Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society.

THE

PILGRIMAGE OF THE RUSSIAN

ABBOT DANIEL IN THE

HOLY LAND.

1106-1107 A.D.

ANNOTATED BY

COLONEL SIR C. W. WILSON, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., F.R.S., R.E.

LONDON:

24, HANOVER SQUARE, W.

1895.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION– vii

I. JERUSALEM AND THE LAURA OF ST. SABBAS– 3

II. THE WAY TO JERUSALEM– 4

III. THE CITY OF EPHESUS– 5

IV. THE ISLE OF PATMOS– 6

V. THE ISLAND OF CYPRUS– 7
VI. THE MOUNTAIN UPON WHICH ST. HELENA ERECTED A CROSS– 8
VII. THE BALSAM– 8
VIII. THE MOUNTAIN OF ARMATHEM– 9
IX. JERUSALEM– 10
X. THE CHURCH OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD– 11
XI. THE PLACE AT THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH WHERE CHRIST WAS CRUCIFIED– 14
XII. CALVARY– 14
XIII. THE ALTAR OF ABRAHAM– 15
XIV. THE TOWER OF DAVID– 17
XV. THE HOUSE OF URIAH– 18
XVI. THE SHEEP POOL– 19
XVII. THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY OF HOLIES– 19

XVIII. SOLOMON'S HOUSE– 21
XIX. THE HAMLET OF BETHANY– 22
XX. THE HAMLET OF GETHSEMANE– 22
XXI. THE GATES OF THE CITY– 23
XXII. THE PLACE OF THE HOLY VIRGIN'S TOMB– 23
XXIII. THE CAVERN WHERE CHRIST WAS BETRAYED– 24
XXIV. THE CAVE WHERE CHRIST BEGAN TO TEACH HIS DISCIPLES– 24
XXV. THE MOUNT OF OLIVES– 25

 iv CONTENTS.

XXVI. THE CITY OF JERUSALEM– 25
XXVII. THE WAY LEADING TO THE JORDAN– 26
XXVIII. MOUNT HERMON– 27

XXIX. THE PLACE WHERE THE SEA SAW IT AND FLED, AND WHERE THE JORDAN TURNED BACK– 27

XXX. THE PLACE WHERE CHRIST WAS BAPTIZED– 28

XXXI. THE BATHING-PLACE– 28

XXXII. THE JORDAN– 28
XXXIII. THE CAVE OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST– 29
XXXIV. THE CAVERN OF THE PROPHET ELIAS– 29
XXXV. THE TOWN OF JERICHO– 31
XXXVI. THE MOUNT OF GABAON– 32
XXXVII. THE CAVE WHERE CHRIST FASTED FORTY DAYS– 33

XXXVIII. THE LAURA OF ST. SABBAS– 33
XXXIX. THE MONASTERY OF ST. EUTHYMIUS– 35
XL. MOUNT SION– 36

XLI. THE HOUSE OF JOHN THE EVANGELIST IN WHICH THE HOLY SUPPER TOOK PLACE– 36

XLII. THE PLACE WHERE. PETER, HAVING DENIED CHRIST THREE TIMES, WEPT BITTERLY– 37

XLIII. THE POOL OF SILOE– 38

XLIV. THE POTTER'S FIELD– 38

XLV. BETHLEHEM– 38

XLVI. THE CAVERN WHERE THE HOLY VIRGIN GAVE BIRTH TO CHRIST– 39

XLVII. THE CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST– 39

XLVIII. CHRIST'S MANGER– 40
XLIX. THE HOUSE OF JESSE, FATHER OF DAVID– 41
L. DAVID'S WELL– 41
LI. THE CAVERN AND THE OAK OF MAMRE– 42
LII. THE SAME SUBJECT– 43
LIII. THE MOUNTAIN OF HEBRON– 44
LIV. THE TOMB OF JOSEPH– 46
LV. ABRAHAM'S PRAYER– 46
LVI. THE SEPULCHRE OF LOT AT SIGOR– 47
LVII. THE PLACE WHERE DAVID KILLED GOLIATH– 50
LVIII. THE PLACE WHERE THE TREE OF THE HOLY CROSS GREW– 50
LIX. THE HOUSE OF ZACHARIAS– 51
LX. THE MOUNTAIN WHERE ELIZABETH TOOK REFUGE WITH THE FORERUNNER– 51
LXI. RAMA– 52

v CONTENTS.

