Pilgrimage of Egeria
Pilgrimage of Egeria
Pilgrimage of Egeria
'
LITURGICAL TEXTS
TOQtfLOTONtf OF CHRtfEKN
LITERATURE.SERIESIII
LITURGICAL TEXTS
THE
PILGRIMAGE OF ETHERIA
SOCIETY
FOR.
PROMOTING
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
1. 2. 3.
.......
ITS
FAGB
vii
AUTHORSHIP
vii
4.
5.
THE PRESENT EDITION AND ITS EDITORS ETHERIA'S ROUTE TO CONSTANTINOPLE RESUME OF HER JOURNEYINGS
.
XV
xvii Xvii
ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION
XXvi
XXVli
6.
7.
THE MONKS AND NUNS SHE MET HER USE OF THE BIBLE
LIST OF BIBLE
.
XXxi
8. 9.
REFERENCES
XXXV
XXXvi
XXXvii xlv
xlvii
10.
11.
12.
TEXT
INDEX OF PROPER NAMES AND THINGS
97
ILLUSTRATIONS
Facing page
I.
vii
II.
II.
.
AND THE
.
.16
.
III.
45
r;n.
INTRODUCTION
i.
ITS
AUTHORSHIP
in
of the eleventh century at Arezzo, and he published it first in 1887 and again, in a correcter
edition, in 1888.
MS.
an appendix on the topography by Sir C. W. Wilson, appeared under the auspices of the Palestine Pilgrims Text Society. In 1895 Dom Cabrol issued a treatise of some importance entitled Les Eglises de Jerusalem. Then came M. Paul Geyer's edition in 1898 in vol. xxxix. of the Vienna Corpus Script. Eccl Lat., who
still
till
further
emended and
Signor
Up
that time
Gamurrini's
(Revue des questions historiques, vol. Ixxiv.) sought to identify her with the virgin named Etheria, mentioned
Another conjecture was put forward by Kohler (Bibliothtque des chartes, xlv. p. 141 ff.) in 1884 that she was Galla Placidia, daughter of Theodosius, who is said to have visited Jerusalem from Constantinople about 423 but this pilgrimage rests on an untrustworthy tradition, and the conjecture has never met with
;
others.
viii
INTRODUCTION
by Valerius in a letter to the religious brethren of the Vierzo in N.-W. Spain, and his arguments have met
detailed
In 1909, however, a with very general acceptance. and determined attack upon his views was made by Karl Meister in the Rheinisches Museum, so
far as the date and nationality of the pilgrim are concerned but his arguments were in Monseigneur Duchesne's opinion 1 successfully met and answered by the Abbe Deconinck (Revue Biblique, 1910) and No one probably now adheres to the theory others. that Silvia was the pilgrim. Meister himself agrees with the other scholars already mentioned who have 2 to identified her with the abbess named Etheria, whom Valerius refers he only disputes her date and
;
amounting almost to a certainty, was that she was a fellow-countrywoman of Valerius, who had visited the East towards the end of the fourth century, i. e. in the reign of
theory,
nationality. FeVotin's
Dom
Theodosius (f395). Valerius himself lived in the second half of the seventh century, and is chiefly known as the biographer of his contemporary S. Fructuosus, bishop of Braga. He was abbat of the monasterium Rufianense, near Astorga, in the mountainous district of Gallaecia,' now called the Vierzo. In the letter mentioned above he speaks of Etheria
as extremo occidui marts Oceani littore exorta (sprung from the farthest shore of the western sea, the Ocean),
chap,
1
iv,
while a
See his Christian Worship, p. 541 S.P.C.K. It may, however, be mentioned that Eucheria or Egeria has been suggested as the correct form of the name, but Duchesne still (1918) definitely pronounces in favour of Etheria.
8
INTRODUCTION
ix
reading is uncertain, in chap, i., seems, nevertheless, almost necessarily to connect Etheria with the extremitas hut us occiduae plagae (the farthest part of If huius occurred in the first this western coast).
of these two expressions, the inference that she was from Gallaecia would be certain as it is, the phrases are so similar that very little doubt can be entertained
:
Rhone
(on p. 31) as
if it
were familiar both to herself and her readers, 2 she came from S.-E. Gaul, 3 and that her monastery was perhaps at Marseilles or Aries, where there were wellknown religious houses in the sixth century, to which he assigns her pilgrimage, viz. in the first half of the
reign of Justinian (f 565). considerable portion of Meister's upon the language used by Etheria.
argument
rests
goes into minute details over her usages, and the upshot of his examination is that she was not unlearned, but was familiar with the Scriptures, to the language of which
1
He
We may
that
compare the bishop of Edessa's remark (p. 42), she had taken the trouble to come de extremis porro
terris.
* This is practically the only reference to European topography in the extant portions of the narrative, and certainly implies acquaintance with the Rhone, but can hardly outweigh
the expressions of Valerius quoted. It is not unlikely that she crossed the Rhone at some point in her journey to the East. 3 These were among the arguments which had weighed with the earlier editors, who sought to identify the pilgrim with S. Silvia of Aquitaine.
INTRODUCTION
own
is
her
this seems to him to by, or formed from, the same l point to a later date and a different nationality than
the one
do not think she was for her time and country badly educated and unlearned nor unfamiliar with the Scriptures no one
accepted.
we have
We,
too,
But,
making
all
possible allowances
2
to
whom we owe
ably serious and frequent yet the fact remains that she wrote a very slipshod Latin her deficiencies cannot all be due to the carelessness or ignorance of the
And this is the more surprising because, she does not appear to have picked up any though or other native tongue in her journeys, yet she Syriac for she is by no means without knowledge of Greek
copyist.
:
number of Greek words and phrases 3 and transliterates them as a rule with accuracy. (See
uses quite a large
list
on
p. xlviii
f.)
ligence and exercises great powers of observation and appreciation of what she sees and hears wherever she And this makes her narrative always lively goes.
Ferotin has also gone briefly into the question of on pp. 26 f., and comes to the conclusion that there are several definite traces of the Spanish dialect. This serves to show how risky such investigations and conclusions usually are 2 Gamurrini held that he belonged to the great Benedictine house of Monte Cassino in the eleventh century. 3 Mrs. McClure has given two examples out of many in her note on p. 10, where Etheria's titles for her sisters find interesting parallels in the Greek and Coptic Ostraca and Letters, as published in Crum's Coptic Ostraca and Hall's Coptic and Greek Texts, but no great stress can be laid on that point, as similar forms of address are not infrequent in Patristic writings
1
Dom
language
in footnote 2
generally.
INTRODUCTION
ri
and entertaining in spite of the defects in her style and occasional obscurity of meaning. Stress has been laid, and not without reason, on the indications of Etheria's social importance which her 1 Wherever she went, she was well story affords. received and entertained by bishops, clergy and monks, who spared no pains in acting as ciceroni to her. She was provided with escorts of Roman soldiers when passing through a disturbed and dangerous district between Sinai and Egypt (p. 14), but dispensed with their services when it was no longer necessary to trouble them (p. 17). Though she often uses the first person Singular as the head of the pil" " grimage, yet she no less often speaks of we and "us" in a way which serves to show that she travelled
with a certain retinue of her
to
own
Sinai, she was also accompanied by ney certain holy guides (deductores], and again when she went to Mount Nebo. The cost of this expedition
Mount
from West to East and back again, which occupied several years, 2 must have been great, however abundant the hospitality was which she met with. In the
return from
tions the
"
Mount
"
Sinai to
animals
she used
1 Valerius only calls her beatissima sanctimonialis (nun), but three times in the (thirteenth century) catalogues of S. Martial of Limoges she is called abbatissa (Ferotin, p. 33). Fdrotin (p. 29) also draws attention to the coincidence, if it be nothing more, that the Emperor Theodosius was from Gallaecia and removed his family to Constantinople about the time of Etheria's
pilgrimage
this
may have
welcome
Court.
*
in the East, if
considerably helped to gain her a she was in any way connected with the
Cf. Valerius, chap.
i.
xii
INTRODUCTION
name
first
not camels, for she immediately speaks of them by as used by the natives of Paran but for the
;
part of the ascent of Mount Nebo (east of Jordan) she was able to use asellus (an ass or mule),
whereas she had to walk all the way up Mount Sinai, not even a sella (litter) being possible because of its great steepness. If she had been an ordinary pilgrim in those days she would have been content to go on foot the whole way. 1 Such considerations again were amongst those which led earlier editors to identify our pilgrim, as has been said above, with cither Galla Placidia or with Silvia of Aquitaine. But though
there
is
a certain
amount
with what is here contained, yet the terms in which the Lausiac History of Palladius 2 speaks of her in
connexion with her journey from Jerusalem to Egypt show that she was an ascetic of the most severe type in her practices, and that our pilgrim never shows herself to have been, however much she respects and admires asceticism in those she meets or visits. Three other matters remain to be considered which
bear upon the date of the narrative besides being of
general interest (a) Etheria speaks of the three bishops
:
whom
she
1 Valerius, chap. i. says paulisper duce Domino gradiendo pervenit ad sacralissima /oca, and chap. v. in hac vita pedibus Peregrinavit but these may be only conventional phrases of his for a pilgrimage. No stress can be laid either on Etheria's occasional use of ambulare (walk) to describe her movements, because it means any kind of movement, e.g. ambulare cum camelis sui's, p. 12, etc. 2 Chap. lv.: she was sixty years of age, never used water (except for the tips of her fingers before communicating), never slept on a bed nor travelled in a litter. This is her own account
,
of herself
INTRODUCTION
came
across in
xiii
Mesopotamia
(at
Haran)
apply
monk and
this
word "confessor"
to
bishops, although she has several times noted that they were or had been monks formerly, while the still
had been
whom
she saw on
1
Mount
Sinai
monk from an
and,
Mon-
seigneur Duchesne, "we know that" the three bishops who are called confessors " were victims of the persecution under Valens
"
"
(A.D.
can hardly be said to know this, but only that this is more likely that they were, other things being considered, than that they were those whom the Emperor
Anastasius, favouring the Monophysites, drove out in the early years of the sixth century (as Meister mainIs it, however, altogether certain that "contains).
fessor" in these three cases
"
367-378),
(p.
547).
We
is a frequent meaning of the those days (see Christian Worship, pp. 142, and Batiffol, Hist, du Brev. Rom., 173, 284 and 420 Still Eulogius, bishop of Edessa (j- 388), seems p. 57).
;
and
this
would no doubt
with our date for the pilgrimage. (b] Etheria quotes the bishop of Haran's statement to her that at that time the Persians held the district
in
Romans had no
place
The
the ascetics, ently a strict hermit living alone in the desert whose exploits she claims to have described on p. 39, are further characterized as maiores,
xiv
INTRODUCTION
As
the
the district to
the
King Sapor
seems to be
1 On the other explanation of the statement. hand, in the years 540-545 the Romans (under Beli-
supremacy
Meister allows that the pilgrimage must have taken For that reason, among others, place before then.
he assigns it to 534, or thereabouts. (c) Dr. Bernard has drawn our attention to another point in favour of the earlier date, which Meister seems to have overlooked. It is this. When we
come
to the pilgrimages
sixth century, e.g. the so-called Breviarium, and the pilgrimage of Theodosius (both of which may be
dated about 530), we find among the churches in " Jerusalem visited by pilgrims S. Peter in the house " of Caiaphas," and S. Sophia in the Praetorium." Etheria knows nothing of these she names only the Martyrium, the Anastasis, and the Church of Sion, and as her description of the holy city is rich in detail, it may be reasonably concluded that these were the only churches which she saw, and that her visit was prior to the erection of those named by Theo;
dosius.
that the pilgrimage must be prior to the building by Justinian of the Church of S. Mary Deipara in 543
but his reasoning is equally (as it certainly was) conclusive to establish its priority to the Breviarium
;
Theodosii.
1 It may be further noted that she had found ( Roman ^ soldiery with their tribune" stationed at Edessa (p. 32).
INTRODUCTION
2.
xv
ITS
EDITORS
That part of the text, which relates to Jerusalem, had been translated for the English version (2nd edition) of Duchesne's Origines du culte Chretien, which Mrs. McClure published in 1904. For it she was " mainly indebted," as she tells us, to her " brother the Rev. George Herbert, who had the advantage of many criticisms and suggestions from so eminent a scholar as the late Canon Chas. Evans, formerly Headmaster of King Edward's School, Birmingham." Mr. Herbert also translated the rest of the text which now appears with the same assistance. Moreover, he read through K. Meister's book on the subject and made a careful resume of his conclusions for her, of which use has been freely
made
in
this
Introduction.
were added to the text by Mrs. McClure herself, a few by the present writer. But, though the results of their joint labours had been set up in print for some time and she had spent a good deal of time in further research and thought over them with a view to writing the Introduction, she had to lay the
fifth
edition
of Christian Worship and seeing it through the press. This she had hardly done, when she was called away, just as she was intending to resume her work on the
Pilgrimage of Etheria last summer (1918). There are many reasons why we mourn her loss, and surely
among them we must reckon this, now permitted to share with her the
fruits
left
that
we
are not
of her long study brought to completion. She for the Introduction materials few behind very
xvi
INTRODUCTION
her papers, and though the present writer has done his best to utilize what there was
among
in all cases
and to reproduce what he thought to be in her mind on various points, yet he has had very largely to
start de novo in
sections,
and
more or
if
less
independently.
he has failed sometimes to do justice to her ideas and to the researches on which she had so long been engaged, and if there in arrangement is a certain amount of confusion and of discrepancy between her part of the volume and his. Mrs. McClure had frequently discussed points with friends of considerable expert knowledge like Archbe forgiven, therefore,
bishop Bernard,
He must
Monseigneur
Duchesne, Professor
Flinders Petrie, and others, and sometimes mentions them by name in her notes as having told her this
or that.
short
The
first
named
"Foreword"
to the
volume
as being
no longer suitable to
its
purpose, and
to use the additional facts that he there gave in his own Introduction. This he has been very glad to
and begs to acknowledge his indebtedness to his Grace for them, as well as to others who have contributed to the production of the book in its present form, and in particular to the Rev. A. D. Rigby, who has read through the proofs and made several valuable suggestions, which he has been able to
do,
adopt,
INTRODUCTION
3.
xvii
AND FROM
CONSTANTINOPLE)
have, of course, no hint of the route taken by Etheria from her home in the extreme west of
We
Constantinople and back again, unless her mention of the river Rhone be taken as indicating that she crossed it in her journey (possibly But it is interesting to note that, nearly at Aries). 1
Europe as
far
as
fifty
" Pilgrim of years before her, the anonymous which she the route Bordeaux" gives pursued, and
may possibly have been Etheria's too. She went out by land, she tells us, across the north of Italy, through Noricum, Pannonia, Moesia, Dacia and Thrace while on her return she embarked at Aulon in Epirus and crossed the South Adriatic to Hydruntum (Otranto) and reached home by Rome and Milan.
that
;
4.
A RESUME
The
narrative, as
middle of a sentence at the point where the pilgrim had already reached the megalithic remains at Kibroth Hattaavah in sight of the mountain range of Sinai. It may reasonably be assumed that the missing part contained the account of her journey from her Western home to Constantinople, 2 from
1 Dom Ferotin (p. 31) also suggests that another hint is the statement of Peter the Deacon (twelfth century), who made large use of her narrative in his tract De Sanctis Loci's, that she knew the flavour of the fish caught in the Mediterranean, but surely this is a little far-fetched. * For this see 3 above.
xviii
INTRODUCTION
thence through what is now Asia Minor to Antioch l and on to Jerusalem, the events of her stay there (apart from the description of the services which she gives later on, pp. 45 ff.) and her journey from
thence towards
Mount
Sinai
Suez) and Faran (or Paran). She had just before probably ascended "the mountain of Faran," where the hands of Moses were uplifted during the battle
with
Amalek (Exod.
xvii.
10
ff.),
into the plain (see p. xxii below). By this time the mountains lie only four miles distant, and, passing
along the wide, flat valley that lies between, they soon arrive at their foot on the western side. Sir C. W. Wilson has no doubt that the peak which she calls the Mount of God and made a point of
Musa
it
(the
traditional
site,
would actually be impossible for her to see what she was told she saw from the top (p. 6) like so many tourists she was misinformed. She went also to what she was told was Mount Horeb, where Elijah's cave was, 2 and there
not easy to fit in her visit to Alexandria perhaps she had taken ship from Tarsus or Seleucia, the port of Antioch for Alexandria, and reached Palestine from there, or had she gone straight to that part of Egypt, when she left Jerusalem and was returning from it for her visit to Sinai when we find her where the narrative now begins ? The latter alternative seems on the whole the more likely, though either of them will account for the expression used on p. 6 that " the Parthenian sea " which she was told she saw from Mount Sinai "leads to Alexandria." No doubt she called to mind her sea-trip then, and was not too critical of her guides' assertions. 2 No doubt the site which is now shown as such. In the sixth century Jebel el Deir, a little further off, was identified with Horeb.
is
:
INTRODUCTION
xix
"
" the very earnest prayer 1 she specially mentions with which they made the oblation. Thence they descended on the eastern side to the place of the
Burning Bush (where the present convent of S. Catherine is), and after visiting Taberah and several
other sites she returned down the valley again to Faran, and so back after two days' rest, by a toilsome route across the desert to Clysma, where she was again glad to rest for a while.
When
Egypt
before, she
had seen
something of Goshen as well as of the Thebaid and Alexandria, but she was now desirous to explore the
She found it route of the Exodus more carefully. was no easy journey of four stations across the " " the city of Arabia desert to what she calls (identified by experts with the Thou of Roman official documents, or possibly Bubastir), and the district was apparently at the time unsettled and in However, she was allowed an military occupation. The route lay past escort of soldiers, and set out. Epauleum (Pi-hahiroth), where there was a Roman garrison, then through two other forts, Migdol and Baal-zephon, and onwards by way of Etham, Succoth, Pithom (another fort) to Heroopolis (then only a large village), on a branch of the Nile and within the
borders of Egypt.
into
The remainder
of the journey
was then accomplished. It took her past Rameses, which was only four miles from her
Goshen
orationem impensissimam, a phrase which reminds us of Liturgy of S. Chrysostom cf. Valerius, chap, ii, cum omni exultatione et letitia inter crebra orationum
the
fKreviis iKtffia in the
:
preconia salutaris Deo obtulit hostias. * Only sixteen miles according to Etheria twenty-six according to Wilson.
but
it
should be
xx
goal,
INTRODUCTION
" the city of Arabia,"
which she reached on the eve of the Epiphany in time for the services. Here she sent back her military guard, as she was now on the high road from the Thebaid to Pelusium, and would have no difficulty, when she resumed her
At Rameses (Saft el journey towards Palestine. Henneh), which was once a great city, she found nothing but ruins remaining except two great statues " " cut out of one great Theban stone and an ancient
sycomore famous for its healing virtue, which they " " " called the Tree of Truth l according to the bishop her to meet there. of Arabia," who had come out His account also was that Pharaoh had burnt the
place to the ground in anger at the Israelites' escape. Etheria's route lay for two days right through the
land of Goshen along the banks of the Nile, and she was greatly struck with the fertility and beauty of
this district (p. I?). 2
Betham Edwards, which appeared in Harper's Magazine, October 1886, we read the following interesting comments on this " This was before the submerging of the field of Zoan by lake Menzaleh. Mas'oudy, the Arab traveller and historian of the tenth century, The place occupied by the lake thus describes it
: ' ' '
:
its
equal in
1 "E. Naville in Goshen, pp. 12, 20, quotes inscriptions on the monuments of Saft, in which the sycomore tree is mentioned.
We
"
ing,
see that in the fourth century the tradition was yet survivthough clothed in Christian garb" (Bernard, p. 22 .).
:
Mrs. McClure has left a note among her papers to this effect Certain sycomores on the verge of the desert are still venerated. The Fellahs put vases of water under them. If asked
for
what
S)
uberrimas
fertilitates
describens.
INTRODUCTION
Egypt
for fine air,
fertility
xxi
and wealth.
Gardens,
plantations of palms and other trees, vines and cultiIn short, vated fields met the eye in every direction. there was not a province in Egypt except the
Fayum,
district
the sea.
This to be compared with it for beauty. was distant about one day's journey from But in the year 251 of the era of Dio.
.
cletian (A. D.
535) the
and submerged that part of the plain which now is called the Lake of Tennis, and every year the
covered the Mrs. this an additional corroboration of her conviction that Meister's date for the pilgrimage was wrong and it is certainly a remarkable sidelight on the narrative, if the date and the other
inundation increased, so that at last
it
"
We
know
that
the late
"
and Pelusium on
the sea coast she mentions only one place that she passed through, viz. Tathnis, which is taken as more 1 likely to be the ancient Tahpanhes (or Daphno)
than Tanis (Zoan), but the two places were not far apart, and the relevancy of the extract just given is not affected. Without further description of her journey Etheria
arrived once
she undertook from there, viz. to make the ascent of Mount Nebo in the land of Moab. This time she
was accompanied by
and monks.
They
crossed
the Jordan
1
xxii
INTRODUCTION
much
delighted with the panoparticulars of which she
to the
Holy
City.
Her
through Jericho again and then northJordan valley until they came first to they visited Melchizedek's church and Aenon, Thisbe (Elijah's native place) and the brook Cherith, and so, crossing the Jordan,
into the Ausitis (Uz), when they made the buryingplace of Job at Carneas (or Dennaba) the final point
in
their journey.
"built
by
some
unfinished.
Here
again
she and her companions made their communion at the special oblation, which the bishop offered at her
1 request before they returned once more to Jerusalem. But there is a gap in the MS. in the middle of the
account of this tour. After leaving the brook Cherith they continued up the valley until they saw on the left towards Phoenicia (on the N. W.) "a great and very high mountain which extended," and there the gap begins, and when the story is taken up again we are at Job's burial-place. Valerius (chap, ii.), mentions several mountains as visited by her, which are omitted in our fragments Faran, where Moses hands with but that no doubt she uplifted, prayed described before our fragments begin (p. i); Tabor, the scene of our Lord's Transfiguration Hermon, where the Lord was wont to rest Himself with His disciples, and the mountain where our Lord taught His disciples the beatitudes, etc. The shape of
:
1 cibo Verbi Dei Cf. Valerius, chap. ii. agens gratias Deo carpebat tier intrepida.
:
refecta, infatigabiliter
INTRODUCTION
Tabor, which
is
xxiii
conical
and not very high, does not One would think, there-
fore, that it was part of the Hermon range that she saw, and that by the time she saw it, she had turned east to cross the Jordan.
The time had now come for Etheria to return to own country, but still full of energy and desire to see as much as she could, she determined to make
her
a big detour from Antioch, which would lie in her direct course by land to Constantinople, and visit
in
from there several important and interesting places N.-W. Syria and Mesopotamia before turning her face westwards. Accordingly, when she left Antioch she went first to Hierapolis, and from there reached the great river Euphrates, which she can only compare with the Rhone for its width and strong current. They crossed it in a ship and came to Bathnae (in Osrhoene), and from thence arrived at Edessa, the chief goal of her desires, where she stayed three days and had a busy and very interesting time. Matters of interest are involved in this portion of the narrative, which deserve attention. Etheria expressly says she went to Edessa to pray
at the martyrium of S. Thomas the Apostle, whose whole body is there. And when she arrived there, she and her companions went at once to the church She found the and the martyrium of S. Thomas. had in a new and beautiful been rebuilt church great form (nova compositione). This the Emperor Valens had finished in 372 (Socr., Hist. Ecd. iv. 18). Her
all
certainly, to
imply
the
martyrium was
church.
The
xxiv
INTRODUCTION
new church in 394, when Cyrus was who had succeeded Eulogius on his death in bishop, to corroborate the date we This seems 388. again
transferred to the
have accepted
for
her pilgrimage.
She visited many other martyria in the town, but makes no specific allusion to the famous likeness of
our Lord, though it is said to have been held in veneration at least as early as the middle of the
fourth century.
