¹ The basic edition is in CCSL 175. 27–90. The quotations here are from the edition of H. Pétré, SC 21. There is a new edition by Pierre Maraval, SC 296. ET: G. Gingras, Egeria: Diary of a Pilgrimage. ACW 38. Wilkinson, John, Egeria's Travels to the Holy Land (Jerusalem: Ariel, 1981)Google Scholar, a revised ed. of idem, Egeria's Travels (London: SPCK, 1971)Google Scholar; Wilson-Kastner, Patricia, “Egeria: Account of Her Pilgrimage,” in idem, ed., A Lost Tradition: Women Writers of the Early Church (Washington: University Press of America, 1981)Google Scholar. One controversial item is here omitted, namely, the date of the pilgrimage. It is assumed that Devos's dating of the journey to 381–383 is correct; Devos, Paul, “La date du voyage d'Égérie,” AnBoll 85 (1967) 165–94.Google Scholar

² The text of Valerius's letter was recently edited by M.C. Diaz y Diaz in SC 296, 323–349 with an introduction. All the quotations are from this edition.

³ Ibid., 327.

⁴ Valerius Ep. 1.1–7.

⁵ Ibid., 1.8–19. On Christianity in Galicia see below, n. 33.

⁶ Ibid., 1.19–3.21.

⁷ Ibid., 4.1–6.24.

⁸ Ibid., 3.1–2: “denique super quod universi paene orbis terrarum lustravit confinia.” What, in fact, did a monk in Visigothic Spain know about the lands of the earth?

⁹ Ibid., 1.4: “feminea fragilitatis”; 2.22–23: “feminea fragilitate”; 5.3–4: “femineam fragile sexum.” Note also Valerius's exclusive concentration on locations relating to the New Testament, though Egeria herself devoted large parts to Old Testament sites (Diaz y Diaz, 325).

¹⁰ Valerius, Ep. 2; It. Eg. 1–3, but not a single word in Valerius on the large portion of the It. Eg. describing the liturgy in Jerusalem.

¹¹ It. Eg. 17.1; Valerius Ep. 1.25: “per multas annorum spatia peregrinando proficiscens.”

¹² Valerius Ep. 5.7–8: “que extremo occidui oceani litore exorta, Orienti facta est cognita.” Note the rhetorical antithesis. Elsewhere Valerius refers to Galicia as occidue plage extremitas (1.9–10). There is a striking and hitherto unnoticed resemblance between these and a passage from Hydatius, another Galician, in his chronicle (sub a. 411): “Gallaeciam Vandali occupant et Suevi sita in extremitate oceani maris occidua.” Note that Hydatius, unlike Valerius, does mention Galicia by name and clearly implies that the Suevi received only part of the province. If Valerius indeed meant Galicia, why did he not say it more clearly? Is it possible that he deliberately used a phrase that could be construed to mean Galicia in order to strengthen his basic argument?

¹³ According to John Wilkinson (personal communication), if Valerius chose to write about Egeria, she may well have had some local connection with him. But this is not necessarily true, for as already noted, Valerius never specifically designated Galicia as Egeria's homeland. If she were Galician, it would have enhanced the value of his arguments considerably. In this case, therefore, the argument from silence is a valid one. Also, Valerius's compilation includes mostly texts written outside the Iberian peninsula, and local connection was by no means the criterion for inclusion. On the nature of the compilation, see Diaz y Diaz, 324–25.

¹⁴ As correctly noted by Devos, P., “Une nouvelle Égérie,” (review of SC 296) AnBoll 101 (1983) 54, referring to It. Eg. 19.5: “ut de extremis porro terris venires ad haec loca.” Once more, the antithesis between East and West. Diaz y Diaz, 326 n. 8, likewise expresses doubts concerning this phrase which is a typical rhetorical antithesis not to be taken as a guarantee of Egeria's Spanish origin. Cf. this also with a similar rhetorical definition of a pilgrimage as an east-west journey in Sulpicius Severus Dial. 1.2 (CSEL 1, 1886).Google Scholar

