Egeria's Travels (review)

John Wilkinson, editor. Egeria's Travels, rev. 3rd ed. Warminister, England: Aris and Phillips, 1999. Distributed in North America by David Brown Book Company. Pp. xiv + 221, b & w figures. $28.00, paper.

A woman's voice from the fourth century. That in itself is a rarity. But what is as rare is that Egeria's Travels manages to connect with contemporary readers in an amazing way. Yesss. Enthusiasm, energy, curiosity, affection, brains, as well as a good factual account of the sights and liturgy seen during Egeria's three-year pilgrimage to the Holy Land (381-84), are transmitted to us and most likely to the "sisters" to whom it was written in Latin back home--most likely north- western Spain.

What a great traveling companion she would make, up to any challenges of a rigorous trip. Descending from the donkey Egeria climbed Mount Nebo where Moses was buried, (". . . there were some steeper parts where we had to dismount, and it was hard going."). One suspects, as some scholars have, that Egeria must have been very well connected to travel as widely and freely as she did and to be received as cordially as she was at every stop by bishops, ascetics, and others she encountered. Egeria worshipped at the appropriate moment at each shrine and church she visited, but she was always the observer.

Of course, not everyone in the late fourth century approved of such pilgrimages. Gregory of Nyssa, for one, was critical of them on the theological ground that God was to be found everywhere and that travel was too dangerous.

Egeria's account is translated, edited, and commented on by John Wilkinson, a former staff member of St. Georges College in Jerusalem, in this revised and greatly improved third edition. He presents a portrait of Egeria but also brings together some background on the text, other translations of early travel manuscripts, and documents and comments on the Armenian and the Jerusalem Liturgy which she describes. Egeria's Travels is, in fact, one of the earliest and most detailed sources we have today of the Jerusalem Liturgy.

Egeria's text has a shady past. It was not until the seventh century that notice was made of Egeria and her pilgrimage by Monk Valerius, and not until the eleventh century that the codex was copied at the monastery of Monte Cassino. In the twelfth century, Peter the Deacon quoted extensively from Egeria's manuscript in his own pilgrimage account. In 1884, G. F. Ganurrini recognized the manuscript for what it was. Translations into English followed: J. H. Bernard in 1891, M. L. McClure and C. L. Feltoe in 1919, G. G. Gingras (for the Ancient Christian Writers Series in 1970), and Wilkinson in 1971, with a second edition in 1981.

In this third edition, Wilkinson moves Peter the Deacon's account of Egeria's travels to a more prominent position, filling out Egeria's text, since only the middle third has ever surfaced. Other changes include a slightly revised translation, an updated and expanded bibliography, and the elimination of a long section of additions and corrections. Integrated into his introductory chapter are translations of Eusebius on the Buildup on Golgotha, and the text of the early fourth-century Pilgrim of Bordeaux previously in the second-edition section of "Extracts From Other Authors." Also of interest is the expanded treatment of the Eucharist and Instruction in the Mysteries in the section on the Jerusalem Liturgy. Dropped from the third edition are sections on St. Thecla's Martyrium, church titles, the Letter of King Abgar, and Pseudo-Cyril on the Eucharist.

This volume might well be used in undergraduate, graduate, and seminary courses. It might also be of special interest to the many thousands of tourists who travel to the Holy Land. It should be noted that a six-page summary of Egeria's Travels has made its way to the Internet, thanks to the Franciscans and Christusrex, so Egeria is still on...