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The Itinerary of Egeria: Reliving the Bible in Fourth-Century Palestine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

E. D. Hunt
E. D. Hunt*
Affiliation:
University of Durham
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Extract

In a letter of exhortation on the ascetic life addressed to monks of the Bierzo region in north-western Spain in the late seventh century, the local spiritual leader Valerius invoked the saintly example of a ‘fragile woman’. Her name was Egeria, who, at the time when ‘the luminous shining light of our holy religion was finally kindled after long delay in this region of the west’, had fearlessly embarked on a monumental journey encompassing the ‘whole world’. The object of Egeria’s God-inspired Wanderlust had been the biblical holy places of Old and New Testaments, as well as the monastic heartland of Egypt, through all of which Valerius found in her a model of tireless zeal and thanksgiving to parade before his correspondents. It was especially her intrepid ascent to the summits of holy mountains which characterized this exceptional woman as a paragon of spiritual endeavour, and Valerius’ monks were to be encouraged, if not to climb every mountain, at least to reach their own heights of discipline and self-denial, to ‘blush’ at the fortitude of one who ‘transformed the weakness of her sex into an iron strength’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 36: The Holy Land, Holy Lands, and Christian History , 2000 , pp. 34 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2000

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References

1 Ep. Valerii, 1. This text is conveniently edited and translated, with helpful introduction, by Díaz, Manuel C. Díaz y, as an appendix to Maraval, P., ed., égérie: journal de Voyage, SC, 296 (Paris, 1982), pp. 321–49.Google Scholar

2 Ep. Valerii, 5.

3 For bibliography on Egeria, see Starowieyski, M., ‘Bibliografia Egeriana’, Augustinianum, 19 (1979), pp. 297–318 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, supplemented by Janeras, S., ‘Contributo alla bibliografia Egeriana’, Atti del Convegno Internazionale sulla Peregrinatio Egeriae, Arezzo 1987 (Arezzo, 1990), pp. 355–66 Google Scholar; and a series of articles by Devos, P. (‘Egeriana’) in AnBoll, 105 (1987), pp. 159–66, 415–24 Google Scholar; ibid., 109 (1991), pp. 363-81; ibid., 112 (1994), pp. 241-54. I have used the edition by Pierre Maraval (see above, n.1): references to Egeria in the text relate to this edition; note also the useful English translation and related material by Wilkinson, John, Egeria’s Travels (3rd edn, Warminster, 1999)Google Scholar, and a recent German edition by Rõwekamp, G., Egeria, Itinerarium, Reiseberichte, Fontes Christiani, 20 (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1995)Google Scholar. Translated passages from Egeria given in the text are adapted from Wilkinson’s version.

4 For southern Gaul, see Sivan, H., ‘Who was Egeria? Piety and pilgrimage in the age of Gratian’, HThR, 81 (1988), pp. 59–72 Google Scholar. An origin even as far north as the area of Mont St Michel has been postulated: Weber, C., ‘Egeria’s Norman homeland’, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 92 (1989), pp. 437–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Egeria has various modes of address for her correspondents, e.g. affectio vestra (5.8, et passim), dominae venerabiles sorores (3.8, 20.5), dominae animae meae (19.19), dominae lumen meum (23.10).

6 The dating was established in a series of influential articles by Devos, P.: ‘La date du voyage d’Égérie’, AnBoll, 85 (1967), pp. 165–94 Google Scholar; ‘Égérie à Édesse’, ibid., pp. 381-400; ‘Égèrie à Bethléem’, AnBoll, 86 (1968), pp. 87-108. In the introduction to his edition (p. 28) Maraval asserts ‘il me semble que la datation de P. Devos est assez solidement étayée pour devenir une certitude’, but more recently Rõwekamp, after reviewing Devos’ arguments, will not venture beyond ‘nicht unmõglich’ (Égérie, p. 29).

7 The context in which I placed Egeria’s travels in Holy Land Pilgrimage in the Later Roman Empire AD 312-460 (Oxford, 1982), pp. 157-66.

