One Woman Climbs A Mountain for her Faith: Egeria, It. 1.3.7 - 1.4.1

Egeria, Climbing a Mountain for Her Faith

Name:  Egeria Date:  4th century CE Region:  [modern Spain] Citation:   Journey Abroad 1.3.7 – 4.1

Egeria was a Christian woman from Spain who lived during the 4th century CE. The narrative of her pilgrimage is an important document, as it shows rare insight into the lives of women during that time period. She was not only able to travel to visit holy sites in Constantinople, Jerusalem, and other holy places, she was also literate and able to write of her experiences to the women in her social circle, who were presumably also literate. 

After we talked a bit, the holy folk blessed us. Then we went outside of the church, and I began to ask them about certain places. Immediately, the holy men took me on a tour. They showed me the cave where Holy Moses was when he ascended the holy mountain to obtain the Ten Commandments, and where he later broke the first copy of them when his people had broken those rules. They showed me other places, as many as I had asked about, and even more that they had known about that I didn’t.  

Fellow sisters in Christ, I want you to know this, that from the point where we stood on the top of the central mountain, when we looked down, the other mountains around us which had seemed nearly inaccessible, looked like little hills.  And from the ground, they looked so massive, like I had never seen anything taller than them, and yet this central  mountain overshadowed them by a lot. From the summit, we saw such incredible sights: we saw Egypt and Palestine and the Red Sea and the Parthian Sea, which borders Alexandria; we also saw the border of the boundless territories of the  Arabian peoples. The holy men leading the tour pointed out each and every site to us.

Once this was checked off of my bucket list, we began to go back to the point we’d started our ascent, going from the summit of the holy mountain to another mountain that is joined to it named Choreb.

Hac sic ergo posteaquam communicaveramus et dederant nobis eulogias sancti illi et egressi sumus foras ostium ecclesiae, tunc coepi eos rogare, ut ostenderent nobis singula loca. Tunc statim illi sancti dignati sunt singula ostendere. Nam ostenderunt nobis speluncam illam, ubi fuit sanctus Moyses, cum iterato ascendisset in montem Dei, ut acciperet denuo tabulas, posteaquam priores illas fregerat peccante populo, et cetera loca, quaecumque desiderabamus vel quae ipsi melius noverant, dignati sunt ostendere nobis.

Illud autem vos volo scire, dominae venerabiles sorores, quia de eo loco, ubi stabamus, id est in giro parietes ecclesiae, id est de summitate montis ipsius mediani, ita infra nos videbantur esse illi montes, quos primitus vix ascenderamus, iuxta istum medianum, in quo stabamus, ac si essent illi colliculi, cum tamen ita infiniti essent, ut non me putarem aliquando altiores vidisse, nisi quod hic medianus eos nimium praecedebat. Aegyptum autem et Palaestinam et mare rubrum et mare illud Parthenicum, quod mittit Alexandriam, nec non et fines Saracenorum infinitos ita subter nos inde videbamus, ut credi vix possit; quae tamen singula nobis illi sancti demonstrabant

Completo ergo omni desiderio, quo festinaveramus ascendere, coepimus iam et descendere ab ipsa summitate montis Dei, in qua ascenderamus, in alio monte, qui ei periunctus est, qui locus appellatur in Choreb.

Egeria [4th century CE, modern Spain] was a Christian woman who wrote a narrative of her pilgrimage to Constantinople, Jerusalem, and other places in the Holy Land. Her life provides insight into the lives of women during the 4th century CE, as she not only had the privilege of being able to travel extensively, but also was literate and able to share her story in writing with other literate women in her social circle.