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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world


The Itinerary of the so-called Pilgrim of Bordeaux mentions a number of tombs in the Holy Land of biblical figures, almost all from the Old Testament; Constantine's new church at Mamre, where Abraham (Old Testament patriarch, S00275) conversed with angels; and the spring near Jericho miraculously purified by the Elisha (Old Testament prophet, S00239). Written in Latin, probably in Bordeaux (south-west Gaul), shortly after 333.

Evidence ID

E06104

Type of Evidence

Literary - Pilgrim accounts and itineraries

Pilgrim of Bordeaux, Itinerary

The itinerary lists all the stages of the pilgrim's journey from Burdigala (Bordeaux) to Jerusalem. In the Holy Land it lists many sites associated with biblical heroes and biblical events but in very few cases is there any indication that they were places of cult activity. It does, however, mention a substantial number of tombs, identified as those of biblical figures, several of them clearly monumental:

Tomb of Joseph in Sichem (587)
Ibi est monumentum, ubi positus est Ioseph in uilla, quam dedit ei Iacob pater eius.

'There is the tomb in which Joseph is buried, in the estate which Jacob his father gave to him.'


Tomb of Isaiah (and king Hezekiah) in Jerusalem, outside the city gate, near the Mount of Olives (595 )
Inde non longe quasi ad lapidis missum sunt monumenta duo monubiles mirae pulchritudinis facta: in unum positus est Isaias propheta, qui est uere monolitus, et in alio Ezechias rex Iudaeorum.

'Nearby, about a stone's throw away, are two memorial tombs of beautiful workmanship. One of them, formed from a single rock, is where the prophet Isaiah was laid, and in the other lies Hezekiah, king of the Jews.'


The miraculous spring of Elisha near Jericho (596)
A ciuitate, passus mille quingentos est ibi fons Helisei prophetae. Antea si qua mulier ex ipsa aqua bibebat, non faciebat natos. Adlatum est uas fictile Heliseo, misit in eo sales et venit et stetit super fontem et dixit: Haec dicit Dominus: sanauit aquas has. Ex ipso si qua mulier inde biberit, filios faciet.

'A mile and a half from the city [Jericho] is the spring of the prophet Elisha; at one time any woman who drank from it would never have children, Then Elisha brought a jar with salt in it, and came and stood over the spring. saying "Thus saith the Lord, he hath cleansed these waters." Now if a woman drinks from it she will have children.'


Tombs of Rachel, Ezekiel, Asaph, Job, Jesse, David, and Solomon in and around Bethlehem (598)
Item ab Hierusalem euntibus Bethleem milia quattuor super strata in parte dextra est monumentum, ubi Rachel posita est, uxor Iacob. Inde milia duo a parte sinistra est Bethleem, ubi natus est Dominus Iesus Christus; ibi basilica facta est iussu Constantini. Inde non longe est monumentum Ezechiel. Asaph, Iob et Iesse, Dauid, Salomon, et habet in ipsa cripta ad latus deorsum descendentibus hebraeis litteris scriptum nomina supra scripta.

'Four miles from Jerusalem, on the right of the highway to Bethlehem, is the tomb in which was laid Jacob's wife Rachel. Two miles further on, on the left, is Bethelehem, where the Lord Jesus Christ was born, and where a basilica has been built by command of Constantine. Not far away is the tomb of Ezekiel, Asaph, Job, Jesse, David, and Solomon. Their names are written in Hebrew characters low down on the wall as you go down into the vault (
cripta). '


The basilica of Constantine at Mamre, and the tomb of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah at Hebron (599)
Inde Terebinto milia VIIII, ubi Abraham habitauit et puteum fodit sub arbore terebintho et cum angelis locutus est et cibum sumpsit; ibi basilica facta est iussu Constantini mirae pulchritudinis. Inde Terebinto Cebron milia II, ubi est memoria per quadrum ex lapidibus mirae pulchritudinis, in qua positi sunt Abraham, Isaac, Iacob, Sarra, Rebecca et Lia.

'It is nine miles to Terebinthus, where Abraham lived and dug a well beneath the terebinth tree, and spoke and ate with the angels; an exceptionally beautiful basilica has been built there by command of Constantine. Two miles from Terebinthus is Hebron, where there is a remarkably beautiful tomb, square and made of stone, in which are laid Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah.'


Tomb of Lazarus (596).
Inde ad orientem passus mille quingentos est uilla, quae appellatur Bethania; est ibi cripta, ubi Lazarus positus fuit, quem Dominus suscitauit.

