Holy Year of Santiago (Año Santo Jacobeo)
The Holy Year of Santiago, also known as the Compostela Holy Year or Jacobean Holy Year, is a Catholic celebration held in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. This event takes place in the years when 25 July, the feast day of the Apostle Saint James, falls on a Sunday. The celebration follows a regular cadence of 6-5-6-11 years (with the exception of gaps of 7 or 12 years, which can occur when the last year of a century is not a leap year). This means fourteen Holy Years of Santiago take place every century.
Tradition of the Holy Year of Santiago
During each Holy Year of Santiago, indulgence is granted to all the faithful who voluntarily fulfil the following conditions:
- Visit the tomb of the Apostle Saint James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela or any other sacred site in the city, during the Holy Year.
- Undertake some form of pilgrimage, such as walking at least 100 km to Santiago de Compostela, or travelling on horseback, by bicycle or wheelchair, with the intention of reaching the tomb of the Apostle Saint James.
- Receive the sacraments of confession and communion.
- Pray for the intentions of the Pope.
These conditions were established to encourage penance, reflection and prayer during the celebration of the Holy Year of Santiago.
It is also customary, during the Holy Year of Santiago, to enter the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela through the Holy Door, which is only opened for this solemnity.
Through the mediation of the Church, the jubilee grants those faithful who fulfil the conditions mentioned above the grace of the plenary indulgence, or complete remission of the temporal punishment deserved for the sins they have committed. This indulgence, according to Catholic doctrine, does not forgive the guilt of sins, but frees the sinner from the temporal punishment that results from sin already forgiven through the sacrament of confession. In this way, participation in the Holy Year of Santiago is seen as an opportunity to renew one’s faith and relationship with God, as well as to obtain the grace of the plenary indulgence.
Holy Years of Santiago
The 6-5-6-11 sequence of Jacobean Holy Years in the 19th and 20th centuries is due to the combination of the rhythm of leap years and the fact that the week has seven days. If there were no leap years, there would be a Jacobean Holy Year every seven years. However, because years divisible by one hundred are only leap years if they are also divisible by 400, gaps of seven or twelve years between two consecutive Holy Years can occur at the turn of a century.
It is important to note that any change in the sequence of leap years will automatically affect the cadence of Jacobean Holy Years. This happened with the Gregorian reform of 1582, and, as a result, it can also happen in centennial years that are not multiples of 400.
| +11 | +6 | +5 | +6 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| +28 | 1909 (+12) | 1915 | 1920 | 1926 |
| +28 | 1937 – 1938 | 1943 | 1948 | 1954 |
| +28 | 1965 | 1971 | 1976 | 1982 |
| +28 | 1993 | 1999 | 2004 | 2010 |
| +28 | 2021 – 2022 | 2027 | 2032 | 2038 |
| +28 | 2049 | 2055 | 2060 | 2066 |
| +28 | 2077 | 2083 | 2088 | 2094 |
The table above is accurate for the 20th and 21st centuries, since the year 2000 was a leap year. In subsequent centuries, however, the cadence will change because the years 2100, 2200 and 2300 will not be leap years (they are divisible by one hundred but not by four hundred). The COVID-19 health crisis in Spain led to the Jacobean Holy Year being celebrated over two consecutive years (2021-2022). The same thing happened in 1937-1938, during the Spanish Civil War.
The last Holy Year of the 21st century will be 2096, the first of the 22nd century will be 2106 (12 years later) and the next will be 2117 (11 years later). This means the 6-5-6-11 cadence of the previous two centuries will be broken. The last Holy Year of the 19th century was in 1897 and the first of the 20th century was in 1909, meaning 12 years passed between them because the year 1900 was not a leap year. So, on occasion, there can be gaps of 7 or 12 years between two consecutive Holy Years when they belong to different centuries.
History of the Holy Year of Santiago
Pope Callixtus II established the Compostela Jubilee Holy Year in 1122, for the year 1126, after having been a pilgrim to Santiago de Compostela while he was Archbishop of Vienne in France.
On 27 February 1120, the papal bull Omnipotentis Dispositione raised Santiago de Compostela to archiepiscopal rank, transferring the metropolitan see there from Mérida, fulfilling the wishes of Diego Gelmírez, Bishop of Compostela between 1100 and 1139, and with the consent of King Alfonso VII of León (the emperor), whose uncle Callixtus II was, through the marriage of his brother Raymond of Burgundy to the Infanta Urraca of León and Castile, daughter of Alfonso VI of León.
In 1122, as the last stone of the cathedral of Santiago was being laid, Callixtus II granted the privilege of regularly celebrating the Holy Year of Santiago from 1126 onwards, whenever the feast of the Apostle Saint James, on 25 July, fell on a Sunday, so that pilgrims could earn the same graces in Compostela as those granted in Rome during the jubilee years, which usually coincided there every twenty-five years.
The privilege granted by Callixtus II was reaffirmed and extended by other popes, including Eugene III and Anastasius IV. In 1178, Alexander III declared, in the bull Regis aeterni, dated 25 July, that the privilege would be perpetual and placed the Holy Year of Santiago on an equal footing with those of Rome and Jerusalem.
These provisions had a major impact during the Middle Ages, significantly contributing to the increase in pilgrimages from across Europe along the Camino de Santiago.
The most recent Holy Years of Santiago were 1993, 1999, 2004 and 2010. Eleven years after the last one, the Holy Year of Santiago 2021-2022 was exceptionally extended to 31 December 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pope Francis approved this extension, as announced by the Pope’s nuncio, Bernardito Auza.
This will be the second time the Holy Year of Santiago has been celebrated over two consecutive years. The first was during the Spanish Civil War, when the 1937 Holy Year was also extended into 1938, at the request of the Archbishop of Compostela, Tomás Muniz de Pablos, which was granted by Pope Pius XI.
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