LXII. EMMAUS– 52
LXIII. LYDDA– 53
LXIV. JOPPA– 53
LXV. CÆSAREA OF PHILIPPI– 54
LXVI. CAPHARNAUM– 54
LXVII. MOUNT CARMEL– 54

LXVIII. THE TOWN OF ACRE– 55

LXIX. THE TOWN OF BERYTHUS– 55
LXX. ANTIOCH THE GREAT– 55
LXXI. GALILEE AND THE SEA OF TIBERIAS– 56

LXXII. JACOB'S WELL– 58
LXXIII. SAMARIA– 58
LXXIV. THE TOWN OF ARIMATHEA– 59
LXXV. THE TOWN OF BEISAN– 59
LXXVI. THE RIVER JORDAN– 60
LXXVII. THE CUSTOM-HOUSE OF MATTHEW– 61
LXXVIII. THE SEA OF TIBERIAS– 62
LXXIX. THE SOURCES OF THE JORDAN– 62
LXXX. THE PLACE WHERE CHRIST SATISFIED FIVE THOUSAND MEN– 63

LXXXI. THE PLACE WHERE CHRIST APPEARED TO HIS DISCIPLES FOR THE THIRD TIME AFTER HIS RESURRECTION– 64

LXXXII. THE TOWN OF BETHSAIDA– 64

LXXXIII. THE PLACE WHERE CHRIST CAME TOWARDS HIS DISCIPLES, WHO WERE FISHING– 64
LXXXIV. THE TOWN OF DECAPOLIS– 65

LXXXV. MOUNT LEBANON– 65
LXXXVI. MOUNT TABOR– 65
LXXXVII. THE PLACE OF CHRIST'S TRANSFIGURATION– 67

LXXXVIII... THE CAVE OF MELCHISEDEK– 67
LXXXIX.... THE TOWN OF NAZARETH– 69
XC. THE TOMB OF JOSEPH THE BRIDEGROOM– 70
XCI... THE CAVE WHERE THE HOLY VIRGIN SAT– 70
XCII.... THE PLACE WHERE THE ARCHANGEL ANNOUNCED THE GOOD NEWS TO THE HOLY VIRGIN– 70
XCIII... THE HOUSE OF JOSEPH THE BRIDEGROOM– 70
XCIV... THE WELL OF THE FIRST ANNUNCIATION– 71
XCV... CANA OF GALILEE– 72
XCVI... JERUSALEM– 73

XCVII. THE HOLY LIGHT; HOW IT DESCENDS UPON THE HOLY SEPULCHRE– 74

vi CONTENTS.

APPENDIX I. THE CHURCH OF ST. STEPHEN– 83
APPENDIX II. THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE– 91
APPENDIX III. THE DOME OF THE ROCK– 105
APPENDIX IV. STORAX (STRABO XII.)– 107
APPENDIX V. THE HOLY LIGHT (GESTA DEI POR FRANCOS)– 108
APPENDIX VI.. PEDIGREE OF RUSSIAN PRINCES– 111

INTRODUCTION.

RUSSIAN pilgrimages to the Holy Land date from the conversion of the Russians to Christianity towards the close of the tenth century. As early as 1022 A.D. allusion is made, in the Life of St. Theodosius of Kiev, to the presence of Russian pilgrims in Palestine; but the first whose name is known is St. Varlaam, Abbot of the Laura of Kiev, who visited Jerusalem in 1062 A.D. The earliest extant record of a Russian pilgrimage to the Holy Land is that of Daniel, the Abbot, or Prior {XXXX}, of a Russian monastery, of whom nothing certain is known. It may be inferred from Daniel's reference to the river Snov, as a stream that possessed several of the characteristics of the Jordan, that he came from the province of Tchernigov, in Little Russia, through which the Snov runs; and he is supposed to have been the same Daniel who was Bishop of Suriev in 1115 A.D., and who died the 9th September, 1122 A.D.