¹⁵ “Dominae venerabilies sorores, affectio vestra, dominae venerabiles, dominae sorores, dominae lucem meum.” In themselves not an indication of a monastic audience since as late as 470 the adjective venerabilis was applied to both clerics and laymen (Sidonius Apollinaris Ep. 6.2.1). On the meaning of Christian letters in Christian life, Muller, W. G., “Der Brief als Spiegel der Seele (Zur Geschichte eines Topos der Epistolatheorie),” Antike und Abendland 26 (1980) 138–57 discussing Paulinus of Nola's and Jerome's correspondence but not the It. Eg.Google Scholar

¹⁶ True for both secular letters (Ausonius, Symmachus, Sidonius) and those with religious contents (Jerome, Augustine) if they were informal.

¹⁷ Or, for that matter, from the end of the letter, since the part about the actual journey was compiled and sent from Constantinople (It. Eg. 23.3).

¹⁸ The text of the It. Bu. and other accounts of pilgrimages were assembled in Itineraria et alia geographica (CCSL 175). For a general introduction and translation of select passages, see Wilkinson, John, Jerusalem Pilgrims Before the Crusades (Warminster, England: Aris & Phillips, 1977).Google Scholar

¹⁹ Maraval, Pierre, “Le temps du pèlerin (IV^e-VII^e siècles),” in Le temps Chrétien de la fin de l'antiquité au Moyen Age (Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1984) 479–85.Google Scholar

²⁰ Greek text edited by A.-J. Festugiére, Subsidia Hagiographica 34. ET: Russell, Norman, The Lives of the Desert Fathers: The Historia Monachorum in Aegypto (London: Mowbray; Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Press, 1981) with an introduction by Benedicta Ward.Google Scholar

²¹ Hist. mon. 1.18–19: “Where are you from, my children? Which country have you travelled from to visit a poor man?” (trans. Russell, Desert Fathers). Cf. Palladius Historia Lausiaca 21 for similar identifying questions which appear to have been the custom. (Butler, Cuthbert, The Lausiac History of Palladius (2 vols.; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1898–1904); ET R. T. Meyer in ACW 34.Google Scholar

²² Cf. also Postuminus's account in Sulpicius Severus Dial. 1.1–23, where he only mentioned boarding a ship in Narbonne and landing in North Africa (Dial. 1.3).

²³ Valerius Ep. 1.11: “beatissima sanctimonialis.”

²⁴ Valerius may have also been misled by Egeria's use of the word frater which she applied to monks in a manner suggesting that the term had various meanings. For her general indiscriminate use of ecclesiastical terms, see Wilkinson, Egeria, 35. Cf. the use of domina soror in Passio Perpetuae 4, where a brother is addressing his real sister (Musurillo, H., ed., Acts of the Christian Martyrs [Oxford Early Christian Texts; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971] 106–31).Google Scholar

²⁵ Maraval, SC 296, 25. A good example of the wide application of the term “sister” is its use by the pagan Symmachus Ep. 9.40 (reference in Brown, Peter, Religion and Society in the Age of St. Augustine [London: Faber & Faber, 1972] 171Google Scholar, reprint of idem, “Aspects of the Christianization of the Roman Aristocracy,” JRomS 52 [1961] 1–11Google Scholar) where this form of address is an expression of polite conventions. The information about monastic profession of women in Gaul involves two types of affiliation: that of virgines devotae, women devoted to perpetual chastity who exercised asceticism at home; and members of a monasterium puellarum first attested by Sulpicius Severus towards the end of the fourth century. Metz, R., “Les vierges chrétiennes en Gaule au IV^e siècle,” in Saint Martin et son temps (Studia Anselmiana 46; 1961) 109–132Google Scholar; Griffe, Élie, La Gaule chrétienne à l'époque romaine (Paris: Picard, 1964) 371–73Google Scholar; J. Fontaine, Vie de Saint Martin (SC 134) 2. 877–83 (commentary on Vita Martini 19.2). In either case physical mobility would have been limited.

