Egeria (pilgrim)

Cover of a translation into English of The Journey of Egeria type published in 1919.

Egeria, Etheria or Aetheria was a woman, widely regarded to be the author of a detailed account of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The long letter, dubbed Peregrinatio or Itinerarium Egeriae, is addressed to a circle of women at home. Historical details it contains set the journey in the early 380s, making it the earliest of its kind. It survives in fragmentary form in a later copy—lacking a title, date and attribution.

Discovery and identity

The middle part of Egeria's writing survived and was copied in the Codex Aretinus, which was written at Monte Cassino in the 11th century, while the beginning and end are lost. This Codex Aretinus was discovered in 1884 by the Italian scholar Gian Francesco Gamurrini, in a monastic library in Arezzo.^[1] Recently, Prof. Jesús Alturo has identified two new fragments from one manuscript circa 900 in Caroline script.^[2]

Gamurrini published the Latin text and theorised the author was Saint Sylvia of Aquitaine.^[3] In 1903 Marius Férotin claimed the author is one Aetheria or Egeria, known from a letter written by the 7th century Galician monk Valerio of Bierzo. He dated her pilgrimage to about 381–384, during the reign of Theodosius I.^{[4]:vii f.} Férotin believed she was from Gallaecia, but in 1909 Karl Meister disputed Férotin's theory about the date of Egeria's pilgrimage and her identity. Meister argues that her language shows no evidence of Spanish dialect, but rather, suggests that she may have been from one of the well known religious houses of 6th century Gaul; under this theory, her pilgrimage would have taken place in the first half of the reign of Justinian (r. 527–565).^{[4]:viii f.} John Bernard has noted that certain details of Egeria's account that would support a later date—two churches mentioned in the Breviarium and Peregrinatio Theodosii (both circa 530)—are absent from Egeria's otherwise detailed description of Jerusalem and thus confirm the 4th century dating.^[4]:xiv Most scholars favor the 4th century date.^[5]

It is through Valerio's letter that we first see the name Aetheria or Egeria, and have much of the biographical information. He praises Egeria and identifies her as a nun, perhaps because she addresses her account to her "sorores" (Latin for "sisters") at home. However, others (including Hagith Sivan, 1988) have pointed out that during Egeria's time it was common to address fellow lay Christians as "sisters" and "brothers." It is possible that Egeria used the term to address her Christian acquaintances.^[1] Valerio may also have believed her to be a nun because she went on such a pilgrimage, although lay women of the time are known to have engaged in such religious tourism. Egeria's ability to make a long and expensive journey by herself, her numerous acquaintances and attentive guides in the places she visited, and her education indicate her middle or upper class wealthy background.^[4]:xi[1] In his letter to Egeria, Valerio mentioned the shores of the "Western sea" or "Ocean" from which Egeria was sprung, which suggests he was writing about a person travelling from the Roman Gallaecia, but Meister believes that her reference to the river Rhone supports his theory of Gaulish origin.^{[4]:viii f.}

Writings

Egeria set down her observations in a letter now called Itinerarium Egeriae ("Travels of Egeria"). It is sometimes also called Peregrinatio Aetheriae ("Pilgrimage of Aetheria") or Peregrinatio ad Loca Sancta ("Pilgrimage to the Holy Lands") or some other combination. It is the earliest extant graphic account of a Christian pilgrimage.^[6] The text has numerous lacunae.^[5]

Philologists have studied Egeria's letter, which contains a wealth of information about the evolution of Latin in late antiquity into the "Proto-Romance" language, from which the medieval and modern family of Romance languages later emerged.^[5]

The text is a narrative apparently written at the end of Egeria's journey from notes she took en route, and addressed to her 'dear ladies': the women of her spiritual community back home. In the first extant part of the text, she describes the journey from her approach to Mount Sinai until her stop in Constantinople. Staying for three years in Jerusalem, she made excursions to Mount Nebo and to the tomb of Job in ancient Carneas or Karnaia^[7] (modern Al-Shaykh Saad, Syria).

Additionally, she visited the burial places of Haran, the brother of Abraham, as well as the site where Eliezer met with Rebecca.^[8] On her way back to Europe she stopped at Hagia Thekla—i. e. the shrine of Saint Thecla's near Seleucia Isauriae (modern Silifke, Turkey), particularly venerated by women. Upon her return to Constantinople, she planned to make a further trip to St. John's at Ephesus.

The second portion of the text is a detailed account of the liturgical services and observances of the church calendar in Jerusalem (most likely, under Cyril),^[8][9] The liturgical year was in its incipient stages at the time of her visit. This is invaluable because the development of liturgical worship (e. g. Lent, Palm or Passion Sunday) reached universal practice in the 4th century. Egeria provides a first-hand account of practices and implementation of liturgical seasons as they existed at the time of her visit. This snapshot is before universal acceptance of a December 25 celebration of the nativity of Jesus; this is very early and very helpful in cataloguing the development of annual liturgical worship.^[10]

The Itinerarium Egeriae has provided scholars with valuable information about developments in the grammar and vocabulary of Vulgar Latin. For example, expressions such as "deductores sancti illi" (meaning "those holy guides" in classical Latin, but here rather simply "the holy guides") help to reveal the origins of the definite article now used in all Romance languages (except Sardinian)—such as Spanish ("las santas guías") or Italian ("le sante guide"). Similarly, the use of ipsam in a phrase such as "per mediam vallem ipsam" (classical Latin "through [the] middle of [the] valley itself") anticipates the type of definite article ("péri su mesu de sa bàdde") that is found in Sardinian ("sa limba sarda").

Literary references

• In Joseph Conrad's novel Under Western Eyes, Madame S_____ is compared to Egeria (book 2, chapter 4).
• In Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 2, Miss Prism is referred to as Egeria by Dr. Chasuble, although he clearly was referring to a Roman nymph of the same name.
• In Ford Madox Ford's novel Parade's End, Mrs Macmaster is referred to as "an Egeria" by Christopher Tietjens (book 1, part 2, chapter I). This characterization is made, not coincidentally, to his wife Sylvia. Also, in book 1, part 2, chapter V, Valentine Wannop considers Mrs Macmaster in the context of "portentious Egerias."
• In Julio Cortázar's Rayuela Chapter 43 "Sos nuestra ninfa Egeria"
• In Thomas Mann's novel "Doctor Faustus", Chapter 36; Madame de Tolna is a secret admirer of Adrian Leverkühn. She is described as a "woman of the world" due to her travels to attend all of Adrian's performances and her devotion and counsel is described in terms of "an ascetic renunciation". "What title did she wish, did she claim? That of tutelary goddess, an Egeria, a phantom lover?"

See also

• Vulgar Latin
• Itinerarium Burdigalense

References

Further reading

External links

• The Pilgrim Egeria: A Select Bibliography, by Michael Fraser, c. 1994
• Excerpts from the Peregrinatio Ætheriae (Latin)
• Works by Egeria at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• "Itineraria", article from The Catholic Encyclopedia
• The Egeria Project, with maps and images