Daniel was a contemporary of Nestor, the oldest of the Russian annalists, and his narrative is one of the most important Russian documents of the commencement of the twelfth century; its intrinsic merits seem to have made it extremely popular, and there are no less than seventy- five MSS., of which the earliest dates from 1475 A.D. The date of the pilgrimage can be fixed with considerable certainty from Daniel's own statements. He mentions the Russian Grand Duke Michel Sviatopolk Isiaslavowitsch

viii INTRODUCTION.

(1093-1113), and Baldwin, King of Jerusalem (1100-1118); he also states that Acre belonged to the Franks, and as this city was taken by the Crusaders on the 26th May, 1104, the date must lie between 1104 and 1113. A closer approximation is, however, possible. Daniel tells us that he accompanied Baldwin on his expedition against Damascus, and M. H. Hagenmayer has shown (Ekkehardi Uraugiensis abbatis, Hierosolymita, Tub., 1876, pp. 360-362) that this expedition must have been one of those undertaken by the king between 1106 and 1108. Again, Daniel speaks of the attacks to which pilgrims were exposed from the Saracens of Ascalon; and William of Tyre mentions one of these attacks on Christians passing from Jaffa to Jerusalem, which took place in the year 1107 (Des choses avenues en la terre d'Outremer, xi. 4, Paris, 1879, vol. i. 384). Lastly, it will be observed that, in the very minute description which Daniel gives of the ceremony of the 'Holy Fire,' no allusion is made to the Latin patriarch, and that one of the bishops takes the place that Fulcher de Chartres assigns to the patriarch. Now, we know that there was no Latin patriarch at Jerusalem during Easter, 1107, for Dagobert left the city in 1103, and Ebremar, his substitute, started for Rome towards the end of 1106. The Easter week which Daniel passed at Jerusalem must therefore have been that of 1107, and his pilgrimage was probably made during the years 1106-1107 A.D.

The wide field which Daniel's narrative covers–wider than that of any previous pilgrim–its fullness of detail, the light that it throws on the condition of the country a few years after its conquest by the Crusaders, and the evident good faith in which it is written, give it an importance and value that have not, hitherto, been sufficiently recognized. Daniel travelled extensively in Palestine west of Jordan; he visited most of the sanctuaries, holy places, and monasteries, and, having provided himself everywhere with the best guides, he wrote down a minute description

ix INTRODUCTION.

of all that he saw. According to his own account (p. 73) he described nothing that he did not see with his own eyes, and this is supported by the internal evidence of the narrative, for when he cannot visit a place, he frankly admits that he is dependent upon others for his information. Incidentally the Russian Abbot throws some curious light on the unsettled state of the country, and the dangers to which travellers were exposed, on the roads, in the earlier years of the Latin 'kingdom.' At Lydda, on the high road from Joppa to Jerusalem, pilgrims pass the night in great fear of raiding Saracens from Ascalon; brigands frequent the road from Jerusalem to Jericho; on the forest-clad hills near Solomon's Pools, Saracen bands from Ascalon lie in wait for those journeying from Bethlehem to Hebron; the mountains south-east of Bethlehem are so full of brigands that Daniel and his companions have to travel under the protection of a Saracen chief. No one can proceed from Jerusalem to the Sea of Galilee without an armed escort; the Saracens of Beisan attack travellers as they ford the streams; impious Saracens massacre Christians going from Mount Tabor to Nazareth; and Lebanon cannot be visited on account of the infidels. We learn, too, that panthers and wild asses still found a home in the Wilderness of Judæa; and that lions in large numbers frequented the jungle in the Jordan Valley; whilst the date-palm, which has since disappeared, flourished in the semi-tropical climate of Jericho and Beisan.

Daniel's narrative derives additional interest from the fact that the writer was not only a member of the Russian (Greek) Church, but the abbot of a monastery, and, presumably, a man of some education and intelligence. It is written in a devout, believing spirit, such as might be expected in a Greek priest, and shows no trace of hostility towards the dominant Latin religion. Daniel was accompanied throughout his pilgrimage by a monk of the Greek Laura of St. Sabbas, ‘a very pious man of advanced age,

x INTRODUCTION.

