Egeria, Climbing a Mountain for Her Faith
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Name: Egeria Date: 4th
century CE Region: [modern Spain] Citation: Journey Abroad 1.3.7 – 4.1 |
Egeria was a Christian woman from Spain who lived during the 4th
century CE. The narrative of her pilgrimage is an important document, as it shows
rare insight into the lives of women during that time period. She was not only
able to travel to visit holy sites in Constantinople, Jerusalem, and other holy
places, she was also literate and able to write of her experiences to the women
in her social circle, who were presumably also literate.
After we talked a bit, the holy folk blessed us. Then we
went outside of the church, and I began to ask them about certain places.
Immediately, the holy men took me on a tour. They showed me the cave where Holy
Moses was when he ascended the holy mountain to obtain the Ten Commandments,
and where he later broke the first copy of them when his people had broken
those rules. They showed me other places, as many as I had asked about, and
even more that they had known about that I didn’t.
Fellow sisters in Christ, I want you to know this, that from the point where we stood on the top of the central mountain, when we looked down, the other mountains around us which had seemed nearly inaccessible, looked like little hills. And from the ground, they looked so massive, like I had never seen anything taller than them, and yet this central mountain overshadowed them by a lot. From the summit, we saw such incredible sights: we saw Egypt and Palestine and the Red Sea and the Parthian Sea, which borders Alexandria; we also saw the border of the boundless territories of the Arabian peoples. The holy men leading the tour pointed out each and every site to us.
Once this was checked off of my bucket
list, we began to go back to the point we’d started our ascent, going from the
summit of the holy mountain to another mountain that is joined to it named
Choreb.
Hac sic ergo
posteaquam communicaveramus et dederant nobis eulogias sancti illi et egressi
sumus foras ostium ecclesiae, tunc coepi eos rogare, ut ostenderent nobis
singula loca. Tunc statim illi sancti dignati sunt singula ostendere. Nam
ostenderunt nobis speluncam illam, ubi fuit sanctus Moyses, cum iterato
ascendisset in montem Dei, ut acciperet denuo tabulas, posteaquam priores illas
fregerat peccante populo, et cetera loca, quaecumque desiderabamus vel quae
ipsi melius noverant, dignati sunt ostendere nobis.
Illud autem vos volo scire, dominae venerabiles sorores, quia de eo loco, ubi stabamus, id est in giro parietes ecclesiae, id est de summitate montis ipsius mediani, ita infra nos videbantur esse illi montes, quos primitus vix ascenderamus, iuxta istum medianum, in quo stabamus, ac si essent illi colliculi, cum tamen ita infiniti essent, ut non me putarem aliquando altiores vidisse, nisi quod hic medianus eos nimium praecedebat. Aegyptum autem et Palaestinam et mare rubrum et mare illud Parthenicum, quod mittit Alexandriam, nec non et fines Saracenorum infinitos ita subter nos inde videbamus, ut credi vix possit; quae tamen singula nobis illi sancti demonstrabant
Completo ergo omni desiderio, quo festinaveramus ascendere, coepimus iam et descendere ab ipsa summitate montis Dei, in qua ascenderamus, in alio monte, qui ei periunctus est, qui locus appellatur in Choreb.
Egeria [4th century CE, modern Spain] was a Christian woman
who wrote a narrative of her pilgrimage to Constantinople, Jerusalem, and other
places in the Holy Land. Her life provides insight into the lives of women
during the 4th century CE, as she not only had the privilege of being able to
travel extensively, but also was literate and able to share her story in
writing with other literate women in her social circle.
