The Cult of Santiago; Traditions, Myths, and Pilgrimages
London and New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1927. First edition. Tall octavo (9 inches tall), original blind-stamped navy cloth, gilt spine, original printed dust wrapper printed in blue on the front panel. Blind-stamps to title page, offsetting to blank flyleaves, upper front corner bumped, modest wear to corners and edges of the unclipped original dust wrapper. Very good indeed. Item #1820
"GOD BLESS ALL GOOD PILGRIMS, WHETHER THEY WANDER ACROSS THE SEA OR OVER THE MOUNTAINS, OR THROUGH THE MAZES OF LITERATURE, TO THE SHRINE OF THE BLESSED APOSTLE OF SPAIN!"
First edition of The Cult of Santiago, the Rev. James S. Stone's "sympathetic study" of the Traditions, Myths, and Pilgrimages surrounding Saint James the Apostle and Patron of Spain. The first copy I've encountered complete with the original printed dust wrapper, this copy was inscribed by the author—"To my good friends / Dr. & Mrs. George F. Fiske"—in the year of publication ("Chicago, December 1, 1927").
The Cult of Santiago was designed to foster "a more definite appreciation of the Patron Saint of Spain." The author's short Preface ("University Club, Chicago, September 29, 1927") acknowledges that "the tales told and the miracles recorded are not of equal value, much less of equal veracity." An introductory first chapter proceeds to a survey of the literary sources of authority on the spread of the cult of St. James the Great of Compostella. Stone later traces the decline of the cult during the age of Reformation.
The longtime Rector of St. James's Church, established in 1834 as the first Episcopal Church in Chicago, Dr. Stone was described (by the Chicago Record-Herald) as an Englishman, a Broad-Churchman, and a "Priest as a Man of Letters," with a scholarly fondness for books on travel and topography. Inscribed by Rev. Stone in Chicago to Dr. George F. Fiske (the Dean of Oberlin College and his wife Alice) in December 1927. "With kindest regards and in remembrance of the encouragement they gave me when this book was in writing."
Though the Cult of Santiago faded, it never disappeared. Stone concludes this "life of the Apostle, whose fire begets light, and to whom, so the Church once believed, God entrusted the care of the Spanish country and its people!" With an Index. James O'Donnell Bennett. Saint James's Church, Chicago, and its Rector: a Study of a Metropolitan Pastor.
Price: $200.00