who was well-versed in the Scriptures;' and he was a welcome guest at the numerous Greek monasteries throughout the country. His traditions are those of the Eastern Native Church, referred to by Sæwulf and others as Assyrian or Syrian traditions; he is evidently well acquainted with the Apocryphal Gospels in their Greek forms, and he quotes from the Protevangelium whence several of the traditions are derived. The relations between the Greek and the Latin Churches in Palestine appear to have been most friendly at this period, and the deference paid by the King of Jerusalem to the Greek clergy and the monks of St. Sabbas is specially noteworthy. The Greeks have charge of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and keep the keys of the door of the sepulchre; and during the Easter ceremonies the Greek lamps are placed on the tomb itself, whilst those of the Latins are suspended above it. The description of the descent of the Holy Light, or Fire, agrees in all essential particulars with that of Fulcher de Chartres (1101 A.D.), who was present on the memorable occasion when the Holy Fire did not kindle the lamps till Easter Sunday. Both writers describe the flame as being of a ruddy colour, and mention that all present joined in the Greek cry, 'Kyrie Eleison.' Daniel says that the Greeks and Latins read the service for Easter Saturday together; Fulcher, that the Franks first read each lesson in Latin, and that the Greeks then read the same lesson in Greek. In the Frank account of the ceremony the patriarch is said to have opened the door of the tomb; in the Russian, one of the Latin bishops; a difference explained by the absence of the Latin patriarch at the time of Daniel's visit.

Daniel is on the whole fairly accurate, but he occasionally falls into error, and some of his blunders betray an ignorance of Scripture not very creditable to himself or to his guide, the learned monk of St. Sabbas. Geographical errors, such as the location of Capernaum on the sea coast near

xi INTRODUCTION.

Carmel, the identification of Lydda with Ramleh, of Cæsarea Philippi with Kaisaríyeh (Cæsarea Palæstina) of Samaria with Náblus, and of Bashan with Beisan; and the statement that Decapolis was a town, may be set down to the general ignorance of the period. There are other blunders, however, for which far less excuse can be made; such, for instance, as the quaint account of the battle near Jericho, during which the sun stood still whilst Joshua conquered Og, King of Bashan; the statement with regard to events said to have taken place at Beisán (p. 60), and the manner in which Mark i. 16-18 is mixed up with i. 19, 20 (p. 64). Little dependence can be placed on the distances and dimensions given in the text; the old Roman itineraries had fallen into disuse, and the former are only approximate, whilst the latter are in most cases erroneous either from corruption of the text or from having been hastily written down from imperfect information. In giving the direction of a place, Daniel usually refers to the position of the sun at the winter or summer solstice, which seems almost like a reminiscence of the remote days, when pointer stones were set up to mark the sun's furthest deviation north and south, and general rejoicing announced the day when the point of sunrise commenced to return northwards.

Daniel commences his itinerary at Constantinople, whence he went by sea to Jaffa, visiting on the way Ephesus, Cyprus, and several other places. His voyage appears to have been uneventful; he carefully particularizes the localities where various saints and holy men were buried; mentions the ' holy dust' that rises each year from St. John's tomb, and the cross suspended in mid-air above Mount Troodos in Cyprus; and describes the way in which storax is collected on the mountains of Lycia. From Jaffa he travelled by Lydda, which he found deserted; and Nebi Samwíl, identified with Armathem (Ramathaim Zophim), to Jerusalem. On the brow of Mount Scopes, in full view of the Holy City, he dismounted to pray, and then, full of

xii INTRODUCTION.

exceeding joy, proceeded on foot past the church and tomb of St. Stephen to the present Jaffa gate, where, under the shadow of the citadel, all travellers entered Jerusalem during the rule of the Franks.

The Abbot took up his abode in the Metochia, or 'Pilgrim House' of St. Sabbas, near the Tower of David, which was then occupied by Greek monks who had escaped from a recent massacre at the better known Laura of St. Sabbas, now Mar Saba. Under the guidance of a monk of the Laura he visited the holy places, and his description of their condition before the Franks carried out any extensive building operations is of much interest. His narrative is fuller than that of Sæwulf, who visited Jerusalem four or five years before him, and he mentions several minor 'holy places,' such as the 'Pit of Jeremiah,' the 'House of Uriah,' and the compounds of Judas and Paul, which are not noticed by the Anglo-Saxon pilgrim. The description of the Church of the Resurrection, the Holy Sepulchre, and the group of holy places round it, is discussed in Appendix II.; that of the Church of the Holy of Holies, now the 'Dome of the Rock,' is chiefly noteworthy for the statement that the building was the work of a Saracen chief named Amor, evidently a corruption of the name of Omar, the conqueror of Jerusalem. The legends gathered round the tomb of the Virgin in the Cedron Valley, and the church on Mount Sion, which was supposed to be the house of St. John the Evangelist, are detailed at some length, and they afford an interesting illustration of the class of information given, by the Jerusalem guides of the early part of the twelfth century, to pilgrims who belonged to the Eastern Church.