²⁶ See Maraval, “Temps du pèlerin,” 483 on prayer as the central theme of pilgrimage so well described by Egeria's own definition of her travels gratia orationis (It. Eg. 23.10 passim).

²⁷ In general on pilgrimage, see Kötting, Bernard, Peregrinatio Religiosa: Wallfahrten in der Antike und das Pilgerwesen in der alten Kirche (Münster: Regensberg, 1950)Google Scholar; Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims; Donner, Herbert, Pilgerfahrt ins Heilige Land (Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1979)Google Scholar; Parente, F., “La conoscenza della terra santa come esperienza religiosa dell'occidente cristiano del IV S. alia cruciate,” in Populi e paesi (Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, 1981) 231–316Google Scholar, a fine study on the central place of the Holy Land and Jerusalem in a new theological interpretation of a geographical reality which emerged as a result of pilgrimage; Hunt, E. D., Holy Land Pilgrimage in the Later Roman Empire AD 312–460 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1982Google Scholar) (the pages here refer to the paperback edition of 1984); Maraval, Pierre, Lieux saints et pèlerinage d'Orient. Histoire et géographic des origines à la conquête arabe (Paris: Cerf, 1985)Google Scholar. Although there is no specific study devoted to the origins of pilgrims, the general picture points to the more secular character of western pilgrims, while the majority of eastern pilgrims appear to have had some form of clesiastical affiliation.

²⁸ It. Eg. 19.5.

²⁹ Cf. the scope of Augustine's travels after his ordinationas the bishop of Hippo. He made only two sea-voyages in his career, both before his ordination. Perler, Othmar, Les voyages de saint Augustin (Paris: ÉtAug, 1969) 57–81 on his sea voyages; 205–405 on his voyages as bishop which were entirely confined to Africa and mostly between Hippo and Carthage. Note also Egeria's own remark on the small number of bishops in Jerusalem, It. Eg. 49.2.Google Scholar

³⁰ As rightly emphasized by Kolum, K.G., “Review of Hunt,” CP 80 (1985) 379, above, n. 27.Google Scholar

³¹ It. Eg. 18.2: “perveni ad fluvium Eufratem, de quo satis bene scriptum est esse ‘flumen magnum Eufratem,’ et ingens, et quasi terribilis est; iter enim decurrit habens impetum, sicut habet fluvium Rhodanus, nisi quod adhuc maiorest Eufrates.”

³² Egeria's culture appears wholly confined to Christian basic readings. According to Valerius, Egeria knew the Bible very well: Ep. 1.20–21: “Cuncta igitur Veteris ac Novi Testamenti omni indagatione percurrens volumina.” This is corroborated by the extensive use of biblical quotations in the It. Eg. as well as by questions like those which Egeria asked the bishop of Charran (It. Eg. 20.9–12). She also appears to have certain familiarity with apocryphal writings like the Passion of St. Thecla, Starowreyski, L.M., “Les apocryphes chez les écrivains du IV^e S.,” Miscellanea Historiae Ecclesiastica 4 (Congrès de Varsovie 1978; Brussels: Nauwelaerts, 1983) 1. 140. She was surely unfamiliar with Ausonius's Ordo 10.19 where the Rhone is described as praeceps.Google Scholar

³³ Valerius Ep. 1.7–10; P. de Palol, “La conversion de l'aristocratie de la peninsule iberique au IV^e siècle,” Miscellanea 47–69, esp. 68–69, above, n. 32, where the archaeological evidence excludes Galicia from the zone of early conversion to Christianity.

