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Travel Egeria

Coverage of an English translation of his book

Muse is the name of a woman (also known as Egeria, Etheria, Egeria or Eucheria) which began in 380 a pilgrimage up to the Holy Land. She left an account in Latin of his pilgrimage, which was found in 1884 in a library of Arezzo. This unique manuscript, called Peregrinatio Aetheriae or Peregrinatio Silviae ^{Identity of the party}

The manuscript is anonymous, is a hermit Galician from ^the seventh century, Valerius of Bierzo, which tells us the name of the author of the book. Valerius wrote a letter to the monks of the region of Bierzo , in which he speaks with praise of travel. In the copy before him, he could read the handwritten name of his letter writing in various forms. Egeria form is likely to be historic . Galicia lived where Valerius is perhaps also the homeland of the cape, but we must recognize that the arguments are of little weight and that, strictly speaking, he should just say qu'grie comes from northern Spain or southern Gaul , or even any other western region where they spoke Latin in the ^fourth century .

Dating and content of the story

Retained part of the story consists of two distinct parts: In Part One, Egeria tells four trips she made from Jerusalem , the Sinai Peninsula (Ch. 1-12), in Transjordan to Mount Nebo (10 - 12) in the valley of the Jordan until meat (13-16, with a gap in Ch. 16), and Mesopotamia to Harran (17-21). From there she went to Antioch and then to Constantinople , where she wrote the story she is doing and send it to her "sisters" (22-23). By various overlaps, it is possible to follow day after day in his wanderings Egeria between 16 December 383 and June 384, Constantinople .

The second part is a description of the liturgy of Jerusalem which is of exceptional importance for the history of Christianity at the beginning of the Byzantine period. It first describes the daily liturgy (24, 1-7), then the Sunday liturgy (24, 8 to 25, 6), Epiphany (25, 6 to 26, with a gap between the two) and Easter celebrations from Lent (27-29) and "great week" (30-38) followed by the Easter season (39-44). The end of the story kept returning to the discipline of Lent with details on catechesis with catechumens (45-47), then ends abruptly on the fourth day of the Feast of the Dedication of September (48-49). This description is valid for the years 381 to 384.

As for the lost part of the document, it is possible to guess its contents through the allusions of Valerius but mainly by references specific enough Peter Deacon, librarian of the Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino , who wrote in the ^twelfth s. a De locis Sanctis based principally in our story, and even the manuscript itself, when it was still almost full and was there. We know that after his arrival in Jerusalem at Easter 381, she went to the south of Egypt in Thebes (late 381 to 382), returned to Jerusalem and went from there in Samaria and Galilee (383).

A pilgrim from the first centuries

Journey to the sources of Christianity , the story of Egeria describes the successive visits to the vital centers of monasticism of the East. It also provides valuable information on the religious practices of monks, and especially anything related to the liturgy. In this regard it is always interesting to compare its information to the Lectionary of Jerusalem , as is undertaken here.

Text and French translation

P. Maraval, Egeria. Travel Journal (Directions) & MC Diaz y Diaz, Valerius of Bierzo. Letter on the Blessed Egeria, Christian Sources, 296, Paris, 1982 (reprint 1997)

The real author of the Peregrinatio Silviae, the Spanish virgin Etheria
See Maraval, ibid., p. 16-19
Valerius said she appeared "at the ends of the Western Ocean", he could deduct the portion where Egeria told a caller that she came "from the ends of the earth" (19, 5 ) See ibid., p. 19-21, 205, 326 n. 8, 347
This is based on a reference to raging waters of the Rhone (18, 2), which may mean that the river was known as "sisters" to whom the author addresses his narrative (ibid., p. 19), 'So she would come herself.
However, before the ^twelfth century, the travel is known as northern Spain and southern Gaul (not in Italy or in Helvetia, for example), v. the references cited in ibid., p. 18.
See detailed argument leading to the dating of his stay in Jerusalem between 381 and Easter Easter 384, summarized in ibid., p. 31-36