So, how many Saints do we have in Spain? Way too many…..

All of this Saints issue is a mayor thing here in Spain. Each city has its own Saint, and Patron Saint and Patron Holly Mary, and on, and on, and on…..

You have to understand that by tradition, Saint James (one of Jesus Christ Apostles) came over here on the first century, and Christianized this side of the world. Here Pamplona became Christian on the 4th century. And on the XVth century the Kings who discovered America were the Catholic Kings.

We also have many local Saints. Saint Ignatious (the founder of the Jesuits) was from Loyola, a small city one hour and a half away from Pamplona. Santa Teresa de Jesus, probably the most important female Saint in Catholicism.

To me as you can imagine the most important of all the Saints is San Fermín. The one that we celebrate the week of the running of the bulls. He was the first person who became Christian here in Pamplona. And for this reason they Romans killed him.

All over Spain you will find Saints that are the patron of each city or even the smallest village has one. Also all the jobs have one saint that represents that guild. Even there is one who takes care of our  pets (San Antón). One who takes care of your throat (San Blas). So we have a saint for each little thing.

In France, you celebrate the end of the war, in the USA you celebrate the birthday of Lincoln or Martin Luther.  Here we celebrate the life or death of the Saints.

Here I am popsting a Radio Show I taped with Rick Steves talking about all of this. You will see, sorry listen, that there are too many ones. Also you will see the difference between the ones in the north of Spain with the ones in the south.