The Nicene Age · AD 313–400

Egeria the pilgrim

fl. AD 381–384 · Pilgrim · Diarist of the holy places · Gallaecia (probably) → Egypt, Sinai, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor

The Nicene Age

Who Egeria the pilgrim was

A Spanish woman, probably from Gallaecia and probably a nun, who spent three years walking the biblical sites and wrote home to her sisters about them. Her account is the single most valuable description of the fourth-century liturgy in existence — she watched the Jerusalem church keep Holy Week and set down what it actually did, hour by hour. The text survives incomplete in one eleventh-century manuscript from Monte Cassino, found at Arezzo in 1884 with its beginning and end missing. Her name is not in it: Gamurrini first called her Silvia of Aquitaine, and in 1903 Férotin argued from a late-seventh-century letter of Valerius of Bierzo that she is the ‘Egeria’ he praises. The identification is probable and the archive records it as unresolved.

Verified single attestation

One attestation only — the work is self-attesting: the author names himself, his office or his circumstances inside his own text, and no independent ancient source describes him.

Also listed in women.

Common questions

When was Egeria active?

Egeria the pilgrim is dated fl. AD 381–384 in the archive, which places Egeria in the Nicene Age (AD 313–400).

What did Egeria write?

Egeria the pilgrim has 1 catalogued writing in the archive: Itinerarium Egeriae (The Pilgrimage of Egeria).

Which early sources mention Egeria?

Egeria the pilgrim is named in 1 primary-source passage catalogued here, drawn from Valerius of Bierzo. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Egeria from?

The archive associates Egeria the pilgrim with Gallaecia (probably), Egypt, Sinai, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.

Writings (1)

Itinerarium Egeriae (The Pilgrimage of Egeria)

c. AD 381–384
[Survives in a single mutilated eleventh-century codex, Aretinus 405; two further ninth-century fragments were identified by Alturo in 2005.]

Earliest witness · Codex Aretinus 405 (Arezzo) (11th c.)

Read the interlinear source text →

Primary-source mentions (1)

Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Letter to the monks of the Bierzo, in praise of the blessed Egeria — LATE ATTESTATION, late seventh century

c. AD 680
[The only source that may give her name. Férotin’s 1903 identification of the pilgrim with Valerius’ Egeria is widely accepted but not proven.]
Valerius of Bierzo · Letter of Valerius of Bierzo

A letter in praise of Egeria written by the seventh-century Spanish monk Valerius of Bierzo, which preserves her name and her standing when the manuscript of her own travel diary had lost both. Edited in Migne, Patrologia Latina 87.

Connected in the archive

People

Events in this lifetime

Place

Places served

The 6 places the sources put Egeria, in the order the record moves through them. This is what the sources attest, not a reconstructed route.

  1. 1Gallaeciaprovince only
  2. 2Egyptprovince only
  3. 3Sinaiprovince only
  4. 4Palestineprovince only
  5. 5Syriaprovince only
  6. 6Asia Minorprovince only

See these places on the atlas →