She does, however, describe two other striking likenesses which she was taken to see, though that can
hardly be more than a coincidence
viz.
the marble
busts or images (archiotepa) of King Abgar and his son Magnus 1 in the royal palace (p. 33).
Etheria gives us likewise an account that will be read with interest of what she was told about the This letters of Abgar to our Lord and His answer.
account
13), in
differs
(Hist. Eccl.
ii.
enemy
mentioning the promise of Christ that no should ever enter the city. Eusebius knows
historians relate
nothing of such a promise of immunity, though later it (see Bernard's note, p. 36), and it
was known
to Ephraem Syrus (about 390). She also mentions that she had copies of these letters at home.
Meister points out that Rufinus's translation of Eus. Hist. Eccl. into Latin was not complete before 398 at
the earliest, from which he argues that copies would not be known in the West so soon as the date assigned
ourselves.
But there
other sources or authorities, Greek as nor was Etheria, Latin, besides Eusebius
;
According of Christian Biog., several Edessene princes bore the name Ma'nO.
to Smith, Diet,
s.v.
Abgar,
INTRODUCTION
xxv
perhaps, quite so ignorant of Greek as is usually thought, and her copies may have been in that
language after all. From Edessa she went on to Haran and stayed there two days, one of them being April 24, the festival of S. Helpidius (see note on p. 37) 1 She would very much have liked to penetrate farther east to Nisibis, and then on to Ur of the Chaldees but the bishop dissuaded her on the ground that that district was
-
of the Persians, no longer the She was content, therefore, to out and see the well from which six miles go only Rachel's watered flocks, at a place called Jacob
the hands
(see p. 39).
now in Romans
Fadana
(the
Paddan-Aram
of Gen. xxviii.
2).
She
then returned to Antioch and pursued her westward journey, through Cilicia, till she came to Tarsus.
Here she made another detour by way of Pompeiopolis (or Soli) and Corycus (both on the sea coast),
order to pay a special visit to the tomb of S. in Isauria, where she met to her great delight her dear friend Marthana, whom she had known in
in
Thecla
Jerusalem (see note on p. xxix). Coming back to Tarsus she made her way without further delay by Mopsocrene (which she calls Mansocrenae) and under Mount Taurus through Cappadocia, Galatia and Bithynia, until she arrived at Chalcedon, and stopped
there for the famous shrine of S. Euphemia, and 2 There she visited finally arrived at Constantinople.
1 The ascete of this name described by Palladius (Laus. Hist. chap, xlviii.) is apparently a different person. 1 She had taken the same route along the great Roman high road on her way out from Constantinople, more than three years before, and on that occasion also had come to know the shrine of S. Euphemia (p. 43),
xxvi
INTRODUCTION
:
the Church of the Apostles (p. 44) and many other of the martyria with which the city abounded and, still indefatigable, tells her beloved sisters that, while
she
also,
preparing this narrative for them there and seems, drawing up her account of the services and rites which she had witnessed at Jerusalem, she will not actually leave for home till she has crossed
is
it
into Asia once again and visited the martyrium of If anything furtiier remains to S. John at Ephesus.
tell
and her
life is
or in another
letter.
spared, she will relate it in person And so she brings her story to
Etheria practically gives no description and makes no comment on the Church organization of the districts through which she journeyed, except that she mentions (i) the bishops and other clergy whom she met, often saying that they had been, or still were, from among the ranks of the monastic orders, and (2) the churches in which they ministered. At the end of the fourth century Egypt was an independent province under the Patriarch of Alexandria, but the part of Egypt she mostly mentions would hardly have been organized by that time into what afterwards became known as Augustanica Prima, with fourteen The bishops, the chief of whom was at Pelusium.
Valerius's characteristic summary, for all its loose grammar rhetorical exaggeration, is worth quoting totius mundi itinera non quassabat, maria procellosa ac flumina ingentia non
1
and
conclusit, montium immanitas diraque asperitas non imminuit, gentium im-biarum truculentissima atrocitas non perterruit
(chap.
Hi.).
INTRODUCTION
xxvii
bishop of Jerusalem had had special privileges granted him at the Council of Nicaea (325), but he was still " under the jurisdiction of his provincial metropolitan, the Bishop of Caesarea" (Duchesne,
op.
and therefore probably the clergy ct't., p. 27) west of the Jordan she had to do with outside the Holy City were likewise dependent on the latter.
:
the east and north-east of the Jordan as far as (p. 31) the places she visited were probably all in the domain of the Patriarch of Antioch,
To
Hierapolis
be under the
a matter of
common knowledge
ticism took
third
its rise in
persecution,
century, perhaps as the result of the Decian many of those who then fled to the desert
never returning, and that from the beginning of the fourth century the movement developed mainly along two lines which were almost contemporaneous 1 (i)
:
some places they lived near one another in small companies and met together for common worship on
Saturdays and Sundays (2) under the rule of S. who founded the conventual type of monPachomius,
:
Here the brethren lived together in much larger bands, and not only combined for common
asticism.
1 The monks of Nitria and Scete, to the south of Alexandria, would more or less represent a third (see Lowther Clarke, J>. Basil, p. 33), and Etheria may have come across them when she was at Alexandria (p. 18).
xxviii
INTRODUCTION
worship but were organized for regular work (on the land, etc.), though they took no meals together and were each allowed to practise that amount of austerity
which
fixed
his strength
and
zeal
Thus obligatory on all. the spirit of individualism was a strongly marked feature in both these systems. It was from Egypt
by way of Rome that monasticism was quite early brought to western Europe, and there for some time it retained many of its more especially Eastern characteristics. The community of feeling and atmosphere, therefore, between the monastic institutions of the West and those of Egypt, Syria and Palestine
was considerable, and will account for the readiness with which Etheria was received everywhere on her journeys and for the highly appreciative way in which she commends the saintliness of her entertainers and
informants, who were in the greater stances closely associated with the
ascetic
life.
number
of in-
monastic and
full
The
rule of S.
organization almost at once (like Minerva from the head of Jove), spread rapidly, but into Palestine the
monastic
tury, not Hilarion.
life
by him, but by a disciple of S. Antony, There " the original impulse to the eremitic life survived, and the cenobitic ideal made little headway either now or later. In Syria and Mesopotamia asceticism was, so to speak, indigenous."
2
1 See what Etheria herself says on this point in connexion with the Lenten fast (pp. 61 f.). * Lowther Clarke, S. asi7, p. 41. I am indebted for my information throughout this section to him and to Mrs. McClure's
INTRODUCTION
Consequently most
that Etheria
if
xxix
not
all
the
Syria and Mesopotamia were probably either of the strictly eremitic or semieremitic kind (see e.g. p. 37).
in Palestine,
met
monks (and In the former part of the narrative her regular name for them is monachi. have mentioned where the three instances, already (p. xiii) she also brings in the word ascitis (aoxr)Tr)<;) and
uses to describe these
We
confessor
"
in
The
ascitis
whom
Jordan was evidently a solitary, and so probably was the priest on Mount Sinai also the monachus at Thisbe, it would seem (p. 28). A number of them came into Haran from the Mesopotamia desert on the Feast of S. Helpidius (April 24). At Seleucia in Isauria we read for the first time of women (vtrgines) as well as men, the former under the direction of a deaconess named Marthana 1 (see p. 42) whom she had previously met at Jerusalem and also there she first uses the term apotactitae (anoraxTiTOi), which for her includes members of both sexes. This term recurs several times at Jerusalem, where monazontes
:
:
(/iovdovTf)
extracts from
and parthenae
(naoQivoi)
are
likewise
Gasquet, English Monastic Life, who in turn Dom Butler's masterly introduction to the Lausiac History of Palladius. 1 She is mentioned as a worthy follower of S. Thecla by the pseudo-Basil of Seleucia. According to Theodoret, Relig. Hist, c. 29, SS. Marana and Cyra visited both Jerusalem and S. Thecla's tomb early in the fifth century, but, if the date we have adopted for Etheria's pilgrimage is correct, the close similarity of the two names is a mere coincidence.
frequently quotes
xxx
INTRODUCTION
mentioned. 1 Monazontes should strictly denote " solitaries," but so should monachi: probably neither have always their strict significance in Etheria's vocabulary. The term apotactitae seems to have been an unusual one for Christian ascetics. Palladius in his Lausiac History frequently uses the verb anordao6cu of those who renounced the pleasures and pursuits of the world, and Cassian gave his book the title of de institutis renuntiantium, where renuntiantes bears the same sense, but otherwise apotactites was one of the names assumed by such ascetic heretics
Manichaean Encratites, etc. 2 Evidently, however, in Etheria's usage it is more or less equivalent to monachi (monazontes] and parthenae (virgines) and
as the
has not the least sinister association. One other word, which is connected with this subEtheria constantly ject, needs a little explanation.
It follows from speaks of the monks' monasteria. what has been said that with her in the singular monasterium means a cell, mostly that of a solitary, and in the plural monasteria means a collection of cells, where monks were living under semi-eremetic conditions, more probably under the method of S. Anthony than under the rule of S. Pachomius. Thus the aged priest on Mount Sinai came out de monasterio suo (p. 4), and the bishop of " the city of Arabia,"
whom
she had known ever since she was in the Thebaid, had been brought up a pisinno (from his
boyhood) in monasterio.
is
1 She there also refers to laid (p. 45) as distinguished from clerid.
:
96)
Cf. Epiph., Haer. Ixi. 506-513. They were condemned by edicts of Theodosius in 381 and 383 (Bernard, p. 43).
INTRODUCTION
xxxi
quite worthy of further notice, because Etheria tells us " that in consequence he was both well learned l in the
scriptures
"
and chastened
in his
whole
life,"
besides
being
in receiving
pilgrims"
charming picture of an old-world church For instances of monasteria (collections dignitary.] of cells) we may refer to what is said of them under Mount Sinai on p. 5, where the monks' successful cultivation of the lower slopes is well described, and again to those she visited round Rachel's well near Haran, and the monasteria sine numero virorum ac mulierum which she found surrounding the church at Seleucia. 2 These last were all enclosed in a high wall which had been raised to protect them from the
truly a
who
infested
the district
42).
7.
Etheria's
(either
in
name
"
for the
singular or
Holy
Bible is Scriptura the plural, and with or Twice she uses the ").
(pp. 16 and 40). She characterizes the Pentateuch, from which she naturally quotes most often, as "the (holy) books of The most interesting of the titles she (holy) Moses."
uses,
however,
is
Scripture of the
almost
1
She says the same thing of the bishop of Haran (p. 38). Valerius (chap, i.) uses two different words in describing Etheria's visit to the Thebaid, viz. visitans monachorum .
2
.
.
anachoretarum ergascongregationum cenobia, similiter et tula, but has no special reference to the conditions of living she found among the monks in other parts.
. .
xxxii
INTRODUCTION
f.)
N. T. pp. 504
ygcKpai XO.VOVOQ
doubted whether Credner's term had any justification. He himself from the (circ. quoted Amphilochius 380) following as the nearest approach to it
:
OVTO?
xavcbv &v
sir)
TWV deoTtvevoratv
contem-
porary) has given us an even more exact equivalent. As Bishop Westcott says, Canon here must mean
the authoritative
rule
or
standard,
by which the
in
been
ratified
and
approved
the
Her quotations and references to the books of the Old Testament usually give a close representation of the Greek of the Septuagint, although we may imagine from her imperfect knowledge of Greek that they are based on a pre- Vulgate Latin version, not on the Septuagint itself. The proper names she quotes are, as we have shown in the text, good instances of this, and to these we may add one
perhaps the clearest of all on p. 26 her Quodollagomor (cf. Gen. xiv.) represents almost exactly the XodoMoyojuog, while our Eng. Chedorlaomer represents the Vulg. Chodorlahomor. She has, however, made a slip in calling him " king " instead of king of Elam see note of Nations in loco. There are a few variations or divergencies
is
:
which
LXX
which are worthy of note, though it is, of course, doubtful how far they are due to carelessness in her
own
The
principal of
Exod.
iii.
INTRODUCTION
latchet
vnodrjjua,
xxxiii
of thy shoe). Here the but see Gen. xiv. 23, and S.
LXX
only gives
i.
probably account for her version. is found in Origen (Lat. works). (2) p. 9. Exod. xxxii. 27, de porta in porta. Here we should no doubt read in flortam(LXX, ini nv).r]v),
as the abl.
(3) PI
makes no
Gen.
sense.
5-
xlvii. 6.
LXX
one another
LXX
she has
(Vulg. in Optimo loco), and she adds in terra Arabiae, which the omits, while the Vulg. reads et trade eis terrain Gessen. Probably Etheria's is meant to be only a loose
fiefaioTfl yfi
in
terra lessen,
LXX
paraphrase, not an exact transcription. For the readings and (4) and (5), pp. 1 8 and 19. the explanations of them in Deut. xxxii. 49, and
xxxiv.
8,
see notes in
loco.
In quoting apparently Numb. x. 12, and (6) p. 13. xxxiii. 36, she gives this rendering filii Israel
.
. .
ambulaverunt
iter
suum
to
the
LXX
ii.
e^fjoav
and
anfiQav (Vulg. profecti), but she is probably thinking rather of such phrases as nvQeveodai or noielodai odov
e.g.
Prov.
TQfftov^
.
. .
ayaOdi;,
iii.
and Judges
I
p. 6.
She
follows the
;
LXX
version of
Kings which
p. 36.
xxxiv
is
it
INTRODUCTION
same
as Eliezer of
the
is
Damascus
(xv. 20),
p.
though
25,
it
merely an assumption.
Again, on
appears that she accepted the identification of the Salem of Melchizedek (Gen. xiv. 18) with the place
of that
name near
Jerusalem (cf. Jerome ad Evang, 27, and Onom.}. Her statement on p. 32 that Batanis (Batnae) is mentioned in the Bible is, so far as we know, without foundation l also that Moses was born at Taphnis or Tatnis (p. 17), and wrote the book of Deuteronomy
:
in
the plains of
Moab
(p. 19).
the
New
:
Testament are
not very numerous, and the following are the only ones that need to be commented on
(i)
In S.
pray" and
(2)
.
. .
Mark
"
and
non).
In S.
(bael
Luke
UQov
.
. .
(p. 71),
.
xal
et accessit
et ipse
avulsus est
If so,
et orabat).
mistake
for
abscessitl
(p.
83),
she has
.
non
.
is lav /y Idco ov jur) TUOTEVOO) no doubt a brief paraphrase, not a quotation. (4) In her reference to S. John xix. 30, on p. 77, she uses the
.
Greek
much more
expressive
phrase than
the
Was
Mr. Rigby suggests that perhaps she has confused Batanaea = Bashan (mod. Arab. Bathaniyeh '), which
'
it
is
with not
unlikely.
INTRODUCTION
8.
xxxv
AND
preceding
REFERENCES
f These passages have been commented on
pages.
in the
xxxvi
INTRODUCTION
PAGE
PAGE
St.
St. S.
Mark
Luke
xv.
ff.
73
John
xii. I ff.
ii.
22
.
ff.
56
71 73
xviii.
28
ff.
txxii. 41
xxiii. I
ff.
fxix. 30, 38
ff.
64 73 77
83 87 36 36
fxx. 19, 25
xxiv.
S.
zi.
50 ff.
John iii. 23 29 f.
9.
87 27 64
Acts
ii.
i.
9
(
ff.
i ff.
vii.
||
Gen.
xii.
THE
Besides these
lessons
the
Bible
which describe the places she visited and the actions of holy men which are there connected with them, Etheria on p. 43 mentions in set terms the Acts of S. Thecla, as having been read by her or to her, when she was at Seleucia. Her story, which is closely connected with that of S. Paul, is referred to by Tertullian, de Bapt. c. 17, about A.D. 200, as well as by Hilary of Poictiers and Jerome in the fourth century. The Acts of Paul and Thecla were, at one time, almost looked upon as included in the Canon. 1 At Edessa also she read besides the usual
(Bible?) lessons
"some
It is
himself"
here
is.
(p. 32).
Acts of Thomas were a Gnostic document, not specially connected with Edessa nor at all likely to be used by the orthodox
The well-known
Etheria.
The
earlier
legend
made
out
that
S.
Thomas
the Apostle sent Thaddeus to Edessa, the later version identified the two. Probably what
INTRODUCTION
xxxvii
quoted for her benefit at Haran (Charrae), she tells her beloved sisters that her informants were always most careful to quote from and she to listen to only the most reliable stories, whether from the scriptures themselves or from the gesta mirabilia of holy men (i. e. ascetae}?- some of whom were dead and some
still
Epiphany. Etheria leaves practically no room doubt that both in Egypt and at Jerusalem the Feast of the Nativity was kept on January 6, not on December 25, and this is in accordance with what we know to be the general usage of those churches otherwise. Our Christmas Day had distinctly a Western origin, not having been introduced into the East before 375, and that was at Antioch. Juvenal, bishop of Jerusalem (f458), is said to have accepted
1.
for
it,
the
but Cosmas Indicopleustes, a native of Egypt, in first half of the sixth century, distinctly witnesses
in Jerusalem then. For the regard to Christmas see Duchesne, pp. 259 ff., and Conybeare, Rituale Armenorum,
its
against
op. cit.
p. 512.
2.
it
observance
vicissitudes in
The
Etheria's
name
for
simply quadragesimae de Epiphania (the fortieth day from E.), the common name for it being Hypapante (vnanavzij, or meeting, i.e. of the Holy Family with Simeon and Anna). This is the earliest extant
is
1 These she here calls monachi maiores, having applied the same epithet already to the hermits, who came down from the desert hills of Mesopotamia to keep the feast of S. Helpidius and commemorate holy Abraham at Haran.
xxxviii
INTRODUCTION
it.
notice of
local
it
Naturally
it
commemoration
in
the
spread towards the West in the sixth century. lasted eight weeks when 3. Lent at Jerusalem Etheria was there, the forty days (or more strictly
forty-one days) being
made up by omitting
all
the
eight
Sundays and
Eve.
the Saturdays except Easter This prolongation of the season is not menall
tioned elsewhere. 1
But
it
may
retention of the Saturday as a festival (not in Lent only) was long general in the East, if not to some
extent in the West. Etheria says that in Jerusalem they call Quadragesimal Eortae (i.e. eoorat, feasts), but this is probably a mistake on her part due to her imperfect knowledge of Greek, eoQtr) (sing.) being
commonly used for the great yearly festival of Easter. 4. The observances of Holy Week are all of great interest in view of the early date of the record. They
included the following
(a)
:
The
children's
waving
of
olive
or
palm
again,
This,
The
celebration of the
late afternoon of
the
for
(c]
(d)
this practice see further below on p. xiii. The adoration of the Cross and the observance of the Three Hours on Good Friday. King Solomon's ring and the ancient anointing horn of the kings were also exhibited and venerated.
5.
Ascension
1
Day
at
ceremonial, and
See Bernard,
52,
and Duchesne,
p. 243.
INTRODUCTION
as
xxxix
one would have expected. Curiously enough, however, on the afternoon of Pentecost (p. 87) meetings were held both in the Eleona and in the Imbomon at which the feast of the Ascension was
6.
1 again commemorated.
The
(a)
(b)
(c)
Mattins
Sext.
(at
dawn).
(d)
(e) None. (f) Lucernare (Vespers). No mention is made of Prime or Compline. These services were open to all who wished to attend, but naturally the chief part of the congregation consisted of ascetics of both sexes (monazontes et parthenae,
p. 45).
at
Three psalms 2 and three prayers were said each office, and Etheria was agreeably impressed
(to
with the
her unfamiliar)
3
hymns
"
and
"
"
antiphons
"
being used.
hymns
service
The practice of singing or saying other than the Psalms of David in Divine
;
was of very early origin, certainly in the and almost as certainly in the West so that East, in any case Etheria would not have been entirely
1 Is it possible that this portion of the narrative has been But dislocated, or that Etheria herself has blundered here ? see Conybeare, Rituale Armenorum, p. 509. 1 Cf. Cassian, Inst. 3. 3. 3 The use of " Proper'' Psalms, etc., is said not to have been introduced into the Gallican Church before the middle of the
fifth
century (Bernard).
xl
INTRODUCTION
it.
unaccustomed to
But
in
largely in consequence of the efforts of the orthodox or catholics to counteract the spread of Arian views by
means -hymn-writing and singing had received a very great impetus, and such compositions, whether metrical (as in the West) or merely rhythmical (as in the East), had become a regular part of public
this
worship
throughout Christendom.
stantinople
we know
that S.
couraged their use, and at himself written hymns for the purpose, 1 while at Edessa the famous Syriac hymns of Ephraem belong to about the same period, and were intended as a
counterblast to the unsound teaching conveyed by the older songs of Bardesanes. With regard to the "antiphons" which Etheria mentions, it is difficult to say whether she means compositions strictly so
because they were sung antiphonally, or in " " anthems as we call them, for both kinds were already probably in use. 2 It is not necessary to repeat here what Mrs. has said in her footnote on p. 46 by way of McClure " to possible explanation of the obscure expression which occurs the bishop's hand," frequently approach
called,
in Etheria's
With regard
in
her narrative, it must be remembered that it still has for her its original meaning of "dismissal," and is so
1 The poems of Prudentius (a Spaniard) were not used as church hymns till somewhat later (in the fifth century). 2 See Diet, of Christian Antiq., s,v.; and for much further " information on this subject as a whole the article on Hymns " " in Diet, of in the same Dictionary, and on Verse-writers Christian Biog. may be consulted.
INTRODUCTION
xli
It does not seem to rendered in this translation. have been introduced into church phraseology much before the end of the fourth century, and she herself does not employ it till she begins to describe the services at Jerusalem (pp. 46 ff.). There she applies it to all kinds of meetings for public worship, and much more often to the daily or occasional offices than to
the Liturgy properly so called, where, however, she careful to distinguish between the missa catechumenorum and the missa fiddium. Her usual terms
is
and
offerre,
gregation
One
usually said procedere for its celebration. quite new feature of this edition, on which
is
Mrs. McClure had spent much care, is the use that she has made in her notes of the Old Armenian
Lectionary
for the
and
purpose of identifying the psalms sung or said at Jerusalem during her evidence," says Archbishop Bernard,
supplies an interesting confirmation of the accuracy of Etheria's observations as to the nature of the
which she was present" for the frequent its rubrics to Jerusalem sites are shown to be genuine and to belong to an early period by the statements of more than one Armenian father in
services at
:
references in
the
will
first
The
information
Mr. Conybeare's Ritualr. is based upon two MSS., it Armenorum, pp. 5076*".: one at Paris in the Bibliotheque National of the
eighth century, the other, at Oxford in the Bodleian, of the fourteenth century, and upon the commentary of Gregory Asharuni (early eighth century).
7.
1
Various details are given, in particular Fasting. See Conybeare, Rituale Armenorum, pp. 181 and 508.
xlii*
INTRODUCTION
with regard to Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent (p. 59) and the extra strict fast of the Apotactitae but the rules are not always quite clear, (pp. 61 f.) owing to Etheria's use of Missa (dismissal) for other services than the Eucharist, as the length of the fast
;
She speaks
89),
Pentecost
(p.
was
still
in
which as theory to be
in Western Christendom (see Dowden, Ch. Year and Kalendar, pp. 85 f.). We find references to it in S. Athanasius (Apol. de fuga, 6) and in the
observed
It is perhaps more Apostolic Constitutions (v. 20). than a coincidence that one of the Ember seasons in the West was fixed by the date of Pentecost. No relaxation was allowed on account of a martyr's
festival falling
salem
c.
cf.
"
51.
8.
The usual liturgical hour on and Saturdays Sundays was the third (9 a.m.), but " on " Station days throughout the year the ninth a year, on Maundy Thursday (see Once (3 p.m.). it was even later, i.e. after the tenth hour above),
The
Eucharist.
(4 'p.m.).