8 The principal argument of Devos, ‘Égérie à Edesse’.

9 See, e.g., Blockley, R. C., East Roman Foreign Polity: Formation and Conduct from Diocletian to Anastasius (Leeds, 1992), pp. 24–30.Google Scholar

10 For possible evidence of the disturbed political background to the Christian presence in Sinai at the time of Egeria’s visit (but unrecorded by her), see Z. Rubin, ‘Sinai in the Itinerarium Egeriae’, Atti del Convegno Internazionale sulla Peregrinano Egeriae, pp. 177-91.

11 For the material from Peter the Deacon, see Wilkinson, Egeria’s Travels, pp. 86-106; Maraval, Égérie, pp. 56-117 (‘la partie perdue du voyage’); Rõwekamp, Egeria, pp. 310-59. These are all based on the edition of Weber, R., in Itineraria et alia geographica, CChr.SL, 175 (Turnhout, 1965), pp. 93–103.Google Scholar

12 For the Bordeaux itinerary see Wilkinson, Egeria’s Travels, pp. 22-34.

13 For a comprehensive picture of the Christian Holy Land of Egeria’s time, see now Taylor, Joan E., Christians and the Holy Places: the Myth of Jewish-Christian Origins (Oxford, 1993)Google Scholar, with my reservations about its polemics in Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society, 13 (1993-4), pp. 54-7.

14 Jerome, , Epistulae, ed. Hilberg, I., 2nd edn (Vienna, 1996), 108. 9 Google Scholar. This account of Paula’s pilgrimage was conveniently translated by Wilkinson, J., Jerusalem Pilgrims before the Crusades (Warminster, 1977), pp. 47–52.Google Scholar

15 Taylor, Christians and Holy Places, pp. 86-95. Constantine’s words are cited by Eusebius, , Vita Constantini, ed. Winkelmann, F. (Berlin, 1975), 3.53.3–4.Google Scholar

16 Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage, pp. 185-8.

17 Jerome, Epistulae, 108.14.

18 Liber de locis Sanctis, Y 5, in Itineraria et alia geographica, pp. 100-1; cf. Maraval, Égérie, introd. p. 106 n.2, for Clysma as the traditional site for the biblical crossing of the Red Sea. The ‘chariot-tracks’ in the sand were also reported by Orosius, , Historia adversas paganos ed. Arnaud-Lindet, M.-P. (Paris, 1990)Google Scholar, 1.10.17, and latter authors.

19 So Wilkinson, Egeria’s Travels, p. 102 n.1.

20 Maraval, Égérie, p. 122, n.2: ‘le hasard a voulu que les premiers mots du texte conservé nous donnent la tonalité générale du pèlerinage d’Égérie.’

21 Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage, esp. chs 4, 5; Maraval, P., Lieux saints et pèlerinages d’Orient: histoire et géographie des origines à la conquête arabe (Paris, 1985)Google Scholar, ch. 4; Wilken, R. L., The Land Called Holy: Palestine in Christian History and Thought (New Haven, CT, and London, 1992)Google Scholar, ch. 6.

22 Only to have reappeared again by the sixth century: Theodosius, De situ terrae sanctae, ed. P. Geyer, 20, in Itineraria et alia geographica, pp. 121-2; Antoninus Placentinus, Itinerarium, 15, at ibid., p. 137. On the fascination with Lot’s pillar see Maraval, Égérie, p. 178 n.1.

23 ‘Sed cum leget affectio vestra libros sanctos Moysi, omnia diligentius pervidet, quae ibi facta sunt.’ John Wilkinson’s translation, ‘it may help you the better to picture what happened in these places’, misleads by transferring the emphasis away from what Egeria saw on the spot to the reading habits of her correspondents.

