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figure 1
figure 2
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The monastic communities of the desert and the
developing network of holy sites spawned an intense period of pilgrimage
activity, which is the third event that provides the historical context
of the monastery at Mount Sinai. Evidence
of this movement comes from travelogues and guidebooks, historical
texts, theological tracts, vitae of saints, inscriptions, and pilgrim
souvenirs (Vikan, 3). An account by an anonymous pilgrim from Bordeaux,
dated to 333 A.D., a number of years before Constantine begin rebuilding
Jerusalem, is the oldest extant travelogue, though written evidence
of an interest in the holy sites of Palestine goes back to the second
century (Wilkinson, Egeria's Travels,
4). Egeria, a woman from Spain who traveled through the Levant
between 381 A.D. and 384 A.D., and the anonymous pilgrim from Piacenza,
who made his journey around 570 A.D., provide the most vivid descriptions
of pilgrimage in the Early Byzantine period (Wilkinson, Egeria's Travels, 1;
Wilkinson, Jerusalem,
12).
Pilgrims
came from diverse social classes, vocations, and geographic regions (Vikan,
3–4). While the presence of hospices and hostels could keep the financial
strain on pilgrims in check, they did sacrifice a great deal of physical comfort
and risk bodily harm. Travel was slow, usually by foot or donkey. Traveling
on a well-maintained, sixth-century Roman road, a pilgrim would be lucky to
travel twenty miles in a day. They had to be aware of bandits, wild animals,
trouble with indigenous populations, and the elements, particularly when traveling
through the desert. These worries often led to travel in groups (Vikan,
7). Pilgrims visited sites associated with Christ and the Old Testament,
as well as holy men, desert monasteries, and shrines with miracle-working relics;
they made their journeys for any number of reasons, such as healing, penance,
guidance, or an affirmation of faith. The belief that the sanctity of
holy people, objects, and places was transferable through physical contact
drove all pilgrimages. Pilgrims went to touch palpable manifestations
of the holy. Egeria’s visit to the Constantinian church at Golgotha,
where the Cross could be seen, gives us a glimpse of this desire to touch the
holy. She reports that “all the people, catechumens as well as
faithful, come up one by one to the table. They stoop down over it, kiss
the wood, and move on. But on one occasion (I don’t know when)
one of them bit off a piece of the Holy Wood and stole it away, and for this
reason the deacons stand round and keep watch in case anyone dares to do the
same thing” (Vikan, 4–5). |
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