Past Perfect: A Pilgrim on Mt. Sinai

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Pilgrimages to the Holy Land started in earnest during the reign of Constantine (306–326 A.D.), the emperor credited with converting the Roman empire to Christianity. One of the earliest pilgrims was a woman named Egeria. Very little is known of this pious woman. She wrote about her experiences in a prayerful letter in Latin to her “beloved sisters,” leading many scholars to the conclusion that she must have been a nun. Unfortunately, only about four months of her travels were preserved among the fragments of her letter that survived—and even these have now been lost. However, they were copied at Monte Cassino in an 11th-century manuscript called the “Codex Aretinus.” The manuscript disappeared until the 19th century, when it was found by Italian scholar Gian-Francesco Gamurrini in the monastic library at Abrezzo, Italy. Below is an excerpt from Egeria’s visit to Mt. Sinai.

We reached the mountain late on the Sabbath, and arriving at a certain monastery, the monks who dwelt there received us very kindly, showing us every kindness; there is also a church and a priest there. We stayed there that night, and early on the Lord’s Day, together with the priest and the monks who dwelt there, we began the ascent of the mountains one by one. These mountains are ascended with infinite toil, for you cannot go up gently by a spiral track—as we say snail-shell wise—but you climb straight up the whole way, as if up a wall, and you must come straight down each mountain until you reach the very foot of the middle one, which is specially called Sinai. By this way, then, at the bidding of Christ our God, and helped by the prayers of the holy men who accompanied us, we arrived at the fourth hour at the summit of Sinai, the holy mountain of God, where the law was given, that is, at the place where the Glory of the Lord descended on the day when the mountain smoked … In that place there is now a church, not great in size, for the place itself, that is the summit of the mountain, is not very great; nevertheless, the church itself is great in grace.

When, therefore, at God’s bidding, we had arrived at the summit, and had reached the door of the church, lo, the priest who was appointed to the church came from his cell and met us, a hale old man, a monk from early life, and an ascetic as they say here, in short one worthy to be in that place; the other priests also met us, together with all the monks who dwelt on the mountain, that is, not hindered by age or infirmity. No one, however, dwells on the very summit of the central mountain; there is nothing there excepting only the church and the cave where holy Moses was. When the whole passage from the book of Moses had been read in that place, and when the oblation had been duly made, at which we communicated, and as we were coming out of the church, the priests of the place gave us eulogiae,^a that is, of fruits which grow on the mountain …

So, after we had communicated, and the holy men had given us eulogiae, and we had come out of the door of the church, I began to ask them to show us the several sites. Thereupon the holy men immediately deigned to show us the various places. They showed us the cave where holy Moses was when he had gone up again into the mount of God, that he might receive the second tables after he had broken the former ones when the people sinned; they also deigned to show us the other sites which we desired to see, and those which they themselves well knew …

From thence we saw Egypt and Palestine, and the Red Sea and the Parthenian Sea, which leads to Alexandria and the boundless territories of the Saracens, all so much below us as to be scarcely credible, but the holy men pointed out each one of them to us.

Pilgrimages to the Holy Land started in earnest during the reign of Constantine (306–326 A.D.), the emperor credited with converting the Roman empire to Christianity. One of the earliest pilgrims was a woman named Egeria. Very little is known of this pious woman. She wrote about her experiences in a prayerful letter in Latin to her “beloved sisters,” leading many scholars to the conclusion that she must have been a nun. Unfortunately, only about four months of her travels were preserved among the fragments of her letter that survived—and even these have now been lost. However, they were copied […]