This
(pp. cit.
last
usage
is
stated
by Archbishop
Bernard
in
after a meal, that of the African with Church conformity c. of and A.D. S. (Council 397, Carthage, 29, Aug. Ep. ad Januar. c. 7), but Etheria seems to me very distinctly to state that they took their food after, not before (p. 71). Otherwise during Lent the Liturgy
was celebrated only on Saturdays and Sundays, and not on Wednesdays and Fridays. 1
*
Cf,
Council of Laod.
c. 49.
INTRODUCTION
It
is
xliii
language emtime was not Greek, ployed Syriac, though interpretations of lessons and instructions were given in Syriac for the benefit of those who did not know
interesting to note that the
in service
Greek
(p. 94).
as
1
many
The
as wished to,
of
all.
posture of the
preacher seems to have been that of sitting (as in the Jewish synagogue), while the congregation stood. Applause as well as other signs of emotion were
often called forth
9.
The
use of incense
for
(p. 94).
p. 49,
but
fumigation before the Liturgy (or at apparently all events the avayoQa itself) begins, not actually as
part of the ceremonial. 10. Etheria was struck
eleison as a
by the use of the Kyrie numerous choir boys response by the recitation of the names from by standing during
the
the diptychs at vespers (p. 47). 2 The evidence goes to show that this formula was not introduced into
the
West
of Christendom
till
fifth
century.
3rd Canon of the Council of Vaison (529) speaks of it as having reached Provence by way of Rome and Milan probably it reached
:
The
Spain somewhat
pp. ii6fT.
11.
later.
th
1
>se
Holy Baptism. The course of preparation of catechumens who became competentes during
See pp. 51, 56, and 85. Cf. Apost. Const, ii. 57. possible from the way in which the phrase is explained that the Latin equivalent, Domine, miserere^ was used in her
2
It is
own
country.
xliv
INTRODUCTION
Lent and the Baptism itself on Easter Eve is fully described, and likewise the further instructions given
to the
tide.
newly baptized during the ensuing Easterdescriptions tally in most respects with what may be gathered from S. Cyril of Jerusalem's
The
eighteen Catechetical Lectures delivered to the competentes and the five on the Mysteries delivered to the neophytes in 386.
12.
1 3.
The
p.
xlvi below.
Martyr Memorials. That of S. Thomas at Edessa that of S. Elpidius at Haran is mentioned on p. 32 on p. 37 of S. Thecla at Seleucia in Isauria on p. 42; of S. Euphemia at Chalcedon on p. 43, and of S. John at Ephesus on p. 44. Among the other churches and sites Etheria visited holy (besides those in the Sinai be mention made of the Church of may district) Melchizedek (p. 28), the garden of S. John Baptist at Aenon (p. 27), and the grave of Job at Carneas She gives a full description on p. 20 of (p. 29). the scheme of devotions she and her companions
;
used on each occasion, the order followed being this prayer, reading, psalm, prayer for less full accounts see pp. 7 f., 21 f., 26 f., 32, 35 f., 40 and 43.
:
14. Officers of the Church. Except Marthana, the deaconess (p. 42), who had been at Jerusalem and was afterwards in charge of nuns at Seleucia, the only one who needs to be specified here is the archdeacon. He is four times mentioned at Jerusalem as " " to announce the place of the next lifting his voice service and to invite the congregation to attend
The same official is men(pp. 63, 65, 70 and 87). tioned as assisting the bishop when he confers minor
orders in the Statuta ecclesiae antiqua.
These used
INTRODUCTION
to
xlv
be
considered
as
Council of Carthage (398), but they are now usually assigned to the end of the fifth century and held to be of Galilean origin (Duchesne op. cit. p. 132). In
any case
this
is
archdeacon
in the East.
and
Coptic and Syrian Churches ordained to his office with special rites (see Denzinger, Ritus Orientalium, ii, pp. 10, 70, 86, and
is
142).
At various places Etheria was pre15. Eulogiae. sented with these after service, e.g. at Sinai, p. 5,
where she explains them to be "gifts of the fruits grown on the mountain," and at Nebo on p. 21, and out of the garden or orchard of S. John the Baptist on p. 28. See explanation in footnotes in loco of this, which can hardly be considered a liturgical matter in the form in which Etheria mentions it.
ii.
THE CHURCHES
to these
Holy City itself Etheria mentions or refers Church buildings 1. The old Cathedral Church on Mount Sion, which in her day was no longer regularly used for service. The congregation, however, went there (her expression \sprocedituror itur] on Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent, on Easter Day and its Octave, and on Whitsunday. 2. The Anas fast's (Resurrection), on the traditional
In the
:
site
3.
of the
Holy Sepulchre.
the Cross,
The Sanctuary of
on the
traditional
site
wood
xlvi
INTRODUCTION
etc.,
(a)
This consisted of two parts: were kept). ante Crucem, an open court (atrium, locus subdivanus) with cloisters, and (b) post Crucem, a smaller
roofed-in building.
4. The Martyrium (ecclesia maior], which was also post Crucem^ but exactly where in relation to 3 (b) is not quite clear (see conjectural plan on p. 137 of Bernard's edition) the great doors (valvae maiores)
;
of
it
(de
quintana
parte)>
These
by the
Emperor Constantine in 337, the same year in which the Church of the Apostles (mentioned by Etheria, p. 44) had been completed by him in Constantinople. He also built the baptistery near the Anastasis
referred to
on
p. 79.
bishop's house (p. 50) was probably close this group of buildings, no longer on Mount Sion.
The The
by
Anain
stasis
September,
close connexion with the Discovery of the Cross and its Exaltation at the same time of the year and on
very Jerusalem on this occasion, not only of monks from Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt (especially the Thebaid), but also of bishops and clergy and the faithful laity, and the churches were decked out as at Easter and Epiphany
Temple
concourse
assembled
in
(see pp. 95
f.).
(Vit. Const,
iii.
ii.
26.
INTRODUCTION
In the environs of Jerusalem she mentions
1
. :
xlvii
The Church
at
Bethlehem
built
Constantine, with the help of his This was the appointed place for the night (p. 54). of the Epiphany and for the Ascension festival. 2. The Church Eleona (Acuo>v) on the Mount of
in
The hnbomon
(iv pa)/u<jj)*
the Ascension, which was higher up on the Mount. It seems to have been rather an enclosed site with
seats than a regular church (see p. 66).
4. The "graceful" Church in Gethsemane, which was no doubt lower down than Eleona (p. 71). 5. The Church on the road to Bethany where Mary, Lazarus's sister, met our Lord (p. 63). 6. The Lazarium in Bethany itself. No particulars are to hand of these buildings that the present writer is aware of.
12.
of Introduction.
p. 33.
campsemus
way,"
1
(?
xdpycojuev)
= turn,
/'.
e.
"
go out of the
p. 20.
See Eus. Vit. Const, iii. 43. here seems to represent the Heb. bamah "high " " altar," but, of place rather than to retain its usual sense of a with Christian not a heathen association. Bamah is course, translated by 0u^6s in LXX, Jer. vii. 31, 32 (the altar of Tophet
*
Ba>fj.6s
in
the valley of
Benhimmon), and
in several
prophets.
xlviii
INTRODUCTION
to.
= village,
Johannu
p. 15.
(xrpiot;
tov dyiov
'
Icodvvov),
dendros alethias (d^vdqov cdrjOelas), p. 16. Eleona (= Qaidtv), see p. xlvii of Introduction.
Imbomon (=
Kyrie
duction.
eleison
monazontes (juovdovTe<;)
olosericus (6^.oorjQMog)
opu (?
p. 45.
thimiateria (dv/MctTTJQia)
= censers, p.
49).
-wanting.}
THE APPROACH TO
SINAI
the
In were pointed out according to the Scriptures. meanwhile we came on foot to a certain place where the mountains, through which we were journeying, opened out and formed an infinitely great valley,
quite flat and extraordinarily beautiful, and across the valley appeared Sinai, the holy mountain of God. And this place, where the mountains opened out, lies
next to the place where are the graves of lust. 1 Now on reaching that spot, the holy guides who were with us told us, saying " The custom is that prayer should be made by those who arrive here, when from
:
this this
the
And place the mount of God is first seen." we did. The whole distance from that place to mount of God was about four miles across the
aforesaid great valley. For that valley is indeed very great, lying under the slope of the mount of God, and measuring, as
far as
we could judge by our sight, or as they told about sixteen miles in length, but they called 1 Eng. Bible, Kibroth-hattaavah, Num. xi. 34.
B
us,
its
breadth four miles. We had, therefore, to cross that Now this is valley in order to reach the mountain. the great and flat valley wherein the children of Israel waited during those days when holy Moses went up into the mount of the Lord and remained there forty days and forty nijhts. 1 This moreover is
the valley in which the calf was made, 2 and the spot is shown to this day, for a great stone stands fixed This also is the same valley there on the very site.
at the
Moses
head of which is the place where, while holy was feeding his father-in-law's flocks, God
3
And spake to him twice out of the burning bush. as our route was first to ascend the mount of God, which is in sight here [because] the ascent was easier by the way we were coming and then to descend to the head of the valley where the bush was, that being
the easier descent, so we determined, having first seen all that we desired, to descend from the mount of
God
thence to return on our journey throughout the whole length of the valley, together with the men of God,
who
showed us each place which is mentioned And so it was done. Thus, going from that spot where we had prayed when we arrived from Faran, 4 our route was to cross the middle of the head of that valley, and so turn to the mount of God. Now the whole mountain group looks as if it were
there
in the Scriptures.
a single peak, but, as you enter the group, [you see the whole group that] there are more than one
;
however is called the mount of God. But that special peak which is crowned by the place where, as it is
1
'
Exod. Exod.
xxiv.
iii.
8.
2 *
Exod.
xxxii.
*opo'c
:
I ff.
LXX,
God descended,
all
is in
the centre
of them
all.
And though
attain such a height as I the central one, on which the Glory of God came down, is so much higher than them all, that when we had
ascended it, all those mountains which we had thought to be high, were so much beneath us as if they were This is certainly very wonderful, quite little hills. and not, I think, without the favour of God, that while the central height, which is specially called Sinai, on which the Glory of the Lord descended, is higher than all the rest, yet it cannot be seen until you reach
its
very
foot,
it.
But
after
that you have fulfilled your desire and descend, you can see it from the other side, which you cannot do
before you begin to ascend. This I had learned from information given by the brethren before we had arrived at the mount of God, and after I arrived I
saw that
it
was manifestly
so.
THE ASCENT OF
SINAI
We
arriving at a certain monastery, the monks who dwelt there received us very kindly, showing us every kindness there is also a church and a priest there.
;
We
stayed there that night, and early on the Lord's Day, together with the priest and the monks who
dwelt there, we began the ascent of the mountains one by one. These mountains are ascended with infinite toil, for you cannot go up gently by a spiral
1
Exod.
xix.
8, 20.
4
track,
we say
snail-shell
straight
must come
reach the
down
wise, but you climb as if up a wall, and you each mountain until you
which
is
specially called Sinai. By this way, then, at the bidding of Christ our God, and helped by the prayers of the holy men who accompanied us, we arrived, at
the fourth hour, at the summit of Sinai, the holy mountain of God, where the law was given, that is, at the
place where the Glory of the Lord descended on the 1 Thus the toil was day when the mountain smoked.
great, for
I
impossible toil, on the side of the ascent, I say, I did not feel the toil, because I realized that the desire which I had
in the saddle,
had to go up on foot, the ascent being and yet I did not feel the
was being
there
itself,
is
God's bidding. In that place a church, not great in size, for the place that is the summit of the mountain, is not
fulfilled at
now
;
very great
nevertheless, the church itself is great in When, therefore, at God's bidding, we had grace. arrived at the summit, and had reached the door of
lo, the priest who was appointed to the church came from his cell and met us, a hale old man, a monk from early life, and an ascetic, as they say here, in short one worthy to be in that place the other priests also met us, together with all the monks who dwelt on the mountain, that is, such as were not hindered by age or infirmity. No one, however, dwells on the very summit of the central mountain there is nothing there excepting only the church and the cave where holy Moses was. 2 When the whole
the church,
Exod.
xix. 18.
Exod.
xxxiii. 22.
passage from the book of Moses had been read in place, and when the oblation had been duly
at
made,
coming out of the church, the priests of the place gave us eulogiae* that is, of fruits which grow on
although the holy mountain rocky throughout, so that it has not even a shrub on it, yet down below, near the foot of the
the mountain.
Sinai
is
For
mountains, around either the central height or those which encircle it, there is a little plot of ground where
the holy monks diligently plant little trees and orchards, and set up oratories with cells near to them, so that they may gather fruits which they have evi-
dently cultivated with their own hands from the soil of the very mountain itself. So, after we had com-
municated, and the holy men had given us eulogiae, and we had come out of the door of the church, I
began to ask them to show us the several sites. Thereupon the holy men immediately deigned to show us the various places. They showed us the cave where holy Moses was when he had gone up 2 again into the mount of God, that he might receive the second tables after he had broken the former
ones when the people sinned
;
sites
which we desired to
and
those which they themselves well knew. But I would have you to know, ladies, reverend sisters, that from
the Eastern Church for food e. g. the first fruits from -an orchard or a vineyard, viands on a table after " grace " has been pronounced over them, etc. Cf. Gen. xxxiii. n, etc. See Brightman, East. Lit. p. 597, and for other more strictly
1 This word is still used which has been blessed by a
in
priest,
Exod. xxxiv.
4.
the place where we were standing, round outside the walls of the church, that is from the summit of the
central mountain, those mountains, which we could scarcely climb at first, seemed to be so much below
when compared with the central one on which we were standing, that they appeared to be little hills, although they were so very great that I thought that I had never seen higher, except that this central one
us
excelled
them by
far.
From thence we saw Egypt and Palestine, and Red Sea and the Parthenian Sea, 1 which leads
Alexandria and the
the
to
boundless territories of the all so much below us as to be scarcely Saracens, but the men credible, holy pointed out each one of
them
to us.
HOREB
Having then fulfilled all the desire with which we had hastened to ascend, we began our descent from the summit of the mount of God which we had
called Horeb,
ascended to another mountain where there is a Horeb where was holy Elijah fled from the face of Ahab the
spake to him and said
as
it is
:
when he
2
What doest
written in the books of the Kings. where holy Elijah lay hid is shown to this
The cave
day before
stone altar
is
there.
offering to
1
i. e.
God
see Introduction,
p. xviii. n.
*
I
Kings
us each place. There, too, we made the oblation, with very earnest prayer, and also read the passage for it was our special from the book of the Kings custom that, when we had arrived at those places
;
which I had desired to visit, the appropriate passage from the book should always be read. The oblation having been made there, we came to another place not far off, which the priests and monks pointed out to us, where holy Aaron had stood with the seventy elders, when holy Moses was receiving the law from
1 the Lord for the children of Israel.
In that place,
although it is not covered in, there is a great rock which has a flat surface, rounded in shape, on which there is also those holy men are said to have stood in the midst of it a kind of altar made of stones. The passage from the book of Moses was read there, and
;
one psalm, suitable to the place. Then, had been made, we descended thence.
after prayer
THE BUSH
And now
there were
it
still
the previous day we had not, however, to go out on the side by which we had entered, as I said above, because it was necessary that we should walk past
same
and see all the holy places and the cells that were there, and thus come out at the head of the valley, as I said above, that is of the valley that lies under the mount of God. It was necessary for us to come out
1
Exod.
xxiv. 9-14.
8
at the
valley, because there were very of holy men there, and a church in the place where the bush is, which same bush is alive to this day and throws out shoots. So having made the
many
whole descent of the mount of God we arrived at the bush about the tenth hour. This is that bush which I mentioned above, out of which the Lord spake in the fire to Moses, and the same is situated at that spot at the head of the valley where there are many cells and a church. There is a very pleasant garden in front of the church, containing excellent and abundant water, and the bush itself is in this garden. The spot is also shown hard by where holy Moses
stood when
shoe,
God
said to
him
and the rest. 1 Now it was about the tenth hour when we had arrived at the place, and so, as it was late, we could not make the oblation, but prayer was made in the church and also at the bush in the garden, and the passage from the book of Moses was read according to custom. Then, as it was late, we took a meal with the holy men at a place in the garden before the bush we stayed there also, and next day, rising very early, we asked the priests that the oblation should be made there, which was done.
;
THE
AND THE
RETURN TO FARAN
And as our route lay through the middle and along the length of the valley the same valley, as I said above, where the children of Israel sojourned while
1
Exod.
iii.
5.
we
so the holy men showed us each place that came to in the whole valley. At the top of the
head of the valley where we had stayed and had seen the bush out of which God spake in the fire to holy Moses, we had seen also the spot on which holy Moses had stood before the bush when God said to him Loose the latchet of thy shoe, for the place whereon
:
thou standest
is
holy ground)-
In like
manner they
began to show us the other sites when we set out from the bush. They showed us the place where the camps of the children of Israel were in those days when Moses was in the mount. They also showed us the place where the calf was made, for a great stone is there to this day, fixed on the very spot. Then, too, as we were going on the other side we saw the top of the mountain which overlooks the whole valley from which place holy Moses saw the children of Israel engaged in dancing at the time when they had made the calf. 2 They showed us a great rock in the place where holy Moses, as he was descending with Joshua the son of Nun, in his anger brake the tables that he was carrying, on the same rock. They showed us where they all had their dwelling places in the valley, the foundations of which dwelling places appear to this day, round in form and made with stone. They showed us also the place where holy Moses, when he returned from the mount, bade the children of Israel run from gate to gate? They showed us also the place where the calf which Aaron had made for them was burnt at holy Moses' bidding. They showed
;
Exod.
iii.
2 5. J
Exod.
xxxii. 19.
Exod.
xxxii. 27.
io
us also the stream of which holy Moses made the children of Israel drink, as it is written in Exodus. 1 They showed us also the place where the seventy men
showed us
received of the spirit that was upon Moses. 2 They also the place where the children of Israel
lusted for meat. They showed us also the place which is called a Burning, because part of the camp was consumed what time holy Moses prayed, and the fire ceased. 3 They showed us also the place where it rained manna and quails upon them. 4 Thus were shown to us (the sites of) all the events which in the sacred books of Moses are recorded to have occurred there, viz., in the valley which, as I have said, lies under the mount of God, holy Sinai. Now it would be too much to write of all these things one by one, for so great a number could not be remembered, but when your affection 6 shall read the holy books of Moses it will more quickly recognize the things that were done in that place. Moreover this is the valley where the Passover was celebrated when one year had been fulfilled after that the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt. 8 For the children of Israel abode in that valley for some time, that is, while holy Moses ascended into and descended from the
1 2 4 *
Exod.
Num.
Exod.
or possibly the reference is to xxxii. 20. 3 Eng. Bible, Taberah, Num. xi. 2,
3.
In addressing her sisters thus, Etheria is following the In the Coptic fashion of her own and subsequent centuries. ostraca found in Egypt we have many parallel expressions ; " I, Andreas, priest, e.g. on an ostracon from Thebes we read salute the sweetness of thy honoured brothership" (Hall's Coptic and Greek Texts, p. 71), and again one monk writes to another 41 My insignificance salutes thy brotherhood," ibid. p. 34.
:
Num,
ix. 5.
n
;
and the second time they was being made, were shown that with all (to Moses) things together The place also was shown to in the mount of God. us where the tabernacle was set up by Moses l for the first time, and all things were finished which God had bidden Moses in the mount that they should be made. At the very end of the valley we saw the graves of 2 lust, at the place where we resumed our route, that
the
first
God
is
we
re-entered the
way by which we had come, between the mountains On the same day we came of which I spoke above.
up with the other very holy monks who, through age
or infirmity, were unable to meet us in the mount of God for the making of the oblation, who yet deigned
to receive us very kindly,
So now
there,
we had
all
seen
all
when we reached their cells. holy men who dwelt the holy places we desired, as
the places which the children of Israel had touched in going to and from the mount of God, we
well as
name of God. And although ought always to give thanks to God in all things, not to speak of these so great favours which He has deigned to confer on me, unworthy as I am, that I should journey through all these places, although I deserved it not, yet I cannot sufficiently thank even
returned to Faran in the
I
all
those holy
and to guide me the which I was always places surely through to the Moreover, seeking, according holy Scriptures. many of these holy men who dwelt on or around the
receive
my
Exod.
xl.
17.
Num.
xi.
34.
12
FARAN TO CLYSMA
at Faran, which is from the mount of God, we were obliged to stay there for two days to rest ourthirty-five miles distant
Now when we
had arrived
On the third day, hastening thence, we came to a station in the desert of Faran, where we had stayed on our outward journey, as I said above. On
selves.
the next day we came to water, and, travelling for a little while among the mountains, we arrived at a
station which was on the sea, at the place where the route leaves the mountains, and begins to run con1 It runs by the sea in such a tinuously by the sea.
manner that
at
feet of
the animals, while at another the course is through the desert, a hundred, two hundred, and sometimes
five
no
sort
of a road
hundred paces from the sea, for there, the whole being
sandy desert. The inhabitants of Faran, who are accustomed to travel there with their camels, put signs in different places, and make for these signs
when they travel in the day time, but the camels mark the signs at night. In short, the inhabitants of Faran travel more quickly and safely by night in that place, being accustomed thereto, than other men can travel in places where there is a clear road. Thus on our return journey we emerged from the mountains
Professor Flinders Petrie in commenting on this passage, me " The route along the west coast is very truly described, and is striking after being some days entirely in the
1
tells
desert."
13
where we entered them on our journey and so turned towards the sea. So also did the
children of Israel return from Sinai, the mount of God, to this place by the way they had come, that
left the mountains and But while we turned back from this spot along the route by which we had made our journey out, the children of Israel marched hence on their own way, as it is written in the books of holy
is,
we
So we returned to Clysma by the same route and the same stations by which we had come out, and when we had arrived at Clysma we were obliged to stay there also for rest, because we had travelled
hard along the sandy way of the desert.
Moses. 1
Now
although
had been acquainted with the land I was in Egypt for the first
it again] in order that I might see the places which the children of Israel touched on
the
their journey out from Rameses, until they reached Red Sea at the place which is now called Clysma
from the fort which is there. I desired therefore that we should go from Clysma to the land of Goshen, 2
that
is,
which
is
land of Goshen.
city, the
it is
The whole
territory
land of Arabia, the land of Goshen, although It is much better land than all part of Egypt.
From Clysma,
Gen.
xlvi. 34,
that
is
from the
Num.
x.
12
and
xxxiii. 36.
cf.
LXX,
tv yrj Ytyt
14
Red
and
officers
who always
escorted
us from fort to
who
that journey the holy men were with us, clergy and monks, showed us all the
fort.
On
places which I was always seeking in accordance with the Scriptures some of these were on the left, some on the right of our path, some were far distant from,
;
route.
For
I
could
see,
me [when
wise that as far as they went to the right, so far did they turn back to the left as far as they went for;
ward, so far did they return backward, journeying : thus until they reached the Red Sea. Epaulcum
to us from the opposite side, when we were at Migdol, 2 where there is now a fort with an
was shown
officer set
Roman
discipline.
These escorted us thence, according to custom, to another fort, and Baal-zephon 3 was shown to us, when we were at that place. 4 It is a plain above the Red Sea, along the side of the mountain which I mentioned above, where the children of Israel cried out when they saw the Egyptians coming after them. Etham 6 also was shown to us, which is on the edge of the wilderness, as it is written, also Succoth, which is a slight elevation in the middle of a valley, and by this
1
Epauleum.
dWiwri
TTJS
&rowAeo>s,
Exod.
xiv.
2,
The Eng.
LXX,
i.e.
8
4 6
Magdalum
in text.
MaySta\ov,
Belsefon in text.
Bet\fffir<t>(by,
'Ofl^,
Exod.
xiii.
LXX.
