Roosters in the cathedral!

This is my favourite story along the way of St James. In Santa Domingo Cathedral is an ornate hen house with two live roosters in it! Why? It’s a story of sex, miracles, and incredulity.

Santa Domingo was a good deeds monk from a thousand years ago. He built a bridge over the river and a refugee for poor pilgrims.  In the middle ages a German family stopped here overnight.  The Inn keepers daughter fancied the hot teenage lad Hugonell. When he turned her down, she was hopping mad.  A woman scorned type of thing…..

She hid a silver cup in his bag and reported him. The evidence was compelling and he was hung. When his parents got through the crowds they found him hanging there – still alive. “Santa Domingo saved me," he gasped. And they hurried to the mayor who scoffed: “‘your lad is as alive as my dinner…."

And the roast chickens on his plate promptly jumped up and crowed! Yikes! Good tale.  It led to a saying: “Santa Domingo where roosters crow after they’ve been roasted."  Wonder what happened to the inn keepers daughter?  Hope she got her just desserts.  Meanwhile they remain in the cathedral to this day…. Two roosters in their special hen house.