³⁴ Stancliffe, C. E., “From Town to Country: The Christianization of the Touraine 370–600,” Studies in Church History 16 (1979) 43–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁵ Premiers temps chrétiens en Gaule méridionale: antiquité tardive et haut Moyen Age (Lyon: Musée de la Civilisation Gallo-Romaine de la Ville de Lyon, 1986) 3–108, with references to the most recent Christian archaeology in the cities.Google Scholar

³⁶ The history of Aries in late antiquity has yet to be written. The basic study up to that period is Constant, A., Aries antique (2 vols.; Paris, 1921)Google Scholar. There are useful insights in Février, Paul-Albert et al., La ville antique des origines au IX^e siècle (Histoire de la France urbaine 1; Paris: Seuil, 1980)Google Scholar passim; in Conges, G., “L'histoire d'Arles précisée par les fouilles archéologiques,” Archeologia 142 (1980) 9–23Google Scholar on private architecture of the fourth century. Février, Paul-Albert, “Aries aux IV^e et V^e siècles, ville impériale et capitale régionale,” XXV corso di cultura sull'arte ravennate e bizantina, marzo 1978 (Ravenna, 1978) 127–58Google Scholar. For its maritime position, see Christol, M., “Les naviculaires d'Arles et les structures du grand commerce maritime sous l'empire romain,” in Aries et le Rhône, Provence historique 32 (1982) 5–14.Google Scholar

³⁷ Haenel, Gustav, ed., Corpus Legum (Aalen: Scientia, 1965) 238Google Scholar no. 1171 (constitution of Honorius on Aries, 418 CE); Benoît, F., Aries dans la civilisation méditerraneanne (Union generale des Rhodainiens; Tain-Tournon, 1931) 34–37; Premier temps, 182–83, for map and commentary on importations.Google Scholar

³⁸ Ordo 10.2.

³⁹ Expositio 58 (ed. J. Rouge; SC 124. 199): “quae ab omni mundo negotia accipiens.”

⁴⁰ On Christian Aries, see Griffe, Gaule chrétienne, 1. 191ff., passim. Also useful is Février, P.-A., Le développement urbain en Provence de l'époque romaine à la fin du XIV^e siècle: archéologie et histoire urbaine (Paris: Boccard, 1964) 49–74, on the religious topography of the early Middle Ages with many references to Aries. For the council of 314, see C. Munier, Concilia Galliae 314–516 (CCSL 148) 3–24.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Benoît, Fernand, Les cimetieres suburbains d'Aries dan l'antiquité chrétienne et du moyen âge (Rome: Pontificio istituto di archeologia cristiana, 1935)Google Scholar; idem, Sarcophages paléochrétiens d'Arles et de Marseille (supp. to Gallia; Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1954)Google Scholar. Février, P.-A., “Sarcophages d'Arles,” Congrès archéologique de France, 134 session (Paris, 1976) 317–59.Google Scholar

⁴² On education in general see Marrou, H. I., Histoire de l'éducation dans l'antiquité (Paris: Seuil, 1948) 451ffGoogle Scholar. On female education, see Clark, Elizabeth A., Jerome, Chrysostom and Friends: Essays and Translations (Studies in Women and Religion 2; New York: Mellen, 1979) 71ff.Google Scholar Proba is the best example of the aristocratic woman's familiarity with the classics and their writing ability: Clark, Elizabeth A. and Diane E. Hatch, The Golden Bough, the Oaken Cross: The Virgilian Cento of Faltonia Betitia Proba (AARTT; Chico: Scholars Press, 1981)Google Scholar. For Paula's excellent knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, see Jerome Ep. 108.27, though admittedly, Paula and Eustochium were the exception rather than the rule. Egeria may have had some knowledge of Greek. The case is unclear and opinions range from “the fragmentary Greek of a tourist” (Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage, 153) to “an abundant Greek vocabulary” (Maraval, SC 296) 53. She herself refers to the presence of interpreters in Jerusalem (It. Eg. 47.3–4), but not to her use of them.

⁴³ On Egeria's reading, see above, n. 32. For Melania see Palladius Hist. Laus. 55.3.

⁴⁴ Jerome Ep. 107.12. That this was not a mere recommendation can be seen from the example of some of his correspondents: Fabiola could discuss with Jerome fine points of biblical exegesis (Jerome Ep. 77); Marcella was involved in religious disputes and in refutations of heresies (Jerome Ep. 127.9–10). Two Gallic women, Hedibia and Algasia, solicited from Jerome long commentaries on scriptural questions (Eps. 120–21).