15
the children of Israel encamped. This is the 1 place where the law of the Passover was received. of Israel children which the The city of Pithom, 2 built, was shown to us on the same journey at the
place where, leaving the lands of the Saracens, we entered the territory of Egypt the same Pithom is
;
now a fort. The city of Hero, 3 which existed at the time when Joseph met his father Jacob as he came, as it is written in the book of Genesis, is now a come* though a large one a village as we say. This
village has a church
cells
of holy monks, so that we had to alight to see each of them, in accordance with the custom
which we had.
it
The
village
is
now
called
Hero;
is
situated
at the
is within the boundaries of a Egypt very pleasant spot, for an arm of the Nile flows there. Then, leaving Hero, we came to the city which is called Arabia, situated
;
moreover,
it
is
in the
it
is
written concerning
it
that Pharaoh said to Joseph, In the best of the land of Egypt make thy father and brethren to dwell, in the land of Goshen, in the land of rabia?
RAMESES
four miles from the city of Arabia, and in order to arrive at the station of Arabia, we passed
is
Rameses
through the midst of Rameses. The city of Rameses is now open country, without a single habitation, but
1
Exod. Hero.
xii.
43
ff.
Exod.
"
i.
The
LXX
n
ir6\iv,
has (Gen.
"
xlvi.
29) 'Hpwwt'
the
city of
p. xix.
16
it
is certainly traceable, since it was great in circumference and contained many buildings, for its ruins appear to this day in great numbers, just as they fell.
nothing there now except one great Theban on which are carved two statues of great size, which they say are those of the holy men, Moses and Aaron, raised in their honour by the children of Israel. There is also a sycomore tree, which is said to have been planted by the patriarchs it is certainly very old, and therefore very small, though it still bears fruit. And all who have any indisposition go there and pluck off twigs, and it benefits them. This we learned from information given by the holy bishop
There
is
stone,
of Arabia,
in
who
name
of the tree
dendros alethia, or as we say, the tree of truth. This holy bishop deigned to meet us at Rameses he is an elderly man, truly pious from the time he became a monk, courteous, most kind in
Greek
receiving pilgrims, and very learned in the Scriptures of God. He, after deigning to give himself the
and
trouble of meeting us, showed us everything there told us about the aforesaid statues, as well as about the sycomore tree. This holy bishop also
informed us
that the
children of Israel had escaped him, before he set out after them, went with all his army into Rameses and
burnt the whole city which was very great, and then set out thence in pursuit of the children of Israel.
Now
<,'> ar
;
;'?.
.V
^;'
RKI) (1KANITE CROUP OF R AMESES II. AND THE GOD ATMU. FOUND AT RAAMSES, NOW TELL RETABEH. PROBABLY THE FIGURES LATER CALLED MOSES AND AARON.
(
From
"
Hyksos and
Israelite Cities."
PI.
XXXII.)
[Facing page 16
17
day of the Epiphany, were to be kept in the church on the same day. Wherefore the holy bishop detained us there for some two days, a holy man and truly a man of God, well known to me from the time when I had been in the Thebaid. He became a holy bishop after being a monk, for he was brought up from a child in a cell, for which reason he is so learned in the Scriptures and chastened in his whole life, as I said above. From this place we sent back the soldiers
and the
who according
to
Roman
discipline
Now, however, as the public road which passed by the city of Arabia and leads from the Thebaid to Pelusium ran through Egypt, there was no need to trouble the soldiers further. Setting out thence we pursued our journey continuously through the land of Goshen, among vines that yield wine and vines that yield balsam, among orchards,
suspected places. highly cultivated fields and very pleasant gardens, our whole route lying along the bank of the river Nile among oft-recurring estates, which were once the
Israel.
I
have never seen a more beautiful country than the land of Goshen. And travelling thus for two days from the city of Arabia through the land of Goshen continuously, we arrived at Tatnis, 1 the city where holy Moses was born. This Now city of Tatnis was once Pharaoh's metropolis.
?
say more
for
think that
1 Tatnis, i.e. Zoan (Numb. xiii. 22), but Archbp. Bernard conjectures Taphnis, in which case the place would be the Tahpanh.es of Jer. xliii. 7 ff. (LXX Tcupyds). For its connexion with "Pharaoh" see Hastings' D.B. vol. iv. p. 674. The birth-place of Moses is not mentioned in the Bible.
had already known these places as I said I had been at Alexandria and in the Thewished to learn thoroughly all the places I baid, yet the children of Israel marched on their which through Rameses to from Sinai, the holy mountain of journey
although
above
when
God
this
made
it
and, walking along the route that was already known to me, I came to Pelusium. Thence I set out again, and journeying through all those stations in Egypt
arrived at
Thence in the Name of the boundary of Palestine. Christ our God I passed through several stations in
Palestine and returned to Aelia, 1 that
is
Jerusalem.
VISIT TO
Having spent some time there, at God's bidding my will was to go as far as Arabia, to mount Nebo, where God commanded Moses to go up, saying to him: Get thee up into the mountain Arabot? into Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho, and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession^ and So Jesus our die in the Mount whither thou goest up. them that forsake will not who God, hope in Him,
deigned to give
1
effect to this
my
wish.
Wherefore
Helta in the text. Aelia Capitolina was the name given to the colony, which the Emperor Hadrian set up on Mount Sion The retention of the name by an ecclesiastic like A.D. 132. Etheria points to an early rather than a late date for her visit
:
see Heinichen on Eus., H.E. iv. 6. here (Deut. xxxii. 49 f.) has 'A/3a/wk (Eng. Bible, The Abarini). The Pilgrim has apparently put Arabot (LXX 'A/>a&>0 = plains in Heb.) by mistake. See note 4 on p. 19.
LXX
19
and journeying with holy with a and deacons from Jerusalem and men, priest with certain brothers, that is monks, we came to that
spot on the Jordan where the children of Israel had crossed when holy Joshua, the son of Nun, had led them over Jordan, as it is written in the book of
1 Joshua, the son of Nun. The place where the children of Reuben and of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh
was shown us a little higher up 2 on that side of the river-bank where Jericho is. Crossing the river we came to a city called Livias, 3 which is in the plain where the children of Israel encamped at
had made an
altar
that time, for the foundations of the camp of the children of Israel and of their dwellings where they abode appear there to this day. The plain is a very
great one, lying under the mountains of Arabia above 4 the Jordan it is the place of which it is written And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the
: ;
forty days.
Jordan over against Jericho, the place where, after Moses' death, Joshua the son of Nun was straightway filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands
the
is
5 This is the place where upon him, as it is written. Moses wrote the book of Deuteronomy,' and where he
Josh.
i
e.
iii.
14;
on the west side. This is the Beth-haran of Numb, xxxii. 36 and Josh. xiii. 27, which was rebuilt and called Livias by Herod the Tetrarch in honour of the Empress Livia. 4 rov *V 'Apaa>0 Ma0 Deut. xxxiv. 8. The LXX has The Eng. Bible puts 'lopSovou Kara 'lepeixi rpiaKovra fi/j.(pas. The Pilgrim's "plains of Moab" instead of "Arabot M." " " " " forty days for thirty is no doubt an error. 6 Deut. xxxiv. 9.
*
:
20
words of this song until it was ended ; it is written book of Deuteronomy. 1 Here holy Moses, the man of God, blessed the children z of Israel one by 3 So when we had one, in order, before his death. arrived at this plain, we went to the very spot, and prayer was made here, too, a certain part of Deuteronomy was read, as well as his song, with the blessings which he pronounced over the children of Israel after the reading, prayer was made a second time, and giving thanks to God, we moved on thence. For it was always customary with us that, whenever
in the
; ;
we succeeded
visit,
in reaching the places we desired to prayer should first be made there, then the lection should be read from the book, then one appropriate psalm should be said, then prayer should be made At God's bidding we always kept to this again. custom, whenever we were able to come to the
places
should
desired. After this, that the work begun be accomplished, we began to hasten in As we went, the order to reach mount Nebo. priest of the place, i. e. Livias, whom we had prayed to accompany us from the station, because "If you he knew the places well, advised us, saying the from wish to see the water which flows rock, which Moses gave to the children of Israel when they were thirsty, you can see it if you are willing to undertake the labour of going about six miles out of the way." When he had said this, we very eagerly wished to go, and turning at once out of our way, we
:
we
In that place there is followed the priest who led us. a little church under a mountain, not Nebo, but
1
*. e.
the tribes.
Deut.
xxxiii.
21
another height behind, yet not far from Nebo. Many truly holy monks dwell there, whom they call here
ascetics.
These holy monks deigned to receive us very and permitted us to go in to greet them. When we had entered and prayer had been made with them, they deigned to give us eulogiae?- which they are wont to give to those whom they receive There, in the midst, between the church and kindly. the cells, there flows from out of the rock a great stream of water, very beautiful and limpid, and Then we asked those holy excellent to the taste. monks who dwelt there what was this water of so " This is the water good a flavour, and they said which holy Moses gave to the children of Israel in this desert." z So prayer was made there according to custom, the lection was read from the books of Moses and one psalm said, then with the holy we went clergy and monks who had come with us
kindly,
:
Many of the holy monks also dwelt by that water, and who could undertake the labour, deigned to ascend mount Nebo with us. So setting out thence, we arrived at the foot of mount Nebo, which was very high nevertheless the greater part could be ascended sitting on asses,
out to the mountain.
who
though a
little bit
laboriously on
1
translates this "gifts of blessing." Small Archbp. Bernard " " were sent by ecclesiastics to one blessings another. See supra, p. 5. Cf. Bigg, Wayside Studies in
loaves, called Eccles. History, p. 38.
1
Cf.
Num.
xx. ii.
22
MOUNT NEBO
We
where there
very top of
containing about as much space as tombs usually I asked the contain. holy men what this was, and
they answered:
that he was His tomb, indeed, where he was laid, is [not 2 ] shown to this day; for as it was shown to us by our ancestors who dwelt here where [he was laid], so do we show it to you, and our ancestors said that this tradition was handed down to them by their own ancestors." So prayer was made anon, and all things that we were accustomed to do in their order in every place were done here Then also, and we began to go out of the church. who knew the the and holy place they priests monks said to us: "If you wish to see the places that are mentioned in the books of Moses, come out of the door of the church, and from the very summit, from the side on which they are visible from here, look and see, 3 and we will tell you each place that is Then we rejoiced greatly and visible from hence." immediately came out. From the door of the church
it
is
certain
Deut. xxxiv.
in
6.
how he was
Geyer
2
buried,
and
Archbp. Bernard translates sepulturam, "I have followed his note in loc. is
:
:
supposing that the monks interpreted sepultura of the act rather than of \hzplace of burial in no other way is it
possible to
8
sense of the passage." Geyer, note in loc., thinks that the non should be deleted.
make
i.
Cf.
Lam.
12.
23
we saw the place where the Jordan runs into the Dead Sea, which place appeared below us as we stood. On the opposite side we saw not only Livias,
which was on the near side of Jordan, but also Jericho, which was beyond Jordan to so great a height rose the lofty place where we stood, before the door of the
;
The greatest part of Palestine, the land of promise, was in sight, together with the whole land of Jordan, as far as it could be seen with our eyes.
church.
On
the
left
side
we saw all
is
the only one of the five cities There is a memorial of it, but
nothing appears of those other cities but a heap of The place ruins, just as they were turned into ashes.
where was the inscription concerning Lot's wife was shown to us, which place is read of in the Scriptures. 2 But believe me, reverend ladies, the pillar itself cannot
be seen, only the place is shown, the pillar is said to have been covered by the Dead Sea. Certainly when we saw the place we saw no pillar, I cannot
therefore
place, that
deceive you in this. The bishop of the is of Segor, told us that it is now some
The spot where years since the pillar could be seen. the pillar stood is about six miles from Segor, and Then the water now covers the whole of this space.
we went
and opposite to us two cities were pointed out, the one Esebon, 3 now called Exebon, which belonged to Seon, king of the Amorites, and the other, now called
1
LXX
Gen.
2^-ya>/>,
xiv. 2
xix. 23-26.
'Efff f8<i>v,
titulus (inscription)
<TTTJ\^
here.
3
LXX
26
Deut
iv. 46,
24
2 1 Sasdra, the city of Og the king of Basan. Fogor, which was a city of the kingdom of Edom, was also
us.
All these
which we saw were situated on mountains, but a little below them the ground seemed to be flatter. Then we were told that in the days when holy Moses and the children of Israel bad fought against those cities, they had encamped there, and indeed the signs of a camp were visible there. [From] the side of the mountain which I have called the left, which was over the Dead Sea, a very sharp-cut mountain was shown to us, which was formerly called Agri specula. 3 This is the mountain on which Balak the son of Beor
of Israel, and
placed Balaam the sooth-sayer to curse the children God refused to permit it, as it is written. Then, having seen everything that we desired, we
returned in the
Name
of
we had come.
VISIT TO AUSITIS
Now
of
after
some time
visit
Ausitis* to
the
sake of prayer. For I coming thence to Jerusalem to visit the holy places for the sake of prayer, who, giving information of everything concerning those places, increased
1
iii.
wished to go to the region tomb of holy Job, for the used to see many holy monks
I
my
xxi.
desire to
33
28
;
LXX
10.
'ESpdftfj.,
Numb.
Deut.
LXX
46.
i. e.
*o7cip,
xxiii.
Deut.
iv.
s
the aypov
(peak of the
field)
of the
LXX.
Numb.
xxiii. 14.
*
LXX
The Eng. Bible has "the field of Zophim." i. Atorfn, Eng Bibje Uz, Job
r
i.
25
undertake the toil of going to them also, if indeed that can be called toil by which a man sees his desire to be fulfilled. So I set out from Jerusalem with the
holy
to give
me
their
company
on
my journey they themselves also going for the sake of prayer making my journey from Jerusalem through eight stations to Carneas. The city of Job
now called Carneas, but it was formerly called Dennaba, 1 in the land of Ausitis, on the confines of Idumea and Arabia. Travelling on this journey I saw on the bank of the river Jordan a very beautiful and pleasant valley abounding in vines and trees, for much excellent water was there, and in that valley there was a large village, which is now called Sedima. The village, which is situated in the middle of the level ground, has in its midst a little hill of no great There is size, shaped as large tombs are wont to be. a church on the summit and down below, around the little hill great and ancient foundations appear, while
is
some grave-mounds still remain. saw this pleasant place I asked what it was, and it was told me 2 " This is the city of king Melchizedek, which was called Salem, but now,
in the village itself
When
through the corruption of the language, the village is called Sedima. On the top of the little hill, which is situated in the midst of the village, the building that you see is a church, which is now called in the
For
this
is
the
i Chron. i. 43. Eng. Bible, Dinhabah, Gen. xxxvi. 32 See Gen. xiv. 8 and 18. The Pilgrim seems to identify Salem with Salim see Hastings' D.B. under both names. Gamurrini conjectures that opu here and below stands for = hill but ? for STOW = where (Bernard). She never Spos
confuses
with p elsewhere.
26
place where Melchizedek offered pure sacrifices that is bread and wine to God, as it is written of
him."
THE
and
!
CITY OF MELCHIZEDEK
Directly I heard this, we alighted from our beasts, lo the holy priest of the place and the clergy deigned to meet us, and straightway receiving us led us up to the church. When we had arrived there,
first said according to custom, then the from the book of holy Moses was read, then passage one psalm suitable to the place was said, then, after prayer made, we came down. When we had come down the holy priest addressed us. He was an elderly man, well taught in the Scriptures, and he had presided over the place from the time he had been a monk, to
prayer was
whose
life many bishops as we learned afterwards bore great testimony, saying that he was worthy to preside over the place where holy Melchizedek when
sacrifices to
was the first to to meet him God. When we had come down
I said above, the holy priest said Behold, these foundations which you see around the little hill are those of the palace of king Melchizedek. For from his time to the present day if
to build himself a house here, and so on these foundations, he sometimes finds little fragments of silver and bronze. And this way which you see passing between the river Jordan and this village is the way by which holy Abraham returned to Sodom, after the slaughter of Chedorlaomer l king
strikes
In Gen.
xiv.
Tidal, king of
27
of nations, and where holy Melchizedek, the king of Salem, met him."
remembered that it was written l that S. John had baptized in JEnon near to Salim, I The holy asked him how far off that place was. " It is near, two hundred paces off, priest answered and, if you wish, I will now lead you there on foot. This large and pure stream of water, which you see in Then I began this village, comes from that spring." to thank him and to ask him to lead us to the place, which was done. So we began to go with him on
Then, because
I
:
foot through the very pleasant valley, until we reached a most pleasant orchard, in the midst of which he showed us a spring of excellent and pure water, which
had
continuously a good stream. The spring it a sort of pool, where it appears that S. John the Baptist fulfilled his ministry. Then the " This garden is called nothing holy priest said to us
sent out
in front of
:
2 day than cepos tu agiu iohannu in the Greek language, or as you say in Latin, hortus sancti Johannis. Many brethren, holy monks, direct their hither from various places that they may wash steps
else to this
there."
So
was made, the proper lection was read and an appropriate psalm was said, and everything that it was customary for us to do whenever we came to the
holy places,
we
The holy
priest also
told us that to this day, at Easter, all they who are to be baptized in the village, that is in the church
1
S.
John
iii.
23.
it?/* TOW
eryiow 'lufovov
28
which
in
this
called opus Melchisedech}- are always baptized spring, returning early to vespers with the
clergy and monks, saying psalms and antiphons, so that they who have been baptized are led back early from the fountain to the church of holy Melchizedek.
Then, receiving eulogiae'1 out of the orchard of S. John the Baptist from the priest, as well as from the holy monks who had cells in the same orchard, and always giving thanks to God, we set out on the way we were
'
going.
THE CITY OF
ELIJAH.
Then going for a time through the valley of the Jordan on the bank of the river, because our route lay
way for a while, we suddenly saw the city of the holy prophet Elijah, that is Thesbe, whence he had the name of Elijah the Tishbite. 3 There, to this day, is the cave wherein the holy man sat there too is the
that
;
tomb of holy Getha, 4 whose name we read in the books of the Judges. There too we gave thanks to God
as
according to custom and pursued our journey. And we journeyed that way we saw a very pleasant
;
valley opening towards us on the left it was very large and discharged a very great torrent into the
Jordan, and in that valley we saw the cell of one who is now a brother, that is a monk. Then I, as I am
very inquisitive, began to ask what was this valley where the holy monk had now made himself a cell,
See note above, p. 5. I Kings xvii. I the A.V. has "the inhabitants," the R.V. "the sojourners of Gilead." 4 e. Jephthah, Judg. xii. 7 (Geyer) or perhaps Jether, Judg. viii. 20 (Bernard).
1
1
See
LXX
p. 25,
note
2.
*'.
29
holy
the place, said, " 2 Elijah the Tishbite dwelt in the time of king Ahab, when there was a famine, and at the bidding of God
food, and he drank water brook which you see running through this valley into Jordan, is Corra." Wherefore giving thanks to God Who deigned to show us everything that we desired, unworthy as we were, we began to make our journey as on other days. And as we journeyed day by day, on the left side, whence on the
was without reason. Then the with us, and who knew This is the valley of Corra, 1 where holy
it
him
of the torrent.
For
this
opposite side we saw parts of Phoenicia, there suddenly appeared a great and high mountain which extended
in length
....
[A leaf is torn
out.']
BURIAL-PLACE OF JOB.
.
RETURN TO JERUSALEM
ascetic, after
which holy
in
monk and
so
many
the desert, found it necessary to move years spent and to go down to the city of Carneas, in order to advise the bishop and clergy of that time, according
as
in
it
which that place which had been shown to him was done. And they, digging in that place which had been shown to him, found a cave, which they followed
about a hundred paces, when suddenly, as they dug, a stone tomb came to light, and when they had uncovered it, they found carved on its lid (the name)
for
1
LXX
I
Kings
xvii. 3.
Kings
30
Job.
manner that the stone with the body should not be moved, but that it should be placed, where the body had been found, and that the body should He under the altar. That church,
built in that place, in such a
which was
built
to this day.
by some tribune, has been unfinished Next morning we asked the bishop to
the oblation, which he deigned to do, and the bishop blessing us, we set out. There too we com-
make
municated, and always giving thanks to God we returned to Jerusalem, journeying through each of the stations through which we had passed three years
before.
Name of God,
I
since
came
to
Jerusalem, and having seen all the holy places which I had visited for the sake of prayer, my mind was to
my country. I wished, however, at God's bidding, to go to Mesopotamia in Syria, to visit the holy monks who were there in great number, and who
return to
described,
were said to be of such holy life as could hardly be and also for the sake of prayer at the memorial of S. Thomas the Apostle, where his body is This is at Edessa. For Jesus our God laid entire. by a letter which He sent to Abgar the king by the hand of Ananias the courier, promised that He would send S. Thomas thither, after that He Himself had ascended into Heaven. 1 The letter is kept with great reverence at the city of Edessa, where the memorial
1
i.
13.
31
is. Now your affection may believe me that there is no Christian who having arrived at the holy places that are at Jerusalem, does not go on thither for the sake of prayer; it is at the twenty-fifth station from Jerusalem. And since from Antioch it is nearer to Mesopotamia, it was very convenient for me at God's bidding that as I was returning to Constantinople, and
my way
Mesopotamia.
fratensis.
And
as this city
and abounds
in everything,
make
in
a halt there,
very beautiful and rich was necessary for me to for the borders of Mesopotamia were
is
it
2 starting from lerapolis, I
Then
came,
of God, at the fifteenth milestone to the river Euphrates, of which it is very well written that it
the great river Euphrates*; it is huge and, as it were, terrible, for it flows down with a current like the river
is
Name
still
greater.
And
as
I
in
Name
/. e.
Augusta Euphratensis.
Hierapolis.
3
i.e.
Gen.
xv. 18.
32
of
EDESSA
Then, journeying through certain
stations,
I
came
to a city whose name we read recorded in the Scrip1 tures it has a Batanis, which city exists to-day
:
church with a truly holy bishop, both monk and conThe city has fessor, and certain martyr-memorials. a teeming population, and the soldiery with their
tribune are stationed there.
arrived
at
Edessa
in the
Name
we straightway repaired to the church and memorial of saint Thomas. There, according to custom, prayers were made and the other things that were customary in the holy places were done
and, on our arrival,
;
we
read also
saint
Thomas
The church there is very great, very beautiful and of new construction, well worthy to be the house of God, and as there was much that I desired to see, it was necessary for me to make a three days' Thus I saw in that city many memorials, stay there.
himself.
together with holy monks, some dwelling at the memorials, while others had their cells in more secluded spots farther from the city. Moreover, the a devout of the man, both truly city, holy bishop
"
confessor, received me willingly and said daughter, that for the sake of devotion you
have undertaken so great a labour in coming to these places from far-distant lands, if you are willing, we
1
Bathnse
in
to
be no
33
all the places that are pleasant to the of Christians." Then, first thanking God, I sight
show you
besought the bishop much that he would deign to do as he said. He thereupon led me first to the palace of King Abgar, where he showed me a great marble
him very much like him, as they said a sheen as if made of pearl. From the face having of Abgar it seemed that he was a very wise and
statue of
"
honourable man. Then the holy bishop said to me Behold King Abgar, who before he saw the Lord
God."
believed in
Him that He was in truth the Son of There was another statue near, made of the same marble, which he said was that of his son Magnus this also had something gracious in the
;
face.
and there were fountains full of fish such as I never saw before, of so great size, so bright and of so good a flavour were they. The city has no water at all other than that which comes out of the palace, which
is like
a great silver
river.
