9th century church at O cebreiro

This vllage, 4,000 feet up in the mountains, has been an important place on the Pilgrim Route for well over 1,000 years. It is particularly noted for a miracle said to have taken place in the 14th century; a monk was celebrating Mass, and a peasant struggled up the hill in a terrible storm from a nearby village to hear the Mass. The monk wondered to himself why the man had made the effort, and before his eyes the wine and the host turned to flesh and blood, the blood staining the altar linen. The chalice and paten are still displayed in the church.

When we arrived, a group of German pilgrims were having a service in the church. It is obviously somewhere in which much prayer has been offered through the years, although it had fallen into virtual ruin in recent times, and was restored in 1962.