This Guy

By tradition, the Holy Grail, from which Christ drank at the last supper before Leonardo Da Vinci painted it, was hidden in O Cebreiro.

Wait, what? The Holy Grail???

That's the story, although I looked all over for it, under the bed, behind the wardrobe, and I couldn't find it at all. Apparently its powers came forth one winter in the 14th century, when a priest was using it for mass just when a peasant gasped his way into the church. The weather was appalling and the priest was angry at the peasant for risking his life coming to mass, when suddenly the bread and wine actually became flesh and blood. These items were later saved in a silver reliquary donated by Queen Isabel (yes that Queen Isabel of Christopher Columbus and the Inquisition among other things), which I saw in the church, along with a cup (which is medaieval so not the Holy Grail). Apparently the church's statue of the Virgin turned to incline her head towards the miracle and stayed that way.

No one says what happened to the Holy Grail after that, but I suppose it wasn't hiding any more if it performed a miracle, so maybe it was hidden somewhere else.

But the other miracle that O Cebreiro produced was Father Elias Valina Sampedro. He was a parish priest around these parts and a scholar who was really the first one to study and promote the Camino de Santiago in a modern context (1960s), which lead to the rebirth of the pilgrimage.

He was also the first to write guidebooks about the Camino, and to include maps with text on opposite pages, still common. He was a keen anthropologist and sourced a lot of local artifacts, including restoring O Cebreiro's pallozas (the round stone Celtic/Galician houses). He restored an ancient Hostal that operates today, in buildings that were built in the 11th century and in which Queen Isabel stayed when she did the pilgrimage in 1486.

It was he that came up with the idea of using yellow arrows to mark the way, which are famous today and decorate everything from tee-shirts to backpacks. We will never look at a yellow arrow again without feeling the urge to follow it, and it was this one man who did that. In fact, it was probably due to his efforts that anyone is walking the Camino again at all. Well done sir, we add our thanks to those reflected on the dozens of plaque surrounding your likeness since you passed away in 1989, at the conclusion of your earthly Camino.