Then
me
At some
straightway Abgar, bearing the letter of the Lord to the gate, with all his army, prayed publicly. And he
said
O Lord Jesus, Thou hadst promised us that none of our enemies should enter this city, and lo the
:
"
34
Persians
And when
said this, holding the open letter in his uplifted hands, suddenly there came a great darkness outside the
the eyes of the Persians, as they were approaching the city at a distance of about three miles, and they were so baffled by the darkness that they could hardly form their camp and surround the whole So baffled were the city about three miles off.
city before
Persians that they could never afterwards see the way to enter the city, but they surrounded it and shut it
with their hostile forces, at a distance of about three Then, when they saw that miles, for several months. no means could enter, they wished to slay they by Now that little hill those within the city by thirst.
in
which you
it
see, my daughter, over against the city, with water at that time, and the Persians, supplied diverted the water from the city and perceiving this, made it to run near that place where they had made
their
camp.
And
the Persians diverted the water, the fountains which you see in this place burst forth at once at God's
bidding, and by the favour of God they remain here from that day to this. But the water which the
that they
Persians had diverted was dried up at that hour, so who were besieging the city had nothing to
;
drink for even one day which thing is plain to the present time, for no moisture of any sort has ever been
seen
from that day to this. So, at God's had promised that this should come to bidding, were obliged to return to their own home pass, they in Persia. Moreover afterwards, as often as enemies determined to come and take the city, this letter was brought out and read in the gate, and straightway all
there
Who
35
enemies were driven back by the will of God. The holy Bishop also told me that the place where these fountains broke forth had previously been open ground within the city, lying under the palace of King Abgar, which same palace had been situated on somewhat higher ground, as was plainly visible. For the custom was at that time that, whenever palaces were built, they should always stand on higher ground. But after that these fountains had burst forth here, then Abgar built this palace for his son Magnus, whose statue I
fountains
the palace. And when the holy bishop had told me all these things, he said to me " Let us now go to the gate by which Ananias
be included
spoke."
So when we had come to the gate, the bishop, standing, made a prayer and read us the letters then, after he had blessed us, another prayer was made. More;
over the holy man told us that from the day on which Ananias the courier entered it with the letter of the Lord, the gate is kept to this day, that no one who is
unclean, nor any mourner, should pass through nor should any dead body be borne out through it. The holy bishop also showed us the memorial of Abgar and of his whole family, very beautiful, but made in
the
ancient
style.
He
which King Abgar had at first, on the higher ground, and if there were any other places he showed them to us. It was very pleasant to me to receive from the holy man himself the letters of Abgar to the Lord and of the Lord to Abgar, which the holy bishop had read to us there. For although I have copies at home, yet it seemed to me more pleasant to receive them from
36
him, lest perhaps something less might have reached us at home, and indeed that which I received here is
fuller.
So
if
you too
shall read
Jesus our God bids it, and I come home, them, ladies, my own souls.
GHARRI (HARAN)
Then,
for
after three
it
was necessary
me
called.
to go still farther, to Charrae, as it is now In holy Scripture it is called Charran, 1 where dwelt, as
it is
:
written in Genesis when Get thee out of thy country, and from thy father's house, and go to Charran and
holy
Abraham
Abram
I
the
And when
arrived
at
Charrae
went
straightway to the church which is within the city, and soon I saw the bishop of the place, a truly holy man of God, both monk and confessor, who
deigned to show us all the places there that we desired. He took us at once to the church, which is without the city on the spot where stood the house of holy Abraham it stands on the same foundations, and it
;
is
made of the same stone, as the holy bishop said. When we had come to the church, prayer was made,
the passage from Genesis was read, one psalm was said, and after a second prayer the bishop blessed us and we came out. Then he deigned to take us to the
whence holy Rebecca used to fetch water, 3 and the holy bishop said to us " Behold the well whence holy Rebecca watered the camels of holy Abraham's
well
:
servant Eleazar
thing.
1
"
;
Now
LXX
Gen.
*
at the church,
Xapodv,
xii. i.
etc.
37
where Abraham's
house was originally, there is now the martyr-memorial of a certain holy monk named Helpidius. It happened very pleasantly for us that we arrived on the day
before the martyr's feast of saint Helpidius, which is On that day it was
of obligation that all the monks from all parts and from all the borders of Mesopotamia should come down to Charrae, even the greater ones who dwelt in
solitude,
whom they call ascetics. For this day is observed with great dignity there on account of the memorial of holy Abraham, whose house stood where the church now is, in which the body of the holy
martyr is laid. So it happened to us very pleasantly beyond our expectations that we should see these holy monks of Mesopotamia, truly men of God, as well as those whose good report and manner of life had reached men's ears far and wide, whom I thought that I could not by any means see, not because it was impossible for God to give me this, Who had deigned to give me all things, but because I had heard that they never come down from their dwellings except on Easter Day and on this day. For they are men who do many wonders, and, moreover, I did not know in what month was the day of the martyr's feast which I have mentioned but at God's bidding it came about that I arrived on the day that I had not hoped for. We stayed there two days, for the memorial and for the sake of seeing those holy men, who day
;
The ancient Syriac Martyrology (A.D. 411/2), as printed by Lietzmann (Drei Alt. Mart. p. 12), gives Helpidios and Hermogenes the martyrs in Melitene (Cappadocia) on May 3rd,
not April 23rd.
38
salutation,
deigned to receive me very willingly for the sake of and to speak with me, of which I was not Nor were they seen there after the memorial worthy. day, for they sought the desert without delay in the In that night, each one returning to his own cell. city I found scarcely a single Christian excepting a few clergy and holy monks if any such dwell in the
all are heathen. And in like manner, as we gazed with great reverence at the place where the house of holy Abraham was at first for the sake of his memorial, so do those heathen gaze with great reverence at a place about a mile from the city, where are the memorials of Nahor and Bethuel. And since
city
the bishop of that city is very learned in the Scrip" I beg of you, my lord, tures, I asked him, saying And he said to tell me that which I desire to hear."
: :
"
will tell
it
you,
know
x
Scriptures his father Terah and with Sarah his wife, and with Lot his brother's son, but I have not read when
I know only that Nahor and Bethuel came here afterwards Abraham's servant came to Charrae that he
;
Then I said " I know by the that holy Abraham came to this place with
it."
might seek Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, for Isaac the son of his master Abraham." 2 Then the holy bishop said to me " Truly, daughter, it is written as you say, in Genesis, that holy Abraham
:
came here with his relatives, but canonical Scripture docs not say when Nahor and his relatives and Bethuel came here, but it is plain that they did come
here afterwards, since their memorials are here at about a mile from the city. The Scripture does indeed
1
Gen.
xi.
31.
Gen.
39
how holy Abraham's servant came here to take holy Rebecca, and how holy Jacob came here when he took to himself the daughters of Laban the Syrian." Then I asked where was the well where holy Jacob watered the flocks which Rachel, the daughter of
me
was feeding. The bishop said to place is six miles hence, near the village which then was the farm of Laban the Syrian, and if
Laban the
"
:
Syrian,
The
you wish to go there, we will go with you and show to you there are also many very holy monks and and I also asked the holy a holy church." ascetics, of where was that the Chaldees where bishop place Terah lived at first with his family, 2 and the holy " The place, daughter, of which bishop said to me
it
;
:
you
and
ask,
is
you go into
Persia.
five
There are
the Chaldees, but there is now no access for Romans, for the Persians hold the whole country. 4 This district is specially called the Eastern it is on the borders
;
of the
And
many other things he deigned to tell me, as did also the other holy bishops and holy monks, but all they told us was from the Scriptures of God or of the acts
of holy men, that is of monks, either the wonderful things that those already departed had done, or what those who are still in the body do daily, at any rate
those
who
are ascetics.
For
monks
Gen.
ever told
me
Gen. xxix.
2
i,
2, 4.
xi. 28.
4 to sign a treaty and surrender Nisibis and the district to Sapor in A.D. 363.
Ur of the Chaldees. Gen. xi. 28. The Emperor Jovian had been forced
40
stories except from the Scriptures of or else those of the acts of the greater monks.
any other
RACHEL'S WELL.
after two days which I spent there, the us to the well where holy Jacob had took bishop watered holy Rachel's flocks l the well is six miles from Charrae, and in its honour a very great and When beautiful holy church has been built hard by.
;
Now
we had come
bishop, the
passage from
Genesis was
psalm second prayer, the bishop blessed us. We saw also, lying on a spot near the well, that very great stone which holy Jacob had moved away from the well, and which is shown to-day. No one dwells there around the well, except the clergy of the church which is there and the monks who have their cells near at hand, whose truly unheard-of mode of
the bishop described to us. Then, after prayer in the church, I visited, in company with the bishop, the holy monks in their cells, giving
life
was
God and
to them,
mind
to receive
p. 5.
41
the place being in a large plain, a great over village against us was pointed out to me by the holy bishop, about five hundred paces from the This vilwell, through which village our route lay. Laban as was of the once the farm said, lage, bishop
the
Syrian, and
is
called
Fadana
1
;
in
the village
the memorial of
in-law,
Laban the Syrian, Jacob's fatherwas shown to me the place was also shown
;
to
So, and seen in the of Name God, having everything bidding farewell to the holy bishop and the holy monks who had deigned to conduct us to the place,
me where
father's images. 2
we returned by the route and by the stations through which we had come from Antioch.
ANTIOCH TO TARSUS
I had got back to Antioch, I stayed there week, while the things that were necessary for our journey were being prepared. Then, starting from Antioch and journeying through several stations, I came to the province called Cilicia, which has Tarsus for its metropolis. I had already been at Tarsus on my way to Jerusalem, but as the memorial of saint Thecla is at the third station from Tarsus,
When
for a
in Hisauria,
it
especially as
1
it
there,
Paddan-Aratn = plain of Aram (Syria), LXX Me<roGen. xxviii. 2. See Hastings' D.B. i. p. 138, for this name of Mesopotamia. 1 Gen. xxxi. 19.
i.e.,
Toro/i/a
2up/as.
42
THECLA'S CHURCH.
RETURN TO
CONSTANTINOPLE
So, setting out from Tarsus, I came to a certain city on the sea, still in Cilicia, which is called
Thence I entered the borders of Pompeiopolis. Hisauria and stayed in a city called Coricus, and on the third day I arrived at a city which is called
Seleucia in Hisauria
1
;
on
my
arrival
bishop, a truly holy man, formerly a that city I saw a very beautiful church.
And
as the
distance thence to saint Thecla, which is situated outside the city on a low eminence, was about fifteen
chose rather to go there in order I intended. There is nothing at the holy church in that place except numberless cells of men and of women. I found there a very dear friend of mine, to whose manner of life all in the East bore testimony, a holy deaconess named Marthana, whom I had known at Jerusalem, whither she had come for the sake of prayer she was ruling over the cells of afotactitae* and virgins. And when she had seen me, how can I describe the extent of her joy or of mine? But to return to the matter in hand there are very many cells on the hill and in the midst of it a great wall which encloses the church
I
hundred paces,
to
make
The
wall
Thecla is honoured as protomartyr in the East as well as in the West on Sept. 23rd or 24th. Tradition calls her a disciple of St. Paul at Iconium, but places her grave (as here) at Seleucia in Isauria. Justinian built a church in her memory at Constantinople. The Anc. Syr. Mart, does not
"
"
f.
43
who
who
attempt
there.
on
the
I
of God, the and whole memorial, of the acts of saint Thecla having been read, I gave endless thanks to Christ our God, who deigned to fulfil my desires in all things, unworthy and undeserving as 1 am. Then, after a stay of two days, when I had seen the holy monks and apotactitae who were there, both men and women, and when I had prayed and made my communion, I returned to Tarsus and to my journey. From Tarsus, after a halt of three days, I set out on my journey in the Name of God, and arriving on the same day at a station called Mansocrenae, 1 which is under Mount Taurus, I stayed there. On the next day, going under Mount Taurus, and travelling by the route that was already known to me, through each province that I had traversed on my way out, to wit, Cappadocia, Galatia, and Bithynia, I arrived at Chalcedon, where I stayed for the sake of the very famous martyrmemorial of saint Euphemia, 2 which was already known to me from a former time. On the next day,
in the
When
which
is
established
Name
the
crossing the sea, I arrived at Constantinople, giving thanks to Christ our God who deigned to give me such grace, unworthy and undeserving as I am, for
He had deigned to give me not only the will to go, but also the power of walking through the places
1
i.e.,
Mopsucrene (Bernard).
Sept. i6th, but
44
that
I
and of returning at last to ConI had arrived there, I went through all the churches that of the Apostles and all the martyr- memorials, of which there are very many and I ceased not to give thanks to Jesus our God, Who had thus deigned to bestow His mercy upon me. From which place, ladies, light of my eyes,
stantinople.
When
while
send these
(letters) to
in
your
affection,
have
of Christ our God, to go to Ephesus in Asia, for the sake of prayer, because of the memorial of the holy and blessed
already purposed,
the
Name
And if after this I am yet in the Apostle John. body, and am able to see any other places, I will either tell it to your affection in person, if God deigns to permit me this, or in anywise, if I have another project in mind, I will send you news of it in a letter. But do you, ladies, light of my eyes, deign to remember me, whether
body.
I
am
in
the
body or ou of the
JERUSALEM
I
DAILY OFFICES
i.
Matins.
Now
is
the
order of service (operatic} day by day in the holy places, I must inform you, for I know that you would
willingly
have this knowledge. Every day before cockcrow all the doors of the Anastasis 1 are opened, and all the monks and virgins, as they call them here, go thither, and not they alone, but lay people also, both men and women, who desire to begin their And from that hour to daybreak hymns vigil early. are said 2 and psalms are sung responsively (responduntur\ and antiphons in like manner and prayer is made after each of the hymns. For priests, deacons, and monks in twos or threes take it in turn every day to say prayers after each of the hymns or antiphons. But when day breaks they begin to say the Matin hymns. Thereupon the bishop arrives with
;
p. xlv. Etheria constantly uses dicuntur, dicitur applied to hymns and psalms but she probably means " sung." See Introduction, pp. xxxix f.
See Introduction,
45
46
the clergy, and immediately enters into the cave, 1 and from within the rails (cancelli) he first says a prayer for all, mentioning the names of those whom
he then blesses the he wishes to commemorate he afterwards catechumens, says a prayer and blesses the faithful. And when the bishop comes out from within the rails, every one approaches his hand, 2 and he blesses them one by one as he goes out, and the
;
dismissal
2.
In like manner at the sixth hour all go again to the Anastasis, and psalms and antiphons are said, then he comes while the bishop is being summoned
;
f.
The expression "to approach the bishop's hand" has given rise to much discussion. Archbp. Bernard and Professor Sayce
2
both suggested it was for the purpose of kissing it. But an account given by Mrs. Gibson and Mrs. Lewis of their visit to the very ancient Coptic Monastery of Deyr Antonius on the Red Sea, seems to suggest another solution. They relate that when they attended Mass in the Church of the Monastery " the Service lasted two hours, and towards its close all present, including ourselves, went up to the door of the sanctuary and received a blessing from the chief celebrant, which consisted mainly in his laying a hand on our cheeks." I submitted this as a possible explanation of Etheria's expression to Mgr. Duchesne and to Dom Cabrol and they both agreed it appeared to solve the difficulty. Dom Cabrol further suggested that this manner of conveying a blessing might be the origin of the colaphus or For soufflet given in Confirmation in the Western Church. further details of this Coptic Mass see The Century Magazine^ Sept. 1904, article "Hidden Egypt," by Mrs. Lewis. 3 It should be noted that the word missa in the text is almost " dismissal," although it must on some always translated occasions have meant " Mass." This, however, Etheria usually calls oblatio (offerre). For the ambiguity of the meaning attached to missa, see Introduction, pp. xl f.
. .
47
as before, not taking his seat, but he enters at once within the rails in the Anastasis, that is in the cave, just as in the early morning, and as then, he again
first
he
comes
says a prayer, then he blesses the faithful, and as out from [within] the rails every one
is
approaches his hand. And the same ninth hour as at the sixth.
done
at the
3.
Vespers.
Now at the tenth hour, which they call here licinicon^ or as we say lucernare, all the people assemble at the Anastasis in the same manner, and all the candles and tapers are lit, making a very great light. Now the light is not introduced from without, but it is brought forth from within the cave, that is from within the rails, where a lamp is always burning day and night, and the vesper psalms and antiphons are
said, lasting for a considerable time.
is
Then
the bishop
summoned, and he comes and takes a raised seat, and likewise the priests sit in their proper places, and hymns and antiphons are said. And when all these have been recited according to custom, the bishop rises and stands before the rails, that is, before the cave, and one of the deacons makes the customary commemoration of individuals one by one. And as the deacon pronounces each name the many little boys who are always standing by, answer with
countless voices
:
Kyrie
Domine?
And when
first
1
/. e,
he has to say,
*
fb \vxvin6v.
this,
For
48
all, then they all pray, both the faithful and catechumens together. Again the deacon raises his voice, bidding each catechumen to bow his head where he stands, and the bishop stands and says the blessing over the catechumens. Again prayer is made, and again the deacon raises his voice and bids the faithful, each where he stands, to bow the head, and the bishop likewise blesses the faithful. Thus the dismissal takes place at the Anastasis, and one by one all draw near to the bishop's hand. Afterwards the bishop is conducted from the Anastasis to
prays for
the Cross [with] hymns, all the people accompanying him, and when he arrives he first says a prayer, then he blesses the catechumens, then another prayer is
further proceed behind the Cross, where all that was done before the Cross is repeated, and they approach the hand of the bishop behind the Cross as they did at the Anastasis and before the Cross. Moreover, there are hanging
the whole
multitude
everywhere a vast number of great glass chandeliers, and there are also a vast number of cereofalaf before the Anastasis, before the Cross and behind the Cross, for the whole does not end until darkness has set in. This is the order of daily services (operatic) at the Cross and at the Anastasis throughout the six days.
1
/.
e.
candles on
tall
candlesticks (Ducange).
49
SUNDAY OFFICES
i.
Vigil.
But on the seventh day, 1 that is on the Lord's Day, the whole multitude assembles before cockcrow, in as great numbers as the place can hold, as at Easter, in the basilica which is near the Anastasis, but outside the doors, where lights are hanging for the purpose.
And
be there at cocksit
beforehand
and
down
there.
Hymns
made
as well as antiphons are said, and prayers are between the several hymns and antiphons, for at
the vigils there are always both priests and deacons ready there for the assembling of the multitude, the custom being that the holy places are not opened
Now as soon as the first cock has crowed, the bishop arrives and enters the cave at the all the doors are opened and the whole Anastasis
before cockcrow.
;
multitude enters the Anastasis, where countless lights are already burning. And when the people have
entered, one of the priests says a psalm to which all
then one respond, and afterwards prayer is made and a of the deacons says prayer is again psalm is one of the clergy, a said third psalm made, by
;
prayer
is
made
is
commemoration of
three prayers are ended, lo censers are brought into the cave of the Anastasis so that the whole basilica
1 Etheria here calls the Lord's Day the seventh day, but only because she has just before spoken of the six days that
precede
it.
50
of the Anastasis
with odours. 1
And
then the
bishop, standing within the rails, takes the book of the Gospel, and proceeding to the door, himself reads the And (narrative of the) Resurrection of the Lord.
when the reading is begun, there is so great a moaning and groaning among all, with so many tears, that the hardest of heart might be moved to tears for that the Lord had borne such things for us. After the reading of the Gospel the bishop goes out, and is
accompanied to the Cross by all the people with hymns, there again a psalm is said and prayer is made, after which he blesses the faithful and the dismissal takes place, and as he comes out all approach to his
hand.
And
and from that hour all the monks return to the Anastasis, where psalms and antiphons, with prayer after each psalm or antiphon, are said until the priests and deacons also keep watch daylight
his house,
;
in turn daily at
the Anastasis with the people, but men or women, those who
so minded, remain in the place until daybreak, not, return to their houses and
Morning
Services.
it
Now
at
daybreak because
is
the
Lord's
Day
every one proceeds to the greater church, built by Constantine, which is situated in Golgotha behind the Cross, where all things are done which are customary
1 Assuming the earlier date of this pilgrimage, we have probably here the earliest mention extant of incense being used in a Christian church at the time of public worship see Dictionary of Prayer Book, p. 406, s.v.
:
51
that of
the priests
who take
many as are willing, preach, and after them all the bishop preaches, and these sermons are always on the
Lord's Day,
in
may
always be
instructed in the Scriptures and in the love of God. The delivery of these sermons greatly delays the dismissal from the church, so that the dismissal does
[not]
fifth
is
take place before the fourth or perhaps the But when the dismissal from the church made in the manner that is customary everywhere,
hour.
monks accompany the bishop with hymns from the church to the Anastasis, and as he approaches with hymns all the doors of the basilica of the
the
Anastasis are opened, and the people, that is the And after enter, but not the catechumens. the people the bishop enters, and goes at once within the rails of the cave of the martyrium. Thanks
faithful,
given to God, then prayer is made for all, which the deacon bids all bow their heads, where they stand, and the bishop standing within the inner rails blesses them and goes out, each one drawing near to his hand as he makes his exit.
are
first
after
is
fifth
or
And
in like
manner
it
is
done
at lucer-
This then is the custom observed every day throughout the whole year except on solemn days, to the keeping of which we will refer later on. But among all things it is a special feature that they arrange that
psalms and antiphons are said on every occasion, both those said by night, or in the morning,
suitable
1
52
as well as those throughout the day, at the sixth hour, the ninth hour, or at lucernare, all being so appropriate and so reasonable as to bear on the matter in
hand.
And
was
built
situated in
behind the Cross, on every Lord's the year except on the one Sunday of Day throughout Pentecost, when they proceed to Sion, as you will but even then they go to Sion find mentioned below before the third hour, the dismissal having been first
Golgotha, that
;
made
*******
in the greater church.
[A leaf
is
wanting.']
Ill
*******
i.
FESTIVALS AT EPIPHANY
Blessed
is
Name
and the
1
rest
which
follows. 2
And
The Old Armenian Lectionary of the eighth or ninth century, of which there are two codices with certain variations, one in the Bodleian at Oxford and one at Paris, has preserved for us the antiphons, psalms and lections in use at Jerusalem. They are here given, as far as they bear on Etheria's narrative. At the night station at Bethlehem, Gregory Asharuni, a commentator about 690, mentions that they "assemble in the " shepherd's hut at the ninth hour, and this canon is performed 1 here indicates that ver. i is sung as an Ps. xxiii. 1 [the small and so elsewhere] ; of Ps. xxiii. each verse after antiphon
:
:
S.
Gen.
1-8
ii.
;
i.-iii.
20;
i.
Isa. vii.
;
Prov.
iii.
Dan.
1
8-20; S. Matt. i. 18-25; 10-18; Exod. xiv. 24~xv. 22; Mic. v. xi. 1-9 xxxv. 4-8 xlii. 1-7 ix. 5-7 11-15; Alleluiah; Ps. ex.; S. Matt.
ii.
; ;
Luke
1-12.
S. Matt. xxi. 9.
53
foot, it is necessary to walk arrival in the slowly, Jerusalem thus takes place at the hour when one man begins to be able to recognize another, that is, close upon but a little before daybreak. And on arriving there, the bishop and all
monks who go on
with him immediately enter the Anastasis, where an exceedingly great number of lights are already burning.
There a psalm
bishop
;
is
said,
prayer
is
made,
first
the cate-
faithful
are blessed
bishop
retires,
returns to his lodging to take rest, but the remain there until daybreak and recite hymns.
2.
monks
Morning
Services at Jerusalem.
But after the people have taken rest, at the beginning of the second hour they all assemble in the 1 greater church, which is in Golgotha. Now it would be superfluous to describe the adornment either of the church, or of the Anastasis, or of
Cross, or in Bethlehem on that day you see there nothing but gold and gems and silk. For if
the
you look
striped
at the veils, they are made wholly of silk with gold, and if you look at the curtains, they too are made wholly of silk striped with gold. The church vessels too, of every kind, gold and
jewelled, are brought out on that day, and indeed, who could either reckon or describe the number and weight
1 The Bodleian Codex of the Old Arm. Lect. says that on the second day they assemble in the shrine of S. Stephen, but on the third day they go to the holy shrine in the city e. the martyrium, or as Etheria calls it, the greater church in GolPs. ex. 3 Heb. i. 1-14 gotha), and this canon is prescribed Ps. ex. S. Matt. ii. 13-23, but Etheria seems to have confused
(/'.