⁴⁵ On the behavior of Paula and Melania in the course of their pilgrimages, see Jerome Ep. 108.15; Palladius Hist. Laus. 46.3. To Egeria even the word “ascetic” appears new (It. Eg. 20.5). Could we see in her behavior an echo of a general Gallic antagonism to asceticism? Kelly, J. F., “The Gallic Resistance to Eastern Asceticism,” StPatr 17 (1982) part 2, 506–10.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ “Une nouvelle Égérie,” 55–57 whence the following arguments are derived.

⁴⁷ Jerome Ep. 108.9 on Paula's tears and groans. Ascetic women made a point of displaying excessive modesty and humility which was in sharp contrast to their real social status. See Vie de Sainte Mélanie (ed. D. Gorce; SC 90) 53 on Melania's torn cloths. See Jerome Ep. 46.10 on the humility of pilgrims in general as a feature of pilgrimage.

⁴⁸ It. Eg. 20.6 For another example of Egeria's formulaic humility, see It. Eg. 23.8: “Agens Christo Deo nostro gratias, quod mihi indignae et non merenti praestare dignatus est tantam gratiam, id est ut non solum voluntatem eundi, sed et facultatem perambulandi et reverendi denuo Constantinopoli.”

⁴⁹ I wonder whether this form of “episcopus … et monachus” (It. Eg. 19.5) could not be a formula. Cf. inscription from Mt. Nebo dedicated τῷ]δε κλη[ρικω και μο]καχῷ (Sailer, Sylvester J., The Memorial of Moses on Mount Nebo [Jerusalem: Franciscan Press, 1941] 1. 259). In fact, the most common adjective used by Egeria to describe a bishop is sanctus (It. Eg. 8.4; 9.1; 19.5).Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Surely filia did not mean a nun in the fourth century. Augustine in De cura pro mortuis gerenda refers to a woman as filia (“scripsisti per homines filiae nostrae religioissimae Florae”), though she was clearly not a nun but a widow who recently lost her son; see Matthews, John, Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court AD 364–425 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1975) 144Google Scholar. The recipient of this communication from Augustine, Paulinus of Nola, added yet another meaning to the word filia: in C. 28.181, the word means a slip, a metaphorical way of regarding grafting as coitus or adoptio (Goldschmidt, R. C., Paulinus Churches at Nola: Texts, Translations, and Commentary [Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandsche Utigevers Maatschappij, 1940]) 183.Google Scholar

⁵¹ But see the different emphasis in Devos, P., “Égérie à Edess, S. Thomas l'apôtre, Le roi Abgar,” AnBoll 85 (1967) 381–400, esp. 382 on the desire to venerate the tomb of St. Thomas.Google Scholar

⁵² On Edessa, see most recently Lane, D. J., “Pervenimus Edessam: The Origins of a Great Christian Center outside the Familiar Mediaeval World,” Florigelium 3 (1981) 104–12.Google Scholar

⁵³ It. Eg. 71; 9.1.

⁵⁴ It. Eg. 23.3. On Marthana the deaconess, see Maraval, SC 296, 24 n. 3.

⁵⁵ On the work of Cyril of Jerusalem to develop the liturgy, see Parente, “La conoscenza,” 232, tracing the liturgical dramatization of the Passion. On the reproduction of the historical situation in the ceremony of Holy Week and Easter, see James, E. O., “The Sources of the Christian Ritual and its Relation to the Culture Pattern of the Ancient East,” in Hooke, Samuel H., ed., The Labyrinth: Further Studies in the Relation between Myth and Ritual in the Ancient World (London: SPCK, 1935) 237–60, esp. 241.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Maraval, “Temps du pèlerin,” 484: “un temps sanctifié.”

⁵⁷ In the chapters devoted to a description of the prebaptismal teachings (It. Eg. 45–47). Egeria draws attention to the registration of foreigners (45.4), to the logic of the whole process (46.1), and to the participation of women (46.1). Though she stopped short of disclosing the instruction preparatory to the actual act of baptism, the disciplina arcani. her own participation cannot be excluded. Baptism was a hotly debated topic in the West, as Augustine's writings indicate (e.g., De unico baptismo contra Petilianum; De baptismo contra Donatistas); and the ceremony in the East differed considerably from the one in the West. After three required years of instruction it is not unlikely that Egeria ended her stay in the Holy City with her personal initiation (Yamold, Edward J., “Initiation in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries,” in Jones, C., Wainwright, G., and Yarnold, E. J., eds., The Study of Liturgy [London: Oxford University Press, 1978] 95–110).Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Palladius Hist. Laus. 35 (John of Lycopolis) with Devos, P., “‘La servante de Dieu’: Poemenia d'après Pallade, la tradition copte et Jean Rufus,” AnBoll 87 (1969) 189–208Google Scholar; idem, “Saint Jerome contre Poemenia?” AnBoll 91 (1973) 117–20. Poemenia even had a bishop of her own in her retinue.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ It. Eg. 7.2 (soldiers); Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage, 59. Curiously there is no reference to nuns on the road or to laypersons.

⁶⁰ It. Eg. 17.1. Three years since her first arrival in Jerusalem or since her last excursion from the city?

⁶¹ There are several indications of the length of the journey from East to West. It took thirty days by boat from Egypt to Marseille and only five from Narbonne to North Africa (Sulpicius Severus Dial. 1.1.3; 3.1). Normally an East-West journey would take longer than the same in the opposite direction because of climatic factors (Casson, Lionel, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972] 272)Google Scholar. It took Melania the Elder twenty days from Caesarea to Rome (Palladius Hist. Laus. 54.3), a figure which appears doubtful (Moine, N., “Melaniana,” Recherches Augustiniennes 15 [1980] 43–44).Google Scholar

⁶² Cf. Paula's haste and eagerness to move forward, from one holy place to another: Jerome Ep. 108.12. Maraval claims (“Temps du pèlerin,” 480–81) that the pressure of time is one of the characteristics of “pilgrim's time.”

⁶³ Griffe, La Gaule chrétienne, 271–98 (on Martin); 366–80 (on ascetics and monks in general), esp. 371–73 on the so-called virgines devotae. Prinz, F., Frühes Mönchtum in Frankreich: Kultur und Gesellschaft in Gallien, dem Rheinland und Bayern am Beispiel der monastischen Entwicklung (Munich/Vienna, 1965) 19–46Google Scholar (on Martin); 47–87 (on Lerins); 452–61 (on Tours and Lerins as undenicultural and ascetic centers). Lorenz, R., “Die Anfänge des abendländichen Mönchtums im IV. J.,” ZKG 77 (1966) 1–61Google Scholar. Chadwick, Owen, John Cassian: A Study in Primitive Monasticism (2d ed.; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968)Google Scholar. If the idea of equality and communal property was dominant in the early phases of monasticism (Vita Martini 10), I cannot see how one nun would be given preferential treatment and allowed to set on a long and costly journey for an indefinite length of time.

⁶⁴ On the Gallic contempt for the “wandering monks” of the East, see O'Donnell, J. J., “Liberius the Patrician,” Traditio 37 (1981) 55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶⁵ Note, however, that like the It. Eg. Postumianus does not mention any monk by name. Was this anonymity a feature of western accounts of pilgrimage? Eastern accounts such as the Hist. Mon., Palladius's Hist. Laus., and the Apoth. Patrum (as well as Cassian's Coll.) never fail to mention a monk by name.

⁶⁶ Cassian, Inst. and Coll., possibly the best summary of the “desert” way of life. Rousseau, Philip, Ascetics, Authority, and the Church in the Age of Jerome and Cassian (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978) 183ff.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ sss I am grateful for the comments offered by Elizabeth Clark, Debra Nails, and John Wilkinson, and above all for the kind help of Michael Grounds and Caroline White. This project was supported by the Vice Chancellor (Research) Special Fund of the University of the Witwatersrand.