24 Cf. the similar remarks at 10.7: ‘Id enim nobis semper consuetudinis erat ut, ubicumque ad loca desiderata accedere volebamus, primum ibi fieret orarto, deinde legeretur lectio ipsa de codice … hanc enim consuetudinem iubente Deo semper tenuimus, ubicumque ad loca desiderata potuimus pervenire.’ For an outline of the liturgical pattern of these ‘private’ acts of worship, see Zerfass, R., Die Schriftlesung im Kathedraloffizium Jerusalems (Münster, 1968), pp. 4–6 Google Scholar; and on the conjunction of place, text, and worship, Smith, J. Z., To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual (Chicago, 1987), pp. 88–90.Google Scholar

25 Sivan, H., ‘Holy Land pilgrimage and western audiences: some reflections on Egeria and her circle’, Classical Quarterly, 38 (1988), pp. 528–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 For this Jerusalem liturgy, besides the modern editions of Egeria, see Baldovin, J. F., The Urban Character of Christian Worship: the Origins, Development and Meaning of Stational Liturgy (Rome, 1987), pp. 55–64 Google Scholar (summary of Egeria’s evidence), 83-104 (general character of stational worship in Jerusalem).

27 In contrast to features of the worship at Jerusalem which mirrored those with which. Egeria was familiar (as on Sunday mornings and in the week of Easter), and which she declined to describe, on the ground that they were the same ‘as happens everywhere’ (25.1, 39..).

28 See, of course, Dix’s, Gregory classic chapter entitled ‘The Sanctification of Time’ in The Shape of the Liturgy (Westminster, 1945), esp. pp. 348–53 Google Scholar on Egeria’s material (‘the dramatic exploitation of the genius loci in the interests of devotional feeling’, p. 349).

29 And once (only) so termed by Egeria, returning from Egypt to Jerusalem ‘in Helia, id est in lerusolimam’ (9.7).

30 Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage, pp. 147-54.

31 Jerome, Epistulae, 58.4. For this letter in relation to the political circumstances of Jerome’s feud with the church of Jerusalem, see Hunt, Holy Lana Pilgrimage, pp. 192-3.

32 Jerome, Epistulae, 58.3-4. This ‘universalist’ argument against Christian holy places is central to reservations expressed about the vogue for pilgrimage from its beginnings: see, e.g., Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage, pp. 88-92; Maraval, Lieux saints et pèlerinages, pp. 152-6.

33 Egeria’s evidence for monastic life in Jerusalem has not made much impact on standard books about Palestinian monasticism, e.g. Chitty, D. J., The Desert a City (London, 1966), pp. 13–16 Google Scholar; Binns, J., Ascetics and Ambassadors of Christ: the Monasteries of Palestine, 314-631 (Oxford, 1994), pp. 82–5 Google Scholar. For fuller discussion of her treatment of monks, see Mohrmann, C., ‘Égérie et le monachisme’, Corona Gratiarum. Miscellanea patristica, historica et liturgica E. Dekkers oblata, 2 vols (Bruges, 1975), 1, pp. 163–80 Google Scholar; Vogué, A. De, Histoire littéraire du mouvement monastique dans l’antiquité, 5 vols so far (Paris, 1991-, in progress), 1/ii, pp. 16–50.Google Scholar

34 Cyril, , Catecheses, ed. Reischl, W. C. and Rupp, J., 2 vols (Munich, 1848-60)Google Scholar, 4.24, 12.33.

35 First encountered in Rufinus, , Historia ecclesiastica, ed. Mommsen, T. (Leipzig, 1908)Google Scholar, 10.8. While it is not implausible for Helena to be associated with consecrated virgins in the early fourth century: cf.Elm, S., ‘Virgins of God’: the Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity (Oxford, 1994), pp. 25–59 Google Scholar, on the early beginnings of the movement. Rufinus’ story is not helped by its legendary context: see Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage, p. 44.

36 See Chitty, Desert a City, ch. 3 The World Breaks In’; Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage, ch. 7, esp. pp. 167-71.

37 Perhaps the ‘fratres et sorores grecolatini’ whose job it was to interpret the readings into Latin (47.4); but Egeria’s use of this terminology is not exclusively monastic.

