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Authors
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
As the IVth century neared its end, the nun Egéria set off from northern Iberia on a pilgrimage to Palestine. In a time of profound change and uncertainty, that journey would last for three years, revealing the uncommon determination of a woman who bravely embarked in a daunting and risky voyage. Although little is known of her, it’s generally believed that she issued from the former roman conventus of Gallaecia – which capital city was Bracara, an Iberian cultural fulcrum at the time and age – and that the narrative of her travels was written in epistolary fashion so as to enlighten the women of the nunnery where she was abbess.
It happens that this is the second earliest written account of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land – the first is a simple geographical itinerary registered a mere half century earlier by a pilgrim of Bordeaux – but the earlier firsthand such report penned by a woman’s hand. This text is also the most ancient Latin source known to us that can be placed in the Western territory with some assurance, and even in what was to become the land of the Portuguese, a relevant milestone in the evolution from Latin to the Romanic languages that succeeded.
Our paper intends to place Itinerarium Egeriae in the lineage of medieval pilgrimage narrative, divulging a somewhat obscure but rich linguistic, literary and cultural document, depicting both ancient places and customs important to understanding the roots of European religious tradition, a singular testimony encompassing all lands north of the Mediterranean.
Description
Keywords
Séc. IV Palestina Ocidente Peninsular Peregrinação Latim Vulgar
Citation
On the Road to the Holy Land: Religious Experience in Mediterranean Europe”, The European Mind: Narrative and Identity – Proceedings of the X World Congress of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas (editor Henry Frendo), Msida, Malta: University of Malta Press, 2 vols., vol. I, pp. 26-31.
Publisher
University of Malta Press