Pedestrians on the Road of the Stars

摘要

IN THE LATE eighth century, around 770 A.D., Charlemagne, the King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor, dreamed of stars. The story is part of the Historia Caroli Magni, a romanced chronicle of Charlemagne's campaigns in Spain written in the twelfth-century, long after the era of Charlemagne. In the dream, the Apostle St. James, cousin of Jesus, materialized at the foot of Charlemagne's bed and ordered the king and his army to clear a path to his tomb in western Spain. St. James gestured to the sky, and the walls of Charlemagne's palace fell away to reveal a sparkling campus stellae, a "field of stars" to light the king's way and guide him to the tomb. The apparition confirmed Charlemagne would defeat the Moors in Spain and promised, "I will help you in all things, and your name will be honored to the end of time. Go in haste!"