:
fifth
and
sixth days.
54
of the cereofala?- or of the cicindelae* or of the lucernae* or of the various vessels ? And what shall I say of
itself,
which Constantine,
with
gold,
mother's
instigation,
decorated
mosaic, and costly marbles, as far as the resources of his kingdom allowed him, that is, the greater church
as well as the Anastasis, at the Cross, and the other holy places in Jerusalem ? But to return to the
matter
first
in
hand
the dismissal
day in the greater church, which is in Golgotha, and when they preach or read the several lessons, or
recite
hymns,
all
afterwards
when
are appropriate to the day. And the dismissal from the church has
been made, they repair to the Anastasis with hymns, according to custom, so that the dismissal takes place about the sixth hour. And on this day lucernare also takes place according to the daily use.
3.
On
the second
day
also
they
proceed
in
like
to the church in Golgotha, and also on the third day thus the feast is celebrated with all this
;
manner
1
See above,
p. 48.
burning oil. The word is used four times by Gregory of Tours. We also find the expression "oleum cicindelis" in the Life of S. Nicettus, Bishop of Lyons, and that glass or pottery was probably the material is shown by the " Cicindela de manibus following super lapides lapsa est, quas nee versa est, nee fracta, nee extincta," which occurs in Messianus Presbyter's Life of S. Casarius of Aries. As late Beroldus as the twelfth century we still find the word in use. was himself a cicendelarius at Milan, and fully describes the
Lamps
for
S.
duty of that functionary. 3 Lanterns, or lamps. 4 Here again, although not specified, the Eucharist must have been celebrated.
55
joyfulness for three days up to the sixth hour in the church built by Constantine. On the fourth 1 day it is
celebrated in like
manner with similar festal array in the beautiful church which stands on the Eleona, very Mount of Olives on the fifth day in the Lazarium,
;
which
is
day
in
hundred on the sixth 2 day in Sion, on the Anastasis, and on the eighth
is
day
with
at the Cross.
all
Thus, then,
this joyfulness and festal array throughout the eight days in all the holy places which I have
mentioned above.
And
in
celebrated
with
similar festal array and joyfulness daily by the priests and by all the clergy there, and by the monks who
all
are appointed in that place. For from the hour when return by night to Jerusalem with the bishop, the
monks of
1
keep vigil in the church Bethlehem, reciting hymns and antiphons, but it
that
place
in
is
the fourth day the Paris Codex of the Old Arm. Lect. makes the assembly in holy Sion, and this canon is performed The fifth Ps. ex. ; Gal. iv. 1-7 Ps. cxxxii. S. Luke i. 26-38. day is on the Mount of Olives. Canon Ps. xcix. Heb. xii. S. Luke i. 39-56. 18-27 ; Ps. xv. 2 The Paris Codex makes the assembly in the shrine of Ps. xxx. Lazarus, and they celebrate his raising. Canon
:
On
P S *L S. John xi. 1-46. 3 The Paris Codex has on the seventh day " They assemble Ps. xcviii. Col. ii. in holy Golgotha and perform the canon Here Etheria S. Luke ii. 21." 1-15; Alleluiah; Ps. Ixxxiv. and the Lectionary again agree, but the Lectionary has not prescribed anything for the eighth day, and it concludes Here ends the canon of the Holy Epiphany. By all the The later Codex has martyrs is this canon performed." " Here ends the canon of the assemblage of holy Epiphany of the Lord. In all commemorations of the holy martyrs this
i
Thess.
iv.
12-14
'
canon
4
i,e.
is
performed." of Bethlehem,
56
necessary that the bishop should always keep these in Jerusalem. And immense crowds, not of monks only, but also of the laity, both men and
days
women,
day.
flock together to Jerusalem from every quarter for the solemn and joyous observance of that
4.
The Presentation}
day
after the
Mass.
is
The
fortieth
Epiphany
undoubtedly
celebrated here with the very highest honour, for on that day there is a procession, in which all take part,
in the Anastasis, and all things are done in their order with the greatest joy, just as at Easter. All the
priests, and after them the bishop, preach, always taking for their subject that part of the Gospel where
Joseph and Mary brought the Lord into the Temple on the fortieth day, and Symeon and Anna the pro-
saw Him, treating of the words which they spake when they saw the 2 Lord, and of that offering which His parents made.
phetess, the daughter of Phanuel,
And when
done
everything that
is
in order, the
sacrament
is
Sacramento aguntur et
57
LENT
And when
served thus
l
:
the
Just as with us forty days are kept before Easter, so here eight weeks are kept before And eight weeks are kept because there is Easter.
no fasting on the Lord's Days, nor on the Sabbaths, except on the one Sabbath on which the Vigil of Easter falls, in which case the fast is obligatory. With the exception then of that one day, there is never fasting on any Sabbath here throughout the Thus, deducting the eight Lord's Days and year. the seven Sabbaths (for on the one Sabbath, as I said above, the fast is obligatory) from the eight weeks, there remain forty-one fast days, which they call here
Eortae, that
1
is
Quadragesimae?
Quadragesima are found before the fourth century. The fifth Canon of the Council of Nicaea (325) contains the earliest mention of it. Various endeavours were made in various countries to combine the Quadragesima with Holy Week. S. Chrysostom speaks of the Quadragesima being " finished and the "Great week beginning. At Rome and at Alexandria Holy Week was included in the Quadragesima in such a manner that the whole fast lasted only six weeks, but at Constantinople and in the countries observing the use of Antioch the fast was observed for seven weeks. The Sundays only were excepted at Rome, but at Constantinople both the Sundays and Saturdays, with the exception of Easter Eve, were exempt from fasting. (Duchesne, Christian Worship, 4th edit.,
traces of the
No
pp. 242
*
f.)
For the Holy Quadragesima second, Ezek. xviii. 20-23 third, Rom. fourth, Col. ii. 8 foil. fifth, Heb. xi. 1-31 ; xlv. Isa. iii. sixth, 17-26 ; seventh, Eph. I4~iv. 13 ; eighth, ninth, Job xxxviii. 2-xxxix. 35 Jer. xxxii. 19-44 tenth, i Cor. viii. 5~ix. 23 eleventh, Heb. i. 1-12 twelfth, Isa. vii. n-vii 10 ; thirteenth, Isa. liii. i-liv. 5 fourteenth, I Cor. xy. l-?
Lect. has
:
"
i.
16-20
58
Services on Sundays.
Now
thus
:
On the Lord's Day after the first cockcrow the bishop reads in the Anastasis the account of the Lord's Resurrection from the Gospel, as on all Lord's
Days throughout the whole
done
at the Anastasis
and
year, up to daybreak. morning, they proceed to the greater church, called the martyrium, which is in Golgotha behind the Cross, and all things that are In customary on the Lord's Days are done there. like manner also when the dismissal from the church has been made, they go with hymns to the Anastasis, as they always do on the Lord's Days, and while these things are being done the fifth hour is reached.
Lord's
Afterwards,
the
Lucernare, however, takes place at its own hour, as usual, at the Anastasis and at the Cross, and in the
various holy places
;
on the Lord's
Day
the
ninth
hour
is *
kept.
2.
Weekday
Services.
On the second weekday they go at the first cockcrow to the Anastasis, as they do throughout the year, and everything that is usual is done until Then at the third hour they go to the morning.
fifteenth,
Dan.
i
vii.
xii.
teenth,
Cor.
seven13-27 ; sixteenth, I Cor. xii. 1-7 8-27 ; eighteenth, Ezek. xxxvii. 1-14 ;
;
59
At
the sixth
is
everything
in Quadragesima is additional. and ninth hours also, and at lucernare, done that is customary throughout the
whole year
at
And
on the third
weekday
day.
all
3.
weekday they go by night to the Anastasis, and all the usual things are done until morning, and also at the third and sixth hours. But
at the ninth
and sixth
out the year, for the reason that the fast is always kept here on the fourth and sixth weekdays even by
the catechumens, except a martyrs' day should occur. For if a martyrs' day should chance to occur on the
sixth weekday in Quadragesima, to do not Sion at the ninth hour. But on they go the days of Quadragesima, as I said above, they proceed to Sion on the fourth weekday at the ninth hour, according to the custom of the whole year, and all things that are customary at the ninth hour are
fourth or on the
oblation,
:
for,
in
The Old Arm. Lect. has " In the holy Quadragesima, the first week on the fourth day of the week, they assemble at the tenth hour in holy Sion, and this canon is performed Exod. i. i-ii. 10 Joel i. 14-20; Ps. li. sff." (Gregory Asharuni alone gives the fifth verse as the antiphon.) 2 The Old Arm. Lect. " Friday, at the tenth hour they
in
:
assemble
4-vii. 10
;
in
holy Sion, and this canon is performed Job vi. 2-vii. 13 ; Isa. xl. 1-8 ; Ps. xli.*"
Deut.
vi.
60
always be instructed in the law, both the But when priest preach diligently. the dismissal has been made, the people escort the bishop with hymns thence to the Anastasis, so that it is already the hour of lucernare when he enters the Anastasis then hymns and antiphons are said, prayers
people
bishop and the
;
are made, and the service (inissd) of lucernare takes place in the Anastasis and at the Cross. And the
is always later on those days in than on other days throughout the Quadragesima the fifth On weekday everything is done as year. on the second and third weekday. On the sixth weekday everything is done as on the fourth, including the going to Sion at the ninth hour, and the escorting of the bishop thence to the Anastasis with
service of lucernare
hymns.
4.
Saturday.
But on the sixth weekday the vigils are observed in the Anastasis from the hour of their arrival from Sion with hymns, until morning, that is, from the hour of lucernare^ when they entered, to the morning of the next day, that is, the Sabbath. And the
oblation
is
made
in
the dismissal
Through-
out the whole night psalms are said responsively in turn with antiphons and with various lections, the
whole lasting
takes
until morning, and the dismissal, which on the Sabbath at the Anastasis, is place
before sunrise, that is, the oblation, so that the dismissal may take place in the Anastasis at the hour when the sun begins to rise. Thus, then, is each
week of Quadragesima
kept,
the dismissal
taking
61
place earlier on the Sabbath, i.e. before sunrise, as I said, in order that the hebdomadarii, as they are called
here,
may
the fast in Quadragesima is that the dismissal on the Lord's Day is at the fifth hour in order that they
whom
they
call
fast,
the weeks'
is,
And when
have taken breakfast on the Lord's Day, they do not eat until the Sabbath morning after they have communicated in the Anastasis. It is for their sake, then,
that they may finish their fast the sooner, that the dismissal on the Sabbath at the Anastasis is before
sunrise.
ing, as
I
For
is
in the
morn-
said
but
in
all
who
are so
the Anastasis.
5.
The Fast.
:
This is the custom of the fast in Quadragesima some, when they have eaten after the dismissal on the Lord's Day, that is, about the fifth or sixth hour, do not eat throughout the whole week until after the dismissal at the Anastasis on the Sabbath these are they who keep the weeks' fast. Nor, after having eaten in the morning, do they eat in the evening of the Sabbath, but they take a meal on the next day, that is, on the Lord's Day, after the dismissal from the church at the fifth hour or later, and then they do not breakfast until the Sabbath comes round, as I have said above. For the custom here is that all who are apotactitae, as they call them
;
here,
62
the day when they do eat, not only in Quadragesima, but throughout the whole year. But if any of the
apotactitae cannot
described above, they take supper in the middle (of the week), on the fifth day, all through Quadragesima.
this, he keeps two through Quadragesima, and they who cannot do even this, take a meal every For no one exacts from any how much he evening. should do, but each does what he can, nor is he praised who has done much, nor is he blamed who has done less that is the custom here. For
if
And
their food during the days of Quadragesima is as follows they taste neither bread which cannot be
:
1 weighed, nor oil, nor anything that grows on trees, but only water and a little gruel made of flour. Quadragesima is kept thus, as we have said. And at
the end of the weeks' fast the vigil is kept in the Anastasis from the hour of lucernare on the sixth
weekday, when the people come with psalms from Sion, to the morning of the Sabbath, when the
oblation
is
made
in the Anastasis.
And
in
the second,
Quadragesima
first.
Pattern, quid liberari nonpotest, but Archbp. Bernard reads " bread which cannot be strained qui deliquari and translates as a liquid." I have adopted Gamurrini's conjecture librari.
:
2 In the Old Arm. Lect. there are special lections for all these weeks. They will be found in the Rituale Armenorum, Appendix II., pp. 5igf. As they do not specially figure in The places of Etheria's narrative, they are not given here. assembly in Jerusalem are specified with each day's lections.
63
Saturday
before
Palm Sunday.
Station at Bethany.
Now when the seventh week has come, that is, when two weeks, including the seventh, are left before
weeks that are
done on each day as in the except that the vigils of the sixth weekday, which were kept in the Anastasis during the first six weeks, are, in the seventh week, kept in Sion, and with the same customs that
Easter,
1
everything
is
past,
obtained during the six weeks in the Anastasis. For throughout the whole vigil psalms and antiphons are
said appropriate both to the place and to the day. And when the morning of the Sabbath 2 begins to
dawn
"
dismissal
the bishop offers the oblation. And at the the archdeacon lifts his voice and says Let us all be ready to-day at the seventh hour in the
;
Lazarium."
all
And
so,
go to the Lazarium, that is, Bethany, situated at about the second milestone from the city. And as
they go from Jerusalem to the Lazarium, there is, about five hundred paces from the latter place, a church in the street on that spot where Mary the
1 Mgr. Duchesne notes there were variations in the length of the Quadragesima at Jerusalem (Christian Worship, p. 243, note 4, 4th edit.). The Old Arm. Lect. reckons Holy Week as the seventh, and Etheria the eighth of Quadragesima. The meeting-places also do not quite agree in the two MSS. 2 For the Saturday before Palm Sunday the Old Arm. Lect. " The sixth day before Zatik (the Passover), on the gives Sabbath they assemble in the Lazarium, and this canon is Ps. xxx. 3 i Thess. iv. 12-17 ; Alleluiah ; Ps. xl. performed
:
:
S.
John
xi.
55-xii.
n."
64
sister of
Here, when the bishop arrives, all the monks meet him, and the people enter the church, and one hymn and one antiphon are said, and that passage is read in the
Gospel where the sister of Lazarus meets the Lord. Then, after prayer has been made, and when all have been blessed, they go thence with hymns to the Lazarium. And on arriving at the Lazarium, so great a multitude assembles that not only the place itself, but also the fields around, are full of
people. Hymns and antiphons suitable to the day and to the place are said, and likewise all the lessons are read. Then, before the dismissal, notice is given
of Easter, that
is,
six days before the Passover had come to 2 So, that passage having been Bethany, and the rest. read and notice given of Easter, the dismissal is
When Jesus
done on that day because, as it is Gospel, these events took place in Bethany six days before the Passover there being six days from the Sabbath to the fifth weekday on
made.
This
is
written in
the
Then
all
2.
Palm Sunday.
John
xi. 29, 30.
On
1
S.
John
xii.
I ff.
the Day of the Palms they assemble in the holy Shrine of the city, and this canon is fulfilled Ps. xcviii. 8 Eph. i. 3-10 Alleluiah ; Ps. xcix. ; S. Matt. xxi. i-ii."
:
On
65
begins the Paschal week, and which they call here the Great Week, when all the customary services
from cockcrow until morning have taken place in the Anastasis and at the Cross, they proceed on the morning of the Lord's Day according to custom to the greater church, which is called the martyrium. It is called the martyrium because it is in Golgotha behind the Cross, where the Lord suffered. When all that is customary has been observed in the great
church, and before the dismissal deacon lifts his voice and says first
made, the archThroughout the whole week, beginning from to-morrow, let us all assemble in the martyrium, that is, in the great Then he lifts his voice church, at the ninth hour." " Let us all be ready to-day in Eleona again, saying
is
:
"
been made
the bishop
the martyrium,
escorted with
hymns
to the Anastasis,
and
Day
the martyrium, every one hastens home to eat, that all may be ready at the beginning of the seventh
in
in
(b} Procession
Mount of
1
Olives.
all
the people
On the same day, at the ninth The Old Arm. Lect. has hour, they go forth to the Mount of Olives with palm branches and there they pray and sing psalms until the tenth hour. And after that they go down into the holy Anastasis, chanting " Ps. cxviii. 28 [N.B. This psalm formed part of the Jewish
:
"
66
go up to the Mount of Olives, that is, to Eleona, and the bishop with them, to the church, where hymns and antiphons suitable to the day and to the And place are said, and lessons in like manner.
when the ninth hour approaches they go up with hymns to the Imbomon, that is, to the place whence
the Lord ascended into heaven,and there they sit down, for all the people are always bidden to sit when the
the deacons alone always stand. antiphons suitable to the day and to the place are said, interspersed with lections and And as the eleventh hour approaches, the prayers.
bishop
is
present
Hymns and
passage from the Gospel is read, where the children, carrying branches and palms, met the Lord, saying Blessed is He that cometIt in the name of the Lord};
and the bishop immediately rises, and all the people with him, and they all go on foot from the top of the Mount of Olives, all the people going before him
with hymns and antiphons, answering one to another Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of tlie Lord. And all the children in the neighbourhood, even those
:
who
are
too
young
their
parents
on
branches, some thus the bishop is escorted in the same manner as the Lord was of old. For all, even those of rank,
walk, are carried by their all of them bearing of palms and some of olives, 2 and
to
shoulders,
both matrons and men, accompany the bishop all the way on foot in this manner, making these
Hallel. It will be observed that Etheria's ear caught the ever" Blessed is He that cometh in the name recurring antiphon of the Lord" (v. 26), but she does not seem to have recognized the psalm. According to the ancient use, the antiphon was sung after each verse as a refrain.] 2 1 S. Matt. xxi. 8. S. Matt. xxi. 9.
:
67
mount
to the city,
going very slowly lest the people should be wearied and thus they arrive at the Anastasis at a late hour. And on arriving, although it is late, lucernare takes after which the place, with prayer at the Cross
;
3.
Monday
in
Holy Week.
On
that
until
is
the next day, the second weekday, everything customary is done from the first cockcrow
;
morning in the Anastasis also at the third and sixth hours everything is done that is customary throughout the whole of Quadragesima. But at the ninth hour all assemble in the great church, that is the martyrium, 1 where hymns and antiphons are said continuously until the first hour of the night and lessons suitable to the day and the place are read,
interspersed
place when
is
its
always with prayers. Lucernare takes hour approaches, that is, so that it is
already night
when
made.
tasis,
bishop is where, when he has entered, one hymn is said, followed by a prayer the catechumens and then the
;
the dismissal has been made, the escorted thence with hymns to the Anas-
When
is
made.
The Old Arm. Lect. has The second day of the week of the Fast of Zatik (Pascha) they assemble in the holy Shrine of the city, and this canon is fulfilled Gen. i. i-iii. 20 " Prov. i. 1-9 Isa. xl. 1-8 ; Ps. Ixv. 6
:
68
Tuesday
in
x
Holy Week.
is
On
the third
weekday
everything
done as on
the second, with this one thing added that late at night, after the dismissal of the martyrium, and
after the
dis-
missal there, all proceed at that hour by night to the church, which is on the mount Eleona. And
and
book of the
Gospel, he stands and himself reads the words of the Lord which are written in the Gospel according to Matthew, where He says: Take heed that no man deceive you? And the bishop reads through the whole of that discourse, and when he has read it, prayer is made, the catechumens and the faithful are blessed, the dismissal is made, and every one returns from
the
mount
to his
house,
it
at night.
5.
Wednesday
in
Holy Week.
On the fourth weekday everything is done as on the second and third weekdays throughout the whole day from the first cockcrow onwards, but after the
dismissal has taken place at the martyrium 4
1
by
night,
the third day of the week they assemble on the Mount [the later Bodleian Codex has of Olives,' thus agreeing with Etheria], at the tenth hour. And this canon is performed: Gen. vi. 9~ix. 17; Prov. ix. i-ii; Ps. xxv. 1 ; S. Matt. xxiv. 3-xxvi. 3." Isa. xi. 9-17 3 1 S. Matt. xxiv. 4. Cf. S. Matt. xxiv. 3. 4 The old Arm. Lect. has " The fourth day of the week at the tenth hour they assemble in the holy Shrine of the city, and this canon is performed: Gen. xviii. i-xix. 30; Prov. i.
Lect. has
:
"
:
On
'
69
and the bishop has been escorted with hymns to the Anastasis, he at once enters the cave which is in the Anastasis, and stands within the rails but the priest stands before the rails and receives the Gospel, and reads the passage where Judas Iscariot went to the Jews and stated what they should give him that he should betray the Lord. 1 And when the passage has been read, there is such a moaning and groaning of all the people that no one can help being moved to tears at that hour. Afterwards prayer follows, then the blessing, first of the catechumens, and then of the faithful, and the dismissal is made.
;
6.
Maundy
Thursday.
(a)
Mass
celebrated twice.
the fifth weekday everything that is customary done from the first cockcrow until morning at the Anastasis, and also at the third and at the sixth hours. But at the eighth hour all the people gather
is
On
xi.
11-14;
PS
xh- 4
And
" The fifth day of the week is of the old Zatik, as touching which Jesus said to His disciples, ' With desire have I desired to eat with you this Zatik.' They assemble at the seventh hour in the holy shrine of the city, and Gen. xxii. 1-18 Isa. Ixi. 1-6 Acts i. this canon is performed Their words, etc. Then the catechumens Ps. lv. 22 15-26 i Cor. xi. 23-33; S. Matt. are dismissed. Again Is. xxiii. 5
Lect. has
xxvi. 20-39.
And then the sacrifice is offered in the holy shrine, and And in the same hour they proceed to before the holy Cross. The canon and Apostle are the same For I holy Sion. received from the Lord S. Mark xiv. 12-26. And in the same hour they go forth to the Mount of Olives, and perform the evening service of worship. And they join
: :
70
earlier
than on other days, because the dismissal must be made sooner. Then, when the people are gathered together, all that should be done is done, and the oblation is made on that day at the
place
about
the
But before the dismissal is made there, " Let us the archdeacon raises his voice and says all assemble at the first hour of the night in the church which is in Eleona, for great toil awaits us
:
to-day, in missal at
Then, after the disvery night." martyrium, they arrive behind the Cross, where only one hymn is said and prayer is made, and the bishop offers the oblation there, and all communicate. Nor is the oblation ever offered behind the Cross on any day throughout the year, except on this one day. And after the dismissal
this
the
vigil, and with three gubalays of psalms. [Mr. Conybeare believes gubalay to be derived from Kt<pa\aiov = chapter. Each canon of the psalms is divided for liturgical purposes into seven gubalays, each gubalay comprising two or three Psalms, and at the end of it is repeated the Gloria Patril\ And the prayers are said with gonuklisia [genuflections]. Of the first gubalay, Ps. ii. 2 Of the second gubalay, Ps. xli. 5 Of the third gubalay, Ps. lix. 1 Of the fourth gubalay, Ps. Ixxxviii.*, Ktzord, They are cut off from thy hand. Of the fifth gubalay, Ps. cix 2 ., Ktzord, They spake of me and with deceitful tongue. And after the fifth Psalm, and fifth gubalay, and fifth prayer, on the same evening they read the Gospel of S. John xiii. 31-
xviii.
i.
the same evening they go up to the hillock [on the Mt. of Olives. The Bordeaux pilgrim calls it 'the little hill.' Sir C. Wilson thinks it may be the slight elevation on the ridge of Olivet, known afterwards as Galilee], and this canon is
On
performed
In the
S. Luke xxii. 39-46. Ps. cix. 4 same hour of night they assemble in the room and read the lection, S. Mark xiv. 33-42." disciples,
:
of the
71
there they go to the Anastasis, where prayer is made, the catechumens and the faithful are blessed according
to custom,
is
made.