From Jerusalem Daniel made two excursions: the first to the Jordan and Dead Sea, during which he visited Jericho, and the Greek monasteries in the Jordan Valley and in the Wilderness of Judæa; the second to Bethlehem, Hebron, where the Crusaders had not yet built their

 xiii INTRODUCTION.

church, and the monastery of St. Chariton. After returning to Jerusalem¹ from Hebron he obtained permission from Baldwin to accompany the force which was about to march against Damascus under the leadership of the king himself. The route followed by the troops seems to have been by Bíreh, Lubbán, Náblus, and Teíasír to Beisán, where some of the events connected with our Lord's life, including the healing of the two blind men, are localized. From Beisán the army marched to two bridges near the sources of the Jordan, which, according to Daniel, were two streams, called Jor and Dan, that flowed from the Sea of Tiberias. The bridges appear to have been that close to the point at which the Jordan now leaves the lake, of which traces can still be seen, and that known as the Jisr es Siad, now in ruins, a little below the junction of the two streams, 'Jor and Dan,' which then ran out of the lake and made an island of Kerak. The only other known site of a bridge is that of the Jisr Mujámi'a a short distance lower down the river; but in that case we should have to suppose that the Jordan and the Yarmuk were the two streams mentioned. When Baldwin crossed the Jordan, Daniel went on to Tiberias, and spent ten days in visiting the holy places on the borders of the Sea of Galilee; he does not appear to have been able to leave the immediate vicinity of the lake, and was only able to see the environs of the Baheiret el Húleh, which he identifies with the Lake of Gennesareth, from a distance. According to the Russian abbot the Jordan commences at its exit from the Sea of Tiberias, and he notices that portion of it above the lake merely as a large river flowing out of the Lake of Gennesareth. From Tiberias, Daniel went to Mount Tabor, where he heard the curious legends connected with the cave of Melchisidek; Nazareth, where the

xiv INTRODUCTION.

Latins had already firmly established themselves; Cana of Galilee, and Acre. After resting four days at the last place, he journeyed southwards by Haifa and Kaisaríyeh to Náblus; and so on by Bethel to Jerusalem.

After witnessing the ceremony of the descent of the 'Holy Light,' in the Church of the Resurrection, on Easter Saturday, 1107 A.D., the Russian pilgrim commenced his homeward journey. He travelled by the Convent of the Cross; ‘Ain Kárim, the home of Zacharias and the birthplace of John the Baptist; and 'Amwás, which had been laid waste by the infidels, to Jaffa; and thence by Arsúf, Kaisaríyeh, Haifa, Tyre, and Sidon, to Beirút. Whether he embarked at Beirút or at Suédiah, the port of Antioch, is uncertain; but in either case he followed the coast pretty closely, and after having been robbed by pirates, off the Lycian coast, near Patara, eventually reached Constantinople in safety.

The most recent editions of Daniel's narrative are:

1. A French translation, by M. de Norov, from a Russian text established by the same M. de Norov, and published in 1864.¹

2. A Greek translation, by the Monk Epiphanius, published at St. Petersburg in 1867.

3. A German translation, by Herr Leskien, published in 1884.²

4. A new edition of the Russian text, published by the Russian Palestine Society, and edited by M. A. Venevitinov from a MS. of 1496,³ with which twelve of the most complete MSS. have been compared.

5. A French translation of the text established by M. A. Venevitinov, made by Madame Sophie de Khitrowo for the Société de l'Orient latin.

¹ Pélerinage en Terre Sainte de l'Igouméne Russe Daniel au commencement du xii^me. siécle. Traduit par A. de Noroff, St. Pétersbourg, 1884. The Russian text with the French translation.