'A mile and a half eastward from there is the village called Bethany, and in it is the vault (
cripta) in which was laid Lazarus, whom the Lord raised.'


Text: Geyer & Cuntz 1965.
Translation: Wilkinson 1971, lightly modified.

Source

The pilgrim of Bordeaux visited Palestine in 333 as he/she dates their visit to the consulship of Dalmatius and Zenophilus, which was in that year. It is the very first surviving pilgrim account, and is laconic in comparison to those of later pilgrims like Egeria and the Piacenza pilgrim: many biblical places are visited and listed, but very few details are provided as to what the pilgrim found there and none as to what they did at each site.

As with all the pilgrim texts from the Holy Land, it has been difficult to decide what to include, and what to exclude from our database, focused as it is on 'the cult of saints'. We have necessarily excluded the large number of sites associated exclusively with the life and miracles of Jesus. But a problem arises regarding sites associated with figures from the Old Testament: were they being treated as Christian 'saints' or were the places associated with them being visited out of a generic biblical curiosity? The compromise position we have taken with regard to these Old Testament figures is to include all references to places associated with them where our Christian writers record miraculous occurrences or where there was a church or oratory, and also all references to their graves (though with these latter there is often no explicit reference to Christian cult, and certainly none in the pilgrim of Bordeaux's account).

Discussion

The Itinerary mentions four churches, all as constructed by Constantine, and all, except the church at Mamre, associated with the life of Jesus (at the Holy Sepulchre, at Bethlehem, and on the Mount of Olives).

The tombs of Old and New Testament personages listed in this record are presented as important biblical sites rather than places of cult. Interestingly, they are referred to in the same way as the tombs of two personages from classical history, Euripides (604) and Hannibal (572: confused with Hannibalianus, a member of the Constantinian dynasty).

As well as these tombs, we have included two sites associated with Old Testament figures, that were clearly considered particularly special by our Christian visitor. First, the site at Mamre, where a great oak stood, or (as here) a terebinth (
pistacia terebinthus), under which Abraham had entertained three angels and had been told that Sarah, his wife, would bear him a son (Genesis 18:1-8). This was an important cult site for Christians as well as Jews, as evidenced by Constantine's building of a church here (see also E02884). The second place is the spring near Jericho that the prophet Elisha made wholesome (2 Kings 2:19-22); its ability to ensure a successful pregnancy is mentioned in the biblical story, and this was apparently still credited when the Bordeaux pilgrim visited.

We have included in this entry the tomb of Lazarus, though there is no evidence that this was visited as anything other than the site of one of Jesus' greatest miracles (i.e. there is no evidence here that Lazarus, the object of the miracle, was also attracting cult).


Bibliography

Edition:
Geyer, P. and Cuntz, O, (ed.), Itinerarium Burdigalense, in Itineraria et alia geographica (Corpus Chistianorum, series Latina 175; Turnholti: Typographi Brepols editores pontificii, 1965), 1-26. [A conflation of separate earlier editions by Geyer and Cuntz.]

Translations:
Wilkinson, J. Egeria's Travels (London 1971).

Stewart, A., Itinerary from Bordeaux to Jerusalem (London, 1887).


Record Created By

Robert Wiśniewski

Date of Entry

08/04/2022

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00239Elisha, Old Testament prophetCertain
S00269David, Old Testament king of Israel, PsalmistCertain
S00270Solomon, Old Testament king of IsraelCertain
S00275Abraham, Old Testament patriarchCertain
S00276Isaac, Old Testament patriarchCertain
S00277Joseph, Old Testament patriarchCertain
S00278Sarah, Old Testament matriarch, wife of AbrahamCertain
S00280Jacob, Old Testament patriarchCertain
S00282Isaiah, Old Testament prophetCertain
S00701Rachel, wife of the Old Testament patriarch JacobCertain
S01191Job, Old Testament patriarchCertain
S01417Lazarus, friend of JesusCertain
S01493Ezekiel, Old Testament prophetCertain
S02279Asaph, Old Testament psalmistCertain
S02280Jesse, Old Testament ancestor of ChristCertain
S02281Rebecca, Old Testament wife of IsaacCertain
S02282Leah, Old Testament wife of JacobCertain
S02283Hezekiah, Old Testament king of IsraelCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Robert Wiśniewski, Cult of Saints, E06104 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E06104