Night Station on the Mount of Olives. And so every one hastens back to his house to
(b)
eat,
because immediately after they have eaten, all go to Eleona to the church wherein is the cave where the Lord was with His Apostles on this very day. There then, until about the fifth hour of the night, hymns
to the day and to the place are said, lessons, too, are read in like manner, with prayers interspersed, and the passages from the
Gospel are read where the Lord addressed His dison that same day as He sat in the same cave And they go thence at which is in that church. about the sixth hour of the night with hymns up to
ciples
the
Imbomon,
into heaven, where again lessons are read, antiphons suitable to the day are said,
prayers which
are
made by
day and
the bishop
to the place.
(c)
Stations at Gethsemane.
cockcrow they come down from the with hymns, and arrive at the place where the Lord prayed, as it is written in the Gospel x and
at the first
And
Imbomon
cast,
the rest.
church.
in that place
the people
S.
Luke xxii. 41. Lat. et afcessit, but Vulg. has ipse avulsus est, see p. xxxiv.
72
day
is
with one suitable hymn, and the passage from the Gospel is read where He said to His disciples l Watch, that ye enter not into temptation ; the whole
passage is read through and prayer is made. And then all, even to the smallest child, go down with the Bishop, on foot, with hymns to Gethsemane where,
;
on account of the great number of people in the crowd, who are wearied owing to the vigils and weak through the daily fasts, and because they have so
great a
hill
to descend, they
over two hundred hymns church candles are made ready to give light to all On their arrival at Gethsemane, 2 first a the people. suitable prayer is made, then a hymn is said, then the passage of the Gospel is read where the Lord was taken. And when this passage has been read
to
Gethsemane.
And
there
is so great a moaning and groaning of all the people, together with weeping, that their lamentation may be heard perhaps as far as the city.
(cT)
Return
to
Jerusalem.
that hour they go with hymns 3 to the city on foot, reaching the gate about the time when one man begins to be able to recognize another, and thence
From
right on through the midst of the city both great and small, rich and poor,
i
all,
to a
man,
ready
all
are
Mark xiv. 38. The Old Arm. Lit. has " In the same hour of night, in the holy Mount of Olives in Gethsemane. And they read S. Matt.
S.
*
:
xxvi. 36-56."
3 The Old Arm. come singing Ps.
Lit.
has
1
,
cxviii.
and they
" In the same hour of night they recite it until they come
73
from the
until
morning.
to
is
the gate, and thence through the whole of the city to the Cross.
escorted from
Gethsemane
7.
Good Friday.
And when
is
already growing bright. There the passage from the Gospel is read where the Lord is brought before
Pilate,
is
which Pilate spake to the Lord or to the Jews l the whole is read. And afterwards the bishop addresses the people, comforting them for that they have toiled all night and are about to toil during that same day, (bidding) them not be weary, but to have hope in God,
And
give as he
able,
he addresses
sit
and
all
here just before the second hour of the day, that from that hour to the sixth you may be able to behold the holy wood of the Cross, each one of us believing that
will be profitable to his salvation ; then from the sixth hour we must all assemble again in this place,
it
that
is,
to lections
before the Cross, that we may apply ourselves and to prayers until night."
(b)
Flagellation.
at the Cross has
rises,
etc.
;
After
this,
when
is,
the
dismissal
they
S.
all
go
I,
etc.
Mark
xv.
I,
Luke
xxiii.
74
pray at the column which the Lord was scourged. 1 And returning thence they sit for awhile in their houses, and presently
at once with fervour to Sion, to at
all
are ready.
(c}
Then
a chair
is now standing the bishop table takes seat in the and a his covered chair, duly with a linen cloth is placed before him the deacons
silver-gilt
casket
is
1 The Old Arm. Lit. has " In the same hour of the night they go to the palace of the Judge, and he [z. e. the Lector] reads S. John xviii. 28-xix. 16." a The Old Arm. Lit. has "At dawn, on the Friday, the holy wood of the cross is set before holy Golgotha, and the congregation adore until the ninth hour. The adoration is completed, and at the sixth hour they assemble in holy Golgotha, and repeat And one by one of the eight psalms and five Gospel lections. psalms, there are two and lections, and at the same time
:
prayers. Ps. xxxv. II. [It is not easy to understand this, but Mr. Conybeare th/nks the arrangement was thus Ps. standing for L. Ps. Ps. L. Ps. Ps. L. Ps. Ps. Psalm, and L. for Lection L. Ps. Ps. L., making five Lections and eight Psalms.] Lection i. Zech. xi. 11-14; Gal. vi. 14-18; Ps. xxxviii. 17
:
:
9-15 Phil. ii. 5-11. 8 Isa. Prayer with gonuklisia [genuflection] Ps. xli. Rom. v. 6-1 1 ; Alleluiah; Ps. xxii. 18 Amos viii. 9-12
Isa.
iii.
; ; ;
1.
4-9;
Cor.
i.
18-31.
5 Prayer with gonuklisia Ps. xxxi. 11-18; S. Matt, xxvii. 3-53; Heb.
:
Isa.
ix.
Iii.
12
I3~liii.
Heb.
(in
ii.
11-28; S.
Mark
:
Matt.) xv. 16-41. 4 Lection xiii Jer. (in Prayer with gonuklisia Ps. Ixxxviii. MS. Isa.) xi. 18-21 Heb. x. 19-31 ; S. Luke xxiii. 32-(49). [The folio being torn, the part within brackets ( ) is added from the Bodleian MS. and so on the next line.]. 1 Zech. xiv. 6-)n Lec(Prayer with gonuklisia. Ps. cii. tion xvi. i Tim. vi. 13-16 S. John xix. 25-37."
:
MS.
See Introduction,
p. xlv.
75
which
is
the holy
wood
of the Cross.
The
opened and (the wood) is taken out, and both the wood of the Cross and the title 1 are placed
is
upon the
table.
Now, when
it
table, the bishop, as he sits, holds the extremities of the sacred wood firmly in his hands, while the deacons who stand around guard it. It is guarded thus be-
is
catechumens, come one by one and, bowing down at the table, kiss the sacred wood and pass through. And because, I know not when, some one is said to
have bitten off and stolen a portion of the sacred wood, it is thus guarded by the deacons who stand around, lest any one approaching should venture to do so And as all the people pass by one by one, all again. bowing themselves, they touch the Cross and the title, first with their foreheads and then with their eyes then they kiss the Cross and pass through, but none lays his hand upon it to touch it. When they have kissed the Cross and have passed through, a
;
deacon stands holding the ring of Solomon and the horn from which the kings were anointed they kiss the horn also and gaze at the ring 2 ... all the
;
Rufinus, Hist. Eccl. i. 7, 8 (about 400), is responsible for the statement that part of the wood of the true cross was sent to Constantine and part left in a silver casket (as here) in Jerusalem. According to S. Ambrose (395) Pilate's original superscription (titulus) was found by Helena still attached to the Saviour's cross, which enabled her to distinguish it from the two others but other authorities, including Rufinus, state that it was found in a separate place from the cross, and that the recognition of the true cross was due to a miracle. " " Evidently at the time of Etheria's visit the title was shown
;
as one of the relics at Jerusalem. 2 There is here an hiatus in the MS., with the two untranslatable words minus secundu in the middle.
76
people are passing through up to the sixth hour, entering by one door and going out by another for this is done in the same place where, on the preced;
is,
on the
fifth
was
offered.
And when
the Cross, whether it be in rain or in heat, the place being open to the air, as it were, a court of great size and of some beauty between the Cross and the
Anastasis
here
all
is
placed for the bishop before the Cross, and from the sixth to the ninth hour nothing else is done, but the reading of lessons, which are read thus first from the
:
psalms wherever the Passion is spoken of, then from the Apostle, either from the epistles of the Apostles or from their Acts, wherever they have spoken of the Lord's Passion then the passages from the Gospels, where He suffered, are read. Then the readings from the prophets where they foretold that the Lord should suffer, then from the Gospels where He menThus from the sixth to the ninth tions His Passion. hours the lessons are so read and the hymns said, that it may be shown to all the people that whatsoever the
;
prophets foretold of the Lord's Passion is proved from the Gospels and from the writings of the Apostles And so through all those to have been fulfilled. three hours the people are taught that nothing was done which had not been foretold, and that nothing
was
foretold
fulfilled.
Prayers
77
day are interspersed throughout. the mourning by all the lesson and at every prayer is wonderful for people there is none, either great or small, who, on that day during those three hours, does not lament more than can be conceived, that the Lord had suffered those
things for us. Afterwards, at the beginning of the ninth hour, there is read that passage from the Gospel according
to
John where He gave up the ghost. prayer and the dismissal follow.
(e)
This read,
Evening
Offices.
And when
made, all things are done in the greater church, at the martyrium, which are customary during this week from the ninth hour 3 when the assembly takes place
in
And after the disuntil late. the martyrium missal at the martyrium, they go to the Anastasis, where, when they arrive, the passage from the Gospel
is read where Joseph begged the Body of the Lord from Pilate and laid it in a new sepulchre. 4 And this reading ended, a prayer is said, the catechumens are blessed, and the dismissal is made. But on that day no announcement is made of a
1 This is probably the earliest record we have of the observ" ance of the Three Hours."
S.
Lect. has "Prayer with gonuklisia. And then they go up into the church at the tenth hour. [The later Bodleian MS. in the place of "church" says "holy shrine," " which agrees with Etheria's martyrium "]. And this canon is xi. 18-20. Lection xvii. ; Isa. liii. 1-12; Ps. performed: Jer. S. Matt, xxvii. 57-61." xxii. 18
*
John
xix. 30.
:
S.
John
xix.
38-42.
78
is
is
known
that the
nevertheless,
it
the custom to
watch there. So all of the people who are willing, or rather, who are able, keep watch, and they who are unable do not watch there until the morning.
Those of the
clergy,
however,
who
are strong or
and hymns and antiphons are said throughout the whole night until morning; a very great crowd also keep night-long watch, some from the late hour and some from midnight, as they
young keep
vigil there,
are able.
8.
Vigil of Easter.
in the
Lect. has "On the Sabbath day at dawn, Ps. Ixxxviii. 6 ; S. Matt, xxvii. 62-66. holy Anastasis At eventide, on the Sabbath day, they light a torch in the
holy Anastasis. First the bishop repeats Ps. cxiii. 2 And then the bishop and after him the deacons, and then the lights three candles
;
whole congregation. And then, after that, they go up into the church [the martyrium] and begin the vigils of the holy
Zatik [Paschal vigils, as Etheria calls them], and read twelve And with each of them they sing psalms. [Here lections. is evidently the primitive form of the ceremony of the New Fire in the ritual of the Greek Church at Jerusalem, to which such importance is still attached. The ceremony does not, however, extend beyond the Holy City, and it was not known at Rome. Etheria seems to have missed this service of the lighting of the candles her narrative is concentrated on the newly baptized. There is no mention in the Old Arm. Lect. or in Etheria's narrative of the blessing of the Paschal candle, which was an ancient custom in N. Italy, Gaul and Spain, and perhaps Cf. Duchesne, Christian Worship, pp. 25 if.]. Africa. 24 Gen. i. i-iii. 24 Gen. Prayers with gonuklisia : Ps. cxviii. xxii. 1-18 ; Exod. xii. 1-24; Jonah i. i-iv. Exod. xiv. 24:
xv. 21
'
[This lection is farced verse by verse with the respond Behold, there is come the King of Glory of light, illumining
creatures
'].
all
79
customary
;
is
done
at the third
sixth
held
the service at the ninth hour, however, is not on the Sabbath, but the Paschal vigils are
prepared in the great church, the martyrium. The Paschal vigils are kept as with us, with this one addition, that the children when they have been baptised and clothed, and when they issue from the 1 font, are led with the bishop first to the Anastasis the bishop enters the rails of the Anastasis, and one
;
hymn
is
said,
ii.
'
In the rest of the hymn the words Praise and exalt Him for ever,' are repeated thirty times, as a respond after each verse.] And while they recite the hymn, in the middle of the night,
'
:
there enter the multitude of the deacons [the Bodleian MS. N.B. The Old Arm. Lect. seems to gives 'newly sealed.' give two processional entries to the martyrium from the Anastasis. One, when they begin the 'vigils of the holy Etheria seems to Zatik,' and one >yith the newly baptized. Section 8, 'Vigil of Easter'] together give merely the latter. with the bishop, and this canon is performed Ps. Ixv. 1 i Cor. xv. i-i i Alleluiah Ps. xxx. 1 ; S. Matt, Lection xxviii. 1-20." 1 i. e. in the baptistery which Constantine had built beside the church of the Anastasis. The rite was one of total immersion, and many of the catechumens were adults (Archbp. Bernard), although Etheria uses the word infantes of them here see Thompson on Baptismal Offices, p. 177.
:
:
8o
where, according to custom, all the people are keeping watch. Everything is done there that is customary
with us
also,
and
the dismissal takes place. After the dismissal of the vigils has been made in the greater church, they go at once with hymns to the Anastasis, where the passage
Gospel about the Resurrection is read. made, and the bishop again makes the Prayer oblation. But everything is done quickly on account of the people, that they should not be delayed any
is
from the
longer,
The
dis-
missal of the vigils takes place on that day at the same hour as with us.
9.
Moreover, the Paschal days are kept up to a late hour as with us, and the dismissals take place in their order throughout the eight Paschal days, as is the custom everywhere at Easter throughout the Octave. But the adornment (of the churches) and order (of the services) here are the same throughout the Octave of Easter as they are during Epiphany, in the greater
church, in the Anastasis, at the Cross, in Eleona, in Bethlehem, as well as in the Lazarium, in fact, every-
where, because these are the Paschal days. On the 2 first Lord's Day they proceed to the great church,
1
Lect. has
"
:
The
sacrifice is offered.
And
the dismissal in the same night he offers in the holy Anastasis before holy Golgotha, and instantly reads John xx.
after
1-18.'
*
i. e.
Easter
Day
itself.
81
2
and
third weekdays, but always so that after the dismissal has been made at the martyrium, they go to the
Anastasis with hymns. On the fourth weekday they proceed to Eleona, on the fifth to the Anastasis, on the sixth to Sion, on the Sabbath 3 before the Cross,
is,
1 The Old Arm. Lect. has " At dawn, of the congregation on the holy Sunday of Zatik; they assemble in the holy Shrine, and this canon is performed: Acts i. 1-14; Alleluiah Ps. cxlvii. 12 On the same Sunday of S. Mark xvi. 2-8. Zatik, they go up at the ninth hour to the holy Mount of and go down with Psalms to Olives, and there sing a Psalm
; ;
;
the holy Anastasis. And thence they proceed at eventide to 1 S. John xx. holy Sion, and this canon is performed Ps. cxlix. 19-25." " On the second day of the week they assemble in the holy Ps. Ixv. I Acts ii. 22shrine, and this canon is performed Ps. cxlvii. 12 ; S. Luke xiv. 1-12. 41 ; Alleluiah Third day of the week, they assemble in the holy shrine of the proto-martyr Stephen, and this canon is performed Ps. v.
:
Acts ii. 42-iii. 21 Ps. xxi. I S. Luke xxiv. 13-35. Fourth day of the week, they assemble in holy Sion, and this canon is performed: Ps. cxlvii. 12; Acts iii. 22-iv. 12; S. Jas. i.
12
;
:
Alleluiah Ps. Ixv. I S. Luke xxiv. 36-40. Fifth day of the week, they assemble on the holy Mount of Ps. xcix. 5 ; Acts iv. 13Olives, and this canon is performed Alleluiah ; Ps. xv. S. Matt. v. 1-12. 31 ; S. Jas. i. 13-27
1-12
is
Friday they assemble before holy Golgotha, and this canon performed Ps. xcviii. 3 Acts iv. 32-v. ii S. Jas. ii. 1-13
:
Alleluiah 3 "
Ps. xciii. S. John xxi. 1-14." On the Sabbath they assemble in the holy Anastasis, and this canon is performed Ps. Ixvii. I ; Acts v. 12-33 ; S. Jas. ii. 14-26; Alleluiah ; Ps. Ixxxi. S. John i. 15-25." 4 The Old Lect. has: "To-day they assemble in the holy Shrine, and this canon is performed Ps. Ixv. ; Acts v. 34-vi. 7 S. Jas. iii. 1-13 Ps. cxlvii. 12 S. John i. i-ll. On the same Sunday they go up to the Mount of Olives at the ninth hour, and there sing Psalms for a space. And thence they go down with Psalms to the holy Anastasis, and this canon is performed Ps. cxlix. 1 S. John xx. 26-31." The following directions in the Old Arm. Lect. do not bear
;
82
to the
martyrium. Moreover, on the eight Paschal days the bishop goes every day after breakfast up to Eleona with all the clergy, and with all the children who have been baptised, and with all who are apotactitae, both men and women, and likewise with all the people who are willing. Hymns are said and prayers are made, both in the church which is on Eleona, wherein is the cave where Jesus was wont to teach His disciples, and also
in the
Imbomon,
that
is,
in the place
ascended into heaven. And when the psalms have been said and prayer has been made, they come down thence with hymns to the Anastasis at the hour of lucernare. This is done throughout all the eight days.
10.
Now, on the Lord's Day at Easter, after the dismissal of lucernare, that is, at the Anastasis, all the people escort the bishop with hymns to Sion. And,
on arriving, hymns suitable to the day and place are said, prayer is made, and the passage from the Gospel
directly
on any part of Etheria's narrative, but are given here because they bear on the administration of the Mysteries " Lections of the administration of the Mystery (=nv<TTay<ayla) after the dismissal are [read] in the shrine on the second day
:
same week i Pet. v. 8-14. Next he administers the Mystery on the seventh day in the same week i Cor. xi. 23-32. The Sunday at the close of Zatik. He reads in the holy I Pet. ii. Anastasis during the administration of the Mystery
in the
:
I-IO."
[N.B.
1
The
seem
to
whole
series.]
See note
on preceding page.
83
read where the Lord, on the same day, and in the same place where the church now stands in Sion, came in to His disciples when the doors were shut. That is, when one of His disciples, Thomas, was absent, and when he returned and the other Apostles told him that they had seen the Lord, he said " 2 When this Except I shall see, I will not believe"
is
and the
his
house
and every one returns to about the second hour of the night.
1 1.
Sunday
after Easter.
3 Again, on the Octave of Easter, that is, on the Lord's Day, all the people go up to Eleona with the
bishop immediately after the sixth hour. First they sit for awhile in the church which is there, and hymns
and antiphons suitable to the day and to the place are said prayers suitable to the day and to the place are likewise made. Then they go up to the Imbomon with hymns, and the same things are done there as in
;
the former place. And when the time comes, all the people and all the apotactitae escort the bishop with
hymns down
to the Anastasis, arriving there at the usual hour for lucernare. So lucernare takes place
to a
at the Anastasis
man
Sion.
to the
and at the Cross, and all the people escort the bishop thence with hymns to And when they have arrived, hymns suitable
day and to the place are said there also, and that lastly passage from the Gospel is read where,
1 3
S.
John xx.
19.
S.
81.
"
On
the
etc.
84
on the Octave of Easter, the Lord came in where the disciples were, and reproved Thomas because he had been unbelieving. The whole of that lesson is
both the catechumens read, with prayer afterwards and the faithful are blessed, and every one returns to his house as usual, just as on the Lord's Day of Easter, at the second hour of the night.
;
12.
Easter
to
Whitsuntide.
Now, from Easter to the fiftieth day, that is, to Pentecost, no one fasts here, not even those who are apotactitae. During these days, as throughout the
whole year, the customary things are done at the Anastasis from the first cockcrow until morning, and at the sixth hour and at lucernare likewise. But on
the
Lord's
is
always to the
is, to the great church, according to and custom, they go thence with hymns to the Anastasis. On the fourth and sixth weekdays, as no
martyrium, that
one
during those days, the procession in the morning but the dismissal is Sion,
fasts
;
is
to
made
in its
due
13.
order.
The Ascension.
Festival at Bethlehem?
is,
On
1
z
on the
fifth
S.
festivals with
the exception of this cursory mention of the " it is Ascension, of which impossible to find a trace before It is not the middle of the fourth century" (Duchesne). given in the Old Arm. Lect., but on May 7 we find the
following
"They assemble
appearance
in
before holy Golgotha, on the day of the heaven of the Sign of the holy Cross, and-this
85
weekday (for all go on the previous day, that is, on the fourth weekday, after the sixth hour to Bethlehem to celebrate the vigils, for the vigils are kept in
the
where Lord was born) On this fifth weekday, the fortieth day after Easter, the dismissal 2 is celebrated in its due order, so that the priests and the bishop
Bethlehem,
in the
church wherein
is
the cave
preach, treating of the things suitable to the day and the place, and afterwards every one returns to
Jerusalem
late.
VI
FESTIVALS OF WHITSUNTIDE
I.
Whitsunday.
fiftieth
(a)
Morning Station?
is,
But on the
day, that
is
customary
;
vi.
xcviii.
1
3 In the Old Arm. Lect. we have as follows: "On the Sunday of Holy Pentecost, they assemble in the holy Shrine. Canon Ps. cxliii. 10 Acts ii. 1-21 Alleluiah Ps. How lovely S. John xiv. 15-24. are the courts At the same time, after the dismissal from the Shrine at the Canon Ps. the same, third hour, they proceed to holy Sion. and same lection S. John xiv. 25-29. On the same Sunday, at the tenth hour, they assemble on the holy Mount of Olives, and the same Psalm and the same lection are used, S. John xvi. 5-15. And there, after the Gospel, takes place a gonuklisia, thrice. And in all places in the same manner, and at even they proceed to Holy Sion. Canon S. John xiv. 15-24." Ps. cxliii. 10
:
86
cockcrow onwards vigil is kept in the Anastasis, and the bishop reads the passage from the Gospel that is always read on the Lord's Day, namely, the account of the Lord's Resurrection, and afterwards everything customary is done in the AnastaBut sis, just as throughout the whole year.
when
to
morning
all
the great
and
is come, all the people proceed church, that is, to the martyrium, the priests things usual are done there
;
then the bishop, and all things that are prescribed are done, the oblation being made, as is customary on the Lord's Day, only the same dismissal 1 in the martyrium is hastened, in order that it may be made before the third hour.
preach
and
(&) Station
at Sion.
And when
martyrium, all the people, to a man, escort the bishop with hymns to Sion, [so that] they are in Sion
when the
arrival
third hour
is
fully
there
2 is
the
passage
And
Acts
on their
of
the
so
Apostles
that
all
read
where the
came down
[were heard and all men] understood the things that were being spoken, and the dismissal takes place afterwards in due course. For the priests read there from the Acts of the
tongues
is
Apostles concerning the selfsame thing, because that the place in Sion there is another church there
now where once, after the Lord's Passion, the multitude was gathered together with the Apostles,
1
Lat.
eadem adceleratur
ii.
mt'ssa-
Acts
i ff.
87
this was done, as we have said above. Afterwards the dismissal takes place in due course, and the oblation is made there. Then, that the people may be dismissed, the archdeacon raises his " Let us all be ready to-day in voice, and says
:
Eleona, in the
hour."
Imbomon,
directly
after
the
sixth
(c)
Station at the
Mount of
Olives.
So
all
the people return, each to his house, to rest and immediately after breakfast they
Mount of Olives, that is, to Eleona, each as he can, so that there is no Christian left in the city
who does not go. When, therefore, they have gone up the Mount of Olives, that is, to Eleona, they
enter the Imbomon, that is, the place whence the Lord ascended into heaven, and the bishops and the priests take their seat there, and likewise all the
first
Lessons are read there with hymns interspersed, antiphons too are said suitable to the day and the place, also the prayers which are interspersed have likewise similar references. The passage from the Gospel is also read where it speaks of the Lord's J Ascension, also that from the Acts of the Apostles which tells of the Ascension of the Lord into heaven And when this is over, the after His Resurrection. catechumens and then the faithful are blessed, and
people.
they
come down
thence,
it
hour, and go with hymns to that church which is in Eleona, wherein is the cave where the Lord was wont And as it is already to sit and teach His Apostles.
