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Chapter 5 - Objects and Ritual in Egeria’s Fourth-Century Pilgrimage: The Props of My Faith

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2024

By
Steven Muir
Edited by
Blanka Misic  and
Abigail Graham
Blanka Misic
Affiliation:
Champlain College, Lennoxville
Abigail Graham
Affiliation:
Institute of Classical Studies, London
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Summary

Egeria, a late fourth century Christian pilgrim to Jerusalem, describes a dramatic ritual on the morning of Good Friday. This text is remarkable on several counts: it is written by a female, it has an early date (soon after Constantine’s initiatives in establishing Christian pilgrimage) and it provides a wonderfully detailed description of the areas visited in Jerusalem during Holy Week. She and the other pilgrims venerate the wood of the cross, the inscription over Jesus’s head, the horn used to anoint the kings of Israel, and the ring of Solomon. Throughout her account, Egeria stresses the importance of pilgrims being assured of the truth of their faith by encountering physical landscapes and tangible objects. Theatrical studies in dramaturgy and stagecraft affirm the role which props play in helping actors activate memory and achieve a rich performance. This chapter examines the network of symbols in these artifacts using ritual studies, theatre analysis and space and place theory, demonstrating how these objects were used as props in a complex ritual drama, which offered material, sensory and embodied experiences for religious pilgrims.

Keywords

EgeriarelicritualJerusalemGood FridaytheatrepropmessiahSolomonarchaeology.
Type
Chapter
Information
Senses, Cognition, and Ritual Experience in the Roman World , pp. 167 - 199
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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