38 On monks and the Jerusalem community, see De Vogüé, Histoire littéraire, 1/ii, p. 48 (‘l’élite visible de l’Église hiérosolymitaine et l’âme de sa vie liturgique exemplaire’).

39 See n.11 above.

40 For Egeria’s route in relation to the modern map of the area, see Wilkinson, Egeria’s Travels, pp. 102 ff., and the notes accompanying the text in Maraval, Égérie.

41 For ‘ascetic’ as a term unfamiliar to westerners at this date, see De Vogüé, Histoire littéraire, 1/ii, pp. 22-3.

42 On the textual difficulties of this passage, arising from the apparent discrepancy between the scriptural record and the existence of a monument purporting to be the tomb of Moses, see Maraval, Égérie, p. 174 n.1.

43 For what follows, I am indebted to Sivan, H.S., ‘Pilgrimage, monasticism, and the emergence of Christian Palestine in the 4th century’, in Ousterhout, R., ed., The Blessings of Pilgrimage (Urbana, IL, 1990), pp. 54–65.Google Scholar

44 On the combination of tradition and innovation forming the ‘constitution d’une géographie sacrée’, see Maraval, Lieux saints et pèlerinages, pp. 23-50. For Jewish background, J. Wilkinson, ‘Jewish holy places and the origins of Christian pilgrimage’, in Ousterhout, Blessings of Pilgrimage, pp. 41-53; Wilken, Land Called Holy, pp. 105-8.

45 On the correct translation of this passage (which is missed by both Wilkinson and Maraval), see Bastiaensen, A., ‘Sur quelques passages de l’Itinerarium Egeriae’, AnBoll, 108 (1990), pp. 271–2.Google Scholar

46 Maraval, Lieux saints et pèlerinages, pp. 38-41.

47 Summarized by Maraval, Égérie, p. 182 n.1.

48 This seems more likely than that Egeria carried her own codex (a cumbersome object?) everywhere with her: cf.Munzer, M., ‘Mit der Bibel in der Hand? Egeria und ihr Codex’, Zeilschrift des deutschen Palãstina-Vereins, 112 (1996), pp. 156–64.Google Scholar

49 On this characteristic feature of Egeria’s observations, see Mohrmann, ‘Égérie et le monachisme’, p. 170; De Vogüé, Histoire littéraire, i/ii, pp. 21-2.

50 186 times (Maraval, Égérie, p. 121 n.3).

51 Ep. Valerii, 1 (= Maraval, Égérie, p. 338): ‘sanctorum summo cum desiderio Thebeorum uisitans monachorum gloriosissima congregationum cenobia’.

52 Cf. 4.5 ‘necesse nos erat et loca omnia sancta ambulare et monasteria, quecumque erant ibi, videre.’

53 On the significance of the term eulogiae for Egeria, see G. F. M. Vermeer, Observations sur le vocabulaire du pèlerinage chez Égérie et chez Antonin de Plaisance, Latinitas Christianorum Primaeva, 19 (Nijmegen, 1965), p. 76. In general, A. Stuiber, Reallexikon fur Antike und Christentum, 6 (Stuttgart, 1966), cols 922-8. Stuiber comments that Egeria’s eulogiae were not yet holy ‘relics’ in the fullest sense, although the term was already being used thus in relation to other mementoes from the Holy Land, e.g. parcels of earth, or fragments of the Cross: cf.Bagatti, B., ‘Eulogie Palestinesi’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 15 (1949), pp. 126–66.Google Scholar

54 Cf. Egeria’s observation (49.1) of the many monks who descended on Jerusalem for the festival of Encaenia. De Vogüé, Histoire littéraire, 1/ii, p. 29, draws attention to the contrast with monks of the Egyptian desert and elsewhere who permanently shunned the cities.

55 Virtutes seems to be synonymous with the phrase ‘quae mirabilia fecerint’ which Egeria uses later of these monks (20.13); the sense is surely one of admiration rather than of the miraculous (hence I do not favour Wilkinson’s translation of virtutes as ‘miracles’).