.
Acts
i.
ff.
88
past the tenth hour when they arrive, lucernare takes place there prayer is made, and the catechumens
;
faithful are
blessed.
[d]
Night Procession.
And then all the people to a man descend thence with the bishop, saying hymns and antiphons suitable to that day, and so come very slowly to the marIt is already night when they reach the gate tyrium. of the city, and about two hundred church candles are provided for the use of the people. And as it is
a good distance from the gate to the great church, that is, the martyrium, they arrive about the second hour of
the night, for they go the whole way very slowly lest the people should be weary from being afoot. And when the great gates are opened, which face towards
the market-place,
all
with
the people enter the martyrium the bishop. And when they
have entered the church, hymns are said, prayer is made, the catechumens and also the faithful are after which they go again with hymns to blessed the Anastasis, where on their arrival hymns and antiphons are said, prayer is made, the catechumens and also the faithful are blessed this is likewise done
; ;
at the Cross.
man
escort
Lastly, all the Christian people to a the bishop with hymns to Sion, and
when they
are
come
psalms and antiphons are said, prayer is made, the catechumens and the faithful are blessed, and the
dismissal
takes place.
And
approach the bishop's hand, and then returns to his house about midnight.
every one
89
great fatigue is endured on that day, for at the Anastasis from the first cockcrow, kept
and there is no pause from that time onward throughout the whole day, but the whole celebration (of the
Feast) lasts so long that it is midnight when every one returns home after the dismissal has taken place
at Sion.
2.
day
all fast
as
customary throughout the whole year, each one as he is able, except on the Sabbath and on the Lord's
Day, which are never kept as
fasts in this place.
On
the ensuing days everything is done as during the whole year, that is, vigil is kept in the Anastasis from the first cockcrow. And if it be the Lord's
cockcrow the bishop first reads customary, the passage from the Gospel concerning the Resurrection, which is always read on the Lord's Day, and then afterwards hymns and antiphons are said in the Anastasis until daylight. But if it be not the Lord's and Day, only hymns antiphons are said in like manner in the Anastasis from the first cockcrow until daylight. All the apotactitae, and of the people
Day,
at the earliest
in the Anastasis, as is
those
daily.
bishop always as
dismissal
begins to dawn, that the morning with all the clergy present except on the Lord's Day, when (the bishop) has to go at the first cockcrow, that he may read the Gospel in the
maybe made
Anastasis.
Afterwards everything
is
done as usual
90
in the Anastasis until the sixth hour, and at the ninth, as well as at lucernare, according to the custom
of the whole year. But on the fourth and sixth weekdays, the ninth hour is kept in Sion as is
customary.
VII
BAPTISM *
I.
The Inscribing of
I
the
Competents.
Moreover,
are
Easter. Now he who gives in his name, gives it in on the day before Quadragesima, and the priest writes down the names of all this is before the eight weeks which I have said are kept
baptised at
here at
written
Quadragesima.
And when
the
priest
has
down
the
names of all,
after the
next day of
Quadragesima, that is, on the day when the eight weeks begin, the chair is set for the bishop in the
midst of the great church, that
is,
at the
martyrium,
and the
while
priests sit in
all the clergy stand. Then one by one the competents are brought up, coming, if they are males (vin) with their fathers, and if females (femtnae) with
y
Then the bishop asks the neighbours of every one who has entered concerning each indi" Does this person lead a good life, vidual, saying
their mothers.
:
he obedient to his parents, is he not given to wine, " nor deceitful ? making also inquiry about the several And if he vices which are more serious in man. 2
is
1 8
js
For this section see Thompson on Baptismal Offices, pp. 52 ff. Lat. singula viHa quae sunt tamen gra-viora in homine. It difficult to decide whether this means "the various more
91
his
in
name with
his
any matter, he orders him to go out, saying " Let him amend, and when he has amended then let him come to the font (lavacrum}." And as he makes inquiry conmen, so also does he concerning the if any be a stranger, he comes not so easily to Baptism, unless he has testimonials from
cerning the
women.
But
those
who know
2.
him.
Catechisings.
This also I must write, reverend sisters, lest you should think that these things are done without good
reason.
The custom here is that they who come to Baptism through those forty days, which are kept as
exorcised by the clergy early in the day, as soon as the morning dismissal has been made in the Anastasis. Immediately afterwards the chair is
fast days, are first
placed for the bishop at the martyrium in the great church, and all who are to be baptised sit around, near the bishop, both men and women, their fathers and
mothers standing there also. Besides these, all the people who wish to hear come in and sit down the faithful however only, for no catechumen enters there when the bishop teaches the others the Law. Beginning from Genesis he goes through all the Scriptures
serious human vices" (in males and females), in which case there is apparently no force in tamen, or " the various vices, which are more serious in a male (than in a female) all the
same," in which case Etheria uses homo, where just before and
after she uses vir,
92
during those forty days, explaining them, first literally, and then unfolding them spiritually. They are also taught about the Resurrection, and likewise all things concerning the Faith during those days. And this is
called the catechising.
"
3.
Traditio
"
of the Creed.
the time
are then
Then when five weeks are completed from when their teaching began, (the Competents)
1 taught the Creed. And as he explained the meaning of all the Scriptures, so does he explain the meaning
of the Creed
spiritually.
each article
this
first
literally
and then
By
means
all
parts follow the Scriptures when they are read in church, inasmuch as they are all taught during those
forty days from the
first
catechising
lasts
And God
knows,
sisters, that the voices of the faithful who come in to hear the catechising are louder (in approval) of the things spoken and explained by the
reverend
^bishop than they are when he sits and preaches in church. Then, after the dismissal of the catechising
made, it being already the third hour, the bishop is at once escorted with hymns to the Anastasis. So
is
the dismissal takes place at the third hour. Thus are they taught for three hours a day for seven weeks, but in the eighth week of Quadragesima, which is called the Great Week, there is no time for them to
be taught, because the things that are [described] above must be carried out. 2
1
i, e.
93
Redditio
"
And when
Paschal
are
past,
call
the morning into the great church at the martyrium, and the chair is placed for him in the apse behind the altar, where
in
week is left, which they Great Week, then the bishop comes
[and] here
the
the
they come one by one, a man with his father and a woman with her mother, and recite the Creed to the
And when they have recited the Creed to bishop. the bishop, he addresses them all, and says " During these seven weeks you have been taught all the law
:
of the Scriptures, you have also heard concerning the Faith, and co- cerning the resurrection of the flesh,
and the whole meaning of the Creed, as far as you were able, being yet catechumens. But the teachings
of the deeper mystery, that
is, of Baptism itself, you cannot hear, being as yet catechumens. But, lest you should think that anything is done without good
in the
during
the eight Paschal days, after the dismissal from the church has been made. You, being as yet catechumens, cannot be told the more secret mysteries
of God."
5.
Mystic Catechisings.
But when the days of Easter have come, during those ekT ht days, that is, from Easter to the Octave, when the dismissal from the church has been made,
they go with hymns to the Anastasis. Prayer is said anon, the faithful are blessed, and the bishop stands, leaning against the inner rails which are in the cave
94
all things that a.'e done catechumen Baptism. approaches the Anastasis, but only the neophytes and the faithful,
who wish
mysteries, enter
there, and the doors are shut lest any catechumen should draw near. And while the bishop discusses and sets forth each point, the voices of those who
And
no one unmoved
hears to be so explained. Now, forasmuch as in that province some of the people know both Greek and Syriac, while some know
Greek alone and others only Syriac and because the bishcp, although he knows Syriac, yet always speaks Greek, and never Syriac, there is always a priest
;
may
being taught. And because all the lessons that are read in the church must be read in Greek, he always stands by and interprets them into Syriac, for the people's sake, that they may always be edified. Moreover, the Latins here, who understand neither Syriac nor Greek, in order that they be not disappointed, have (all things) explained to them, for there are other brothers and sisters knowing both Greek and But what Latin, who translate into Latin for them. is above all things very pleasant and admirable here,
is
well as that
that the hymns, the antiphons, and the lessons, as the prayers which the bishop says, always
fitting references,
being celebrated and also to the place where the celebration is taking place.
95
VIII
DEDICATION OF CHURCHES l
Those are
called the days of dedication
when the
holy church which is in Golgotha, and which they call the holy the martyrium, was consecrated to God
;
is
is,
in
the
place where the Lord rose after His Passion, was consecrated to God on that day. The dedication of these holy churches is therefore celebrated with the
highest honour, because the Cross of the Lord was found on this same day. And it was so ordained
that,
first
consecrated, that should be the day when the Cross of the Lord had been found, in order that the whole celebration should be made together, with the self-same day. all rejoicing, on Moreover, it
2 appears from the Holy Scriptures that this is also the day of dedication, when holy Solomon, having finished the House of God which he had built, stood
it is
written in
all
parts
many
And
In the Old Arm. Lect. we have September 23, dedication of the holy places. On the first day in the holy Anastasis, this canon is performed Ps. Ixv. 1 ; Tim. iii. 14-16 ; Alleluiah Ps. cxlvii. 12 S. John x. 22-42 ." [Mr. Conybeare notes that in the MS. the last line of this lection is torn away as well as the beginning of the rubric which follows, and which related to the feast of the Cross, called Warag, on the following day.] 2 2 Chron. vi., vii. 8-10.
:
:
"
96
apotactitae from various provinces, from Mesopotamia and Syria, from Egypt and the Thebaid (where there are very many monks), and from every different place and province for there is none who does not turn his steps to Jerusalem on that day for such rejoicing and for such high days but lay people too in like manner, both men and women, with faithful minds, gather together in Jerusalem from every province on those days, for the sake of the holy day. And the bishops, even when they have been few, are
and
present to the
number of
on these days, and with them come many of their But why should I say more ? for he who on clergy. these days has not been present at so solemn a feast thinks that he has committed a very great sin, unless some necessity, which keeps a man back from carrying
out a good resolution, has hindered him. Now on these days of the dedication the adornment of all the
churches
also
is the same as at Easter and at Epiphany, on each day the procession is made to the several holy places, as at Easter and at Epiphany. For on the first and second days it is to the greater church, which is called the martyrium. On the third day it is to Eleona, that is, the church which is on that mount whence the Lord ascended into heaven after His Passion, and in this church is the cave wherein the Lord used to teach His Apostles on the Mount But on the fourth day of Olives.
. . .
16
Arabia, 25
33
Abraham (Abram),
.,
xxxiii, xxxvii
city of, xix, xx, 13, 16 bishop, xx, xxx, 16, 17 mountains of, 19
its
Archdeacon,
Arianism, xl
xlivf.,
63,65, 70,87
Acta ThadJaei, xxxvi Acts of Apostles. See Apostles Acts of S. Thecla. See S. Thecla Acts of S. Thomas. See S.
Armenia, Catholicos
Ascension,
of, xxvii
xli,
Armenian Lectionary,
Feast
of,
52
xxxviiif.,
Thomas
Adornment of Churches,
55, 80,
xlvi, 53,
96
27
.,
Aelia (Jerusalem), 18
xlvii, 84, 87 Ascetics, xii, xiii, xxvii ff., xxxvii, xxxix, 4, 21, 29, 37, 39 Asia, 44
ALnon,
xxii, xliv,
f.
Agri
specula,
24
xix, xxvii n.,
Alexandria, xviii
6, 18
Asses used, xii, 21 Astorga, viii Athanasius, S., quoted, xlii Augustine, S., quoted, xlii Augustofratensis, province of, 31
Ausitis.
Amalek, xviii Ambrose, S., xl, 75 Amphilochius quoted, xxxii Ananias the courier, 30, 33, 35 Anastasis, Church of, xlv, 45 ff. Anastasius, Emperor, xiii
.
See
Uz
Anna
Anthony, rule of
Antioch, 31, 41
xxv, xxxvii,
Baalzephon, xix, 14 Balaam, 24 Balak, 24 Balsam, 17 Baptism, xliiif., 90 ff. Baptisms at ^Enon, 27 Bardesanes, xl Bashan, xxxivn., 24
Batiffol, Pierre, xiii
f.
patriarch
of,
xxvii
ff.
Bathnae,
xxiii, xxiv,
of, xiii,
Church
of,
of, xlvi,
44
Bishop
Bernard,
32 32
vii,
Acts
86, 87
Belisarius, xiv
Archbishop,
xiv,
quoted,
42,
xliiitt.
xx, xxiv, xxx, xxxviii, xli f., xlvi, xxxix;/., 17 n., 21 ., 22w., 25., 28**., 32;;. 43 ., 46 ., 62 n.
xvi,
97
98
xx
f.
Bethany, 63
ff.
Church
Beth-haran.
of, xlvii,
63
f.
See Livias
of, 95 Chrysostom, S., quoted, xl Liturgy of, xix Cicendelat, 54 Cilicia, xxv, 41, 42
.
Clysma (Suez).xi,
xviii, xix, 12
f,
Ccele-Syria, 31 Competentes, xliii f., 90 ff. Confessor, xiii, 32, 36 Constantino, Emperor, xlvif., 50,
52.54
Constantinople, viiw.,
xxiii,
46
xi.,
xvii,
.,
Bithynia,
xxv, 43
Bordeaux, Pilgrim of, xvii, 70 n. Braga, Bishop of, viii Brightman, Canon, 5 n.
Buhastir, xix Burning. See Taberah
44
Conybeare,
C.,
xxxix
xli,
xxxvii, 39 n., 62 .,
7o., 95
Bush, xix, 2, 7
Butler,
f.
.
Dom, xxix
Cosmas
46 Csesarea, Bishop of, xxvii Camels used, xii, 12
Cabrol,
vii,
Indicopleustes
quoted,
Dom,
n.
Cancelli.
Canon
meaning
of,
xxxii
Cappadocia, xxv, 43
Carneas, xiii
25,
.,
xxxvii Credner on the Canon, xxxii Creed, "Traditio" of, 92 " Redditio of, 93 Cross, Adoration of, xxxviii, 74 Discovery of, xlvi, 95
' '
f.
Exaltation
Title
Cyril,
xlii,
of,
of,
xlvi
xliv,
xlv, 75
.
S.,
of Jerusalem,
82., 85
xliv
Daily
offices,
xxxix, 45
ff.
Catechumens, xli, xliii, 48, 67 ff., 90 ff. Catherine, Convent of S., xix Cells (monasteria], xxx, 4, 5, 7, II, 21, 28, 29, 40, 42 Cereofala, 48, 54 Chalcedon, xxv, xliv, 43 Chaldees, 39
Charrae.
Daphno.
See Tahpanhes
Dead
See
Haran
of,
xxxiii,
See Infantes
Choir boys, xliii, 47 "Christ our God," 31, 32, 43, 44 Christmas, Feast of, xxxvii
Dictionary of Bible, Hastings's, 17, 25, 41 of Christian Biography, xxiv, xxxvi, xl of Christian Antiquities, xl of Prayer Book, 50
99
47
S.,
tomb
of,
xxv,
quoted,
46.,57.,63.,78.,84.
xliv,
xxiv, xlvif., i8w., 30 n. Evans, Canon Charles, xv Exodus, route of, xix, 10
Edessa,
Faran.
f.
.
Edom.
Edrei (Sasdra), 24
Egeria, viiiw.
Gad, 19
Galatia, xxv, 43 Galla Placidia, vii ., xii Gallaecia, viii, ix, Gallia Narbonensis, ix
Egypt, xi, xii, xix, xxi, xxvi, xxxvii, 6, 10, 13, 17, 96 monks of, xxvii ft. Eleona, xxxix, xlvii, 55 ff. Eliezer of Damascus, xxxiv, 36 Elijah, xviii, xxii, 6, 28
See Helpidius, S. Elpidius. Eortae, name for Lent, xxxviii, 57 Epauleum (Pi-hahiroth), xix, 14
xi.
Getha,
Tomb
of, 28.
f.
Gethsemane, xlvii, 71
Ephesus, xxvi, xliv, 44 Ephraem Syrus, xxiv, xl Epiphany, Feast of, xx, xxxvii, xlvii, 16, 52 ff., 96 Epiphanius quoted, xxx n. Esebon (Exebon). See Heshbon
Etham, 14
Etheria, her date and country, viii ff. ; her rank, xi ; her lanher knowledge of guage, ix f. Greek, x, xxv, xlviif. ; her use of Scripture, xxxiff ; her mode of travelling, xii her xvii ff. ; she receives route,
; ;
Geyer, M. Paul, vii Gibson, Mrs., and Mrs. Lewis, quoted, 46 n. Glory of God, and Glory of the Lord, 3 f. Golgotha, xlv, 53 ff. Good Friday observances,xxxviii, 73 fGraves of Lust. See Kibroth Hattaavah Greek, use of, x, xxiv, xliii,
xlvii f. 94 Gregory Asharuni,
,
Communion,
5,
30,
43
gives her ;
fertility of,
xx
f.,
17
91,92
Haran
f.
,
(Charrae), xliv, 36
Bishop
of, xiii,
39
ioo
Heathen mentioned, 38
Helena, Empress, xlvii, 54 Helpidius (Elpidius), S., xxix, xliv, 37 Herbert, Rev. George, xv
Joshua,
9,
19
of,
.
Hermon, Mount,
xxii
book
Juvenal,
xxiii,
Kibroth Ilattaavah
Lust), xvii,
xxxviii,
I,
(Graves
of
Kyrie Eleison,
xxxviii,
xliii,
47
Laban, 39, 41
f.
,
Hur.
45
ff.
Laodicea, Council of, xlii Lay people (laid, saculares), xxx -, 45. 5 6 96
-
24, 25
xlvii,
Lazarium,
xlvii, 55,
63
f.,
80
66
ff.
Incense, xliii, 49 Infantes (children or the baptized), See also Neophyti 66, 79, 82.
Isaac, 38 Isauria, xxv,
Lazarus, sister of, xlvii, 64 Lent, observances of, 57 ff. duration of, xxxviii
fast of, xxviii n.
,
xli
f. ,
59,
61
xxix, xliv,
f.
41, 42,
19, 20,
43
Israelites, 13, 16, 20,
24
Jacob, xxv, 15, 39, 41 Jebel el Deir, xviii n. Jebel Musa, xviii
Jericho, xxif., 19, 23, 24 Jerome, S., quoted, xxxiv, xxxvi Jerusalem, xii, xviii, xxii, xxix, xxxvii, xlf., xliv, xlvi, 18, 19, 24, 30, 31, 41 churches of, xiv, xlv
W.
K.,
xxvii
xxviii n.
vespers),
xxxix, 28, 47
ff.
Magnus (Ma'nu),
xxiv, 33
Bishop
of,
xxvii,
ff.
45
ff.
his
house, xlvi, 50
Jesus our God," 18, 30, 36 Job, xxii, 24 ff. grave of, xliv, 29 John, S., tomb of, xxvi, xliv, 44 John the Baptist, S., xliv, xlv, 27 f. Jordan, xxif., xxvii, xxix, 19, 28 Joseph, son of Jacob, 15
"
services in, 45
deaconess),
xxv,
42
43Martyrs' memorials, xliv days in Lent, xlii, 59 Mary of Bethany. See Lazarus
101
xx
Mattins, xxxix, 45
xxxviii,
xlii,
xii,
Maundy Thursday
69
viii
f.
observances,
Palm
xxxviii,
xxi,
xliv,
xiiiff.
,
Sunday
64
ff.
observances,
of, xxviii
f.
Palestine,
monks
xxiv
Melchizedek,
xlviii,
xxii,
xxxiv,
xxiii,
2,
25
ff.
Iff.
Mesopotamia,
Migdol, xix, 14
xiii,
xxvii,
xxxvii, 30, 32
37,
96
42,
f.
f.
Moab,
Monks,
xxi, xxxiv, 18
Monazontes, xxix, 45
viii, xxvii ff. as cultivators, xxxi, 5, 28
with S. Thecla, xxxvi Pelusium, xx, xxi, xxvi, 17, 18 Pentecost, festival of, xxxix, 85 ff.
fast after, xlii,
89
Peor (Fogor), 24
xxii,
xxxi,
xxxiv,
21,
16,
2, 4, 5. 7,
8, 9, ii,
16, 20,
24
books
Mules,
xii
of,
xxxi, 5, 7, 8,
26
f.
Phoenicia, xxii, 29
Pilate, 77 Pithom, xix, 15 Pompeiopolis (Soli), xxv, 42 Prayers offered, 4, 7. Provence, xliii
Nahor, 38
Naville, Ed.
1
,
xx
Nebo, Mount,
8, 20,
xi,
xii,
xxi,
xlv,
22
Prudentiu', xl Psalter, use of, xxxix, 45 ff. Pseudo- Basil of Seleucia, xxix Purification (Hypopaute), Feast
.
of,
xxxvii,
56
xxxviii,
42, 45
ff.
Quadragesimae, Quodollagomor.
57 See Chedorlao-
Oblatio, xix, xxii, xii, 5, 7, II, 30, 60, 70, 76, 80, 86
Rachel's well, xxv, xxxi, 39, 40, 41 Rails (cancellt), 46 ff. Rameses, xix, xx, 13, isf., 18
Rebecca, 36, 38
n.,
Red
Sea, 6, I3f.
Pachomius,
S,,
Role o f xxvii
,
f.
xvi,
xxxiv n.
102
n.
Statuta ecclesiac antiqua, xliv Succoth, xix, 14 Suez. See Clysma Sychar, xxxiv Sycomore tree, xx, 16 Symeon and Anna, xxxvii, 56
Syria, xxiii, 30,
,
96
xxvii, xlv xxviii f.
Church
of,
75
Saft-el-Henneh,
Saints, lives of,
monks
of,
xx
xxxvi f.
xxii,
Tabor, xxii
Tabernacle,
f.
Tahpanhes
(Taphnis,
Daphno)
xxi, 17 n. Taphnis. See Tahpanhes Tarsus, xviii ., xxv, 4iff. Tatnis. See Zoan
Scriptures, I, 2, II, 14, 16, 23, 31, 38, 51, 91 of the Canon, 38 ; of GOD,
39, 46 Sedima.
Segor.
Seleucia,
xxxvi
xxix, xxxi,
xxxii
ff,
Thaddaeus, xxxvi Thebaid, xviii n., xix, xxxi, 17, 1 8, 96 Theban stone, xx, 16 Thecla, S., memorial of, xxv,
., xliv, 41 ff. Acts of, xxxvi, 43 Theodoret quoted, xxix Theodosius, Emperor, vii, xi ., xxx ..
,
.
xxix
viii,
ix
.,
xii
xiii,
xxx, xliv, xlv, i, Sion, xlv, 52 ff. Socrates, the historian, xxiii
the pilgrim, xiv Thesbe (Thisbe), xxii, xxix, 28 Thomas, xxiii, S., Apostle,
,
xxxvi, xliv,
quoted,
,
30, 32, 85
Acts
of,
xxxvi
xiv
.,
Sodom,
Soldiers,
23,
26
xi,
soldiers,
xxii,
of,
Roman,
17, 31
xiv, xix,
32
Three
See
Hours,
observance
King.
Ring
xxxviii, 76
Temple
Sozomen, the
xlvi
.
historian,
quoted,
Ur
xxv, 39
,
Spain, viii, 78
Uz
24
103
Vulgate, readings
.,
of,
xxxii ff.
xix
.,
xx
n.,
xxii,
xxvi
n.
Westcott, Bishop, xxxi f. See Pentecost Whitsuntide Wilson, Sir Charles W., vii,
xviii,
Vespers. See Lucemarc Vierzo, viii Vigiliae nocturnae, xxxix, 45, 49 Virgin Mary, 56 See Parthenae, Nuns Virgins.
xix
70
n.
Zoan
17
xxxiv,
Zoar (Segor), 23
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