Pilgrimage of Jerusalem

The use to go in pilgrimage on the same spot of the terrestrial life of the Christ goes back to Méliton de Sardes which went to Palestine during second half of IIe century (towards 160) and the purpose of whose voyage was specific research on the gun of the Scriptures.

Byzantine time

The Pilgrimage of Égérie is one of the oldest guides of pilgrimage out of Holy Land, and one of only writes hand of a woman, who reached us from this time. At the same time, from the point of view of its description of the liturgy of Jerusalem, it is one of most complete. One has comparatively more guides of pilgrimage in Latin than in Greek or Armenian. There exists a French translation of these guides (of P. Maraval), but the work of study and reference is J. Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims before the Crusades , Jerusalem, 1977.

The Middle Ages

In the first centuries of the pilgrimages, when the pilgrim wanted to go in Holy Land, it was to obtain the assent of its close relations and the permission of his bishop; one enquérait oneself of his life and of his manners, one examined whether a vain desire to see the distant regions did not involve it towards the holy places. This investigation was more rigorous when it was about a monk; one wanted to prevent that the pilgrimage was not a pretext to return in the life of the world. When all this information had been taken, the pilgrim received hand of the bishop, with the parochial Messe, the bumblebee and the bread basket.

The pilgrim received also the blessing; a kind of passport addressed to all the Monastery S, with the priest S, with faithful, recommended the pilgrim to them, who was to leave without delay, under penalty of being treated of relaps and perjury towards God; the bishop only which had bound could untie in rare cases and of an extreme gravity. At the day indicated for the departure, the parents, the friends, the pious hearts, accompanied the pilgrim at a certain distance by the city; there, it received the blessing and was started. During his road, the pilgrim was free from any toll; he found hospitality in the castles on his road, and it was a kind of félonie to refuse it to him; he was to be treated like the chaplain and to eat with its table, unless, by humility, he did not like best insulation and the retirement. In the cities, he addressed himself to the bishop, who accommodated it, and in the convents, to the prior or to the abbot. One reads in the Duties of Chevalier S, the obligation, for all the men who carried the weapons, to defend the pilgrim, comparable with the children and the widows; if it fell sick, the old people's homes were opened to him, as well as the infirmary of the Monastère S; one took care of him like privileged being. When the pilgrim embarked, the prices of their passage were extremely moderate, and the statutes of certain cities, such as Marseilles, for example, exempted them of any remuneration when they embarked on the ships of the city. It was the same on their return. Arrived at their birthplace, they processionnellement were received; they deposited on the furnace bridge of the parish the palm of Jericho.

All the classes of the company provided pilgrims: princes, prelates, knights, priests, noble and unpleasant. The hope to sanctify itself by the Pèlerinage was general. In 1054, for example, Lutbert, 31e bishop of Cambric, left for the Holy Land, followed of more than 3.000 pilgrims of the provinces of Picardy and Flanders. A few years later, 7.000 Christian among which one counted the Archevêque Mainz, the bishop S of Ratisbon, Bamberg, Utrecht left together the edges of the the Rhine to go in Palestine.

External bonds

History of the pilgrimage of Jerusalem
Reports of Léonnard Leroux on Jerusalem
With foot to Jerusalem
Pilgrimages in Jerusalem

See too

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