Michener's 1968 book Iberia (with it's final chapter on Santiago de Compostela) is one of the three books I've read with the greatest interest during three stages of the Camino--anticipation, the moment, and reflection. (The other two are Grandma's on the Camino by Mary O'Hara Wyman and The Art of Pilgrimage by Phil Cousineau.)
Thanks to Michener, this image has become a part of my experience even though we never saw it or the town it's in on our walk from Cebreiro to Santiago.
It represents a myth and a way of dressing for the Camino!
Apparently, seeing that the virgin Mary wasn't enough of an icon on the Camino, the little town of Pontevedra took action. Michener writes that, "a new cult grew up around a legend claiming that the Virgin Mary had been the first pilgrim to the tomb of Santiago, who had given his life for her son. "
In 1978 a gingerbread sanctuary was built in the form of a combined cross and scallop shell, housing this statue. (I can't find this; the picture of the statue only says that it's inside a baroque church in Pontevedra.) This is what Michener writes:
"It was the Pilgrim Virgin, representing her as a primly dressed eighteenth-century taveling lady in stiff German brocade, a comfortable shawl with tassels, long black Restoration curls, bejeweled staff and gourd, and a positively enchanting Jesus dressed like a child's doll. Atop the Virgin's head stood a jaunty cockaded hat festooned with cockleshells."
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