. Would anyone like to hazard a guess
as
> to the significance of the scallop shell to a religious pilgrim? Is there
a
> religious iconography of sea shells?


Kathleen,

There are a number of shells involved with religion, with the most well
know, probably being the sacred chank of India and the scallop you
mentioned; the St. James Scallop or Pecten maximus jacobaeus.  The Apostle
James was beheaded by Herod.  His followers took the remains to Spain for
burial.  Off the coast of Portugal they ran into a bridal party.  The
bridegroom and his horse ended up in the ocean and were saved by (the now)
St. James.  Upon emergence from the water, both bridegroom and horse were
covered with scallops.  The scallop was thus linked to St. James.  His
remains were buried, and lost, and found, and lost, etc on the coast near
the Ria de Arosa.  Eventually a shrine was built nearby called Compostela
and in the 12th century when pilgrims were unable to journey to the Holy
Land, the shrine of St. James grew in popularity (I'm leaving out a whole
lot of stuff here that happened over centuries).  The scallop was used as
sort of a token (like a snow globe) that the pilgrim had indeed made the
pilgrimage.  Thus the scallop went from symbolizing St. James to
symbolizing
pilgrims.  It is still a popular site and stories abound about the
different
laws and such to control the booming scallop trade in the area.  I know
Abbott's book ("Kingdom of the Seashell") has the story and it is also in
the book by Mary Saul ("Shells: An Illustrated Guide to a Timeless and
Fascinating World").

There are lots of other religious tie-ins to seashells.

Tom