Ancient Pilgrimage Narratives

This paper undertakes summary and brief exploration of the writings of Egeria, possible sister of a religious society, recording her sojourn from (perhaps) Spain to the Levant (Holy Land) between 381 and 384 CE. Her so-called Travels, only part of which remain, were discovered in the late nineteenth century in Italy. They carefully record in Latin both her pilgrimage and the liturgy that she experienced in Jerusalem. As such they offer a valuable window on the origins of Christian pilgrimage. After summation of both the manuscript discovery and contents, this paper compares Egeria’s Travels with roughly contemporaneous pagan travel narratives in an attempt to place Egeria's work it in its literary and historical context.

Clare K. Rothschild is Associate Professor of Theology, specializing in Bible. She has published numerous books and articles on early Christian literature. She is editor of the journal, Early Christianity and serves on boards and committees in her field all over the world. This year a related interest in Greco-Roman literature led to completion of the first-ever translation (with colleague Trevor Thompson) into English of the second-century physician Galen's Greek letter, De indolentia - "one of the most spectacular finds ever of ancient literature" (V. Nutton). She is currently writing a book on the depiction of St. Paul as the ancient Cretan seer Epimenides in Acts 17, as well as a monograph arguing against the authenticity of the earliest canon list known as the Muratorian Fragment.

Additional Resources:

Lewis University Department of Theology

Clare Rothschild's Website