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Rangar Cline Water and Proof in Early Christian Pilgrimage Narratives Susan Weingarten, in a study of the Bordeaux Pilgrim, noted texts’ use of water as evidence of authenticity. The narrative the signifcant number of springs and wells that the pilgrim sections of the Bordeaux Pilgrim’s account of his journey discusses. She counted ffteen mentions of water sources in begin and end with water – starting with Cornelius the cen- the brief narrative section (ca. 130 lines) 1. She noted that turion’s bath at Caesarea and concluding with the baptismal water sources would have been of importance to any trave- spring at Bethsur and the well at Terebinthus 2. The shift in ler in the region and that the Roman world contained many genre from bare-bones itinerary to more detailed description healing springs and other water sources credited with magical is signaled a Caesarea with the note, »At Caesarea is the bath and fertilizing powers, suggesting that the Bordeaux Pilgrim’s [balneus] of Cornelius the Centurion« 3 and a line later, »At preoccupation with water should be seen in that context. I’d the third milestone [from Caesarea] is Mt. Syna, where there like to push Weingarten’s point a bit further on the function is a spring [fons], in which a woman who washes becomes of springs and water sources in the Bordeaux Pilgrim and pregnant« 4. Thus, his description of Palestine begins with suggest that water sources in his narrative, and likely in his the remains of a bath, perhaps understood to be the loca- actual experience of the Holy Land, served to authenticate tion of Cornelius’ baptism, a potentially still-functional water the sites he visited. Further, the Bordeaux Pilgrim is not the feature that reportedly dated to a time some three hundred only Christian traveler to appeal to springs and water as years prior to the pilgrim’s visit. The narrative and the pilgrim empirical demonstrations of the veracity of traditions that continue with the miraculous power of a natural spring at situate past epiphanies and sacred stories at specifc places. Syna, ancient Shuni, a Roman healing sanctuary 5 . The latter Egeria’s guides in the 380s showed her several springs that appears not to have been a distinctively Christian site, and were intended to validate the siting of biblical stories and the pilgrim does not connect it to any biblical story. The saintly legends – and to demonstrate continuing divine pres- miraculous power of the spring is not disputed. It is merely ence at those sites, as the title of this paper suggests. The described, perhaps to reveal the miraculously potent nature Piacenza Pilgrim’s account (ca. 560-570) likewise discusses of the land itself. water sources as signifers of authenticity, and his descriptions The spring at Syna appears to be the sole references to the suggest an evolution in the presentation of water features as miraculous power of a spring at a non-Christian site in the proofs of epiphany. Specifcally, he refers to numerous springs Bordeaux Pilgrim, although he does mention locations associ- that were understood to demonstrate the accuracy of sixth ated with Greek and Roman myth and history at other points century placements of miraculous stories from the Bible, but in his narrative 6 . More typical of the Bordeaux Pilgrim are those proofs sometimes function alongside relics in a mutually descriptions of springs directly associated with biblical stories affrming dialectic of authenticity. and epiphanies that continued to exist in his day. For example, approximately fve days journey from Caesarea and Mt. Syna, a mile from Neapolis and Shechem, the Pilgrim comes to Springs and Alterations of the Natural Land- »Sychar, the place where the Samaritan woman came down – scape in the Bordeaux Pilgrim where Jacob dug the well – in order to draw water, and our Lord Jesus Christ spoke with her. There are plane trees there, Let’s begin with our earliest account, that of the pilgrim from planted by Jacob, and a baptistery [balneus] which is flled Bordeaux, and I should note that my discussion