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E00529: The Piacenza Pilgrim records his visit to a monastery close to Damascus (Phoenicia), built at the site of the conversion of *Paul (the Apostle, S00008), and to the 'street called straight', renowned for its miracles, in Damascus itself. Account of an anonymous pilgrim, written in Latin, probably in Placentia (northern Italy), c. 570.

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posted on 2015-05-18, 00:00 authored by robert

Pilgrim of Piacenza, Itinerarium 46

First recension
Inde per Galilaeam ascendimus et venimus Damascum. Ibi est monasterium ad miliario secundo, ubi sanctus Paulus est conuersus, uicus qui uocatur rectus, in quo multae fiunt uirtutes.

'We travelled on through Galilee and came to Damascus. Two miles from there is a monastery at the place where saint Paul was converted, and the street which is called Straight, where many miracles take place.'

The second recension follows the text of the first without important modifications.

Text: Geyer 1898, 190 and 217. Translation: Wilkinson 2002, 89.

History

Evidence ID

E00529

Saint Name

Paul, the Apostle : S00008

Saint Name in Source

Paulus

Related Saint Records

https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/Paul_the_Apostle/13729135

Type of Evidence

Literary - Pilgrim accounts and itineraries

Language

Latin

Evidence not before

551

Evidence not after

614

Activity not before

551

Activity not after

614

Place of Evidence - Region

Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia Palestine with Sinai Syria with Phoenicia

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Piacenza

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Piacenza Sardinia Sardinia Sardegna Sardinia Caesarea Maritima Καισάρεια Kaisareia Caesarea Kayseri Turris Stratonis Thabbora Thabbora

Major author/Major anonymous work

Pilgrim of Piacenza

Cult activities - Places

Place associated with saint's life

Cult Activities - Miracles

Unspecified miracle

Source

This Itinerary was written by an anonymous pilgrim to Palestine who started and finished his journey in Placentia. He visited the East probably not long after the earthquake in 551, since he presents the destruction of Berytus (modern Beirut) in this year as a relatively recent event. He certainly visited Palestine before the Persian invasion in 614, since in his account Jerusalem is under Roman administration. The Itinerary is extant in two recensions. The first one is shorter and generally closer to the original, but sometimes it is the second recension which preserves the original text. Moreover, the additions that can be found in the second recension, unfortunately difficult to date, bear an interesting witness to the development of the cult of saints. The Itinerary can be compared with an earlier pilgrim's diary written in the 380s by another western pilgrim, Egeria. The Piacenza Pilgrim's itinerary is less detailed than her account, but shows the development of the cultic practices and infrastructure which had taken place in the course of two hundred years: there are more places to visit, more objects to see, and more saints to venerate.

Discussion

The street 'which is called Straight' in Damascus is mentioned in Acts 9:10-19. In a house in this street Paul the Apostle was baptised.

Bibliography

Edition: Geyer, P. (ed.), Antonini Placentini Itinerarium, in Itineraria et alia geographica (Corpus Chistianorum, series Latina 175; Turnholti: Typographi Brepols editores pontificii, 1965), 129-174. [Essentially a reprinting of Geyer's edition for the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 39, Wien 1898.] English translations: Stewart, A., Of the Holy Places Visited by Antoninus Martyr (London: Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society, 1887). Wilkinson, J., Jerusalem Pilgrims Before the Crusades (2nd ed.; Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 2002). Further reading: Maraval, P., Lieux saints et Pèlerinages d'Orient: Histoire et géographie, des origines à la conquête arabe (Paris: Cerf, 1985), 335.

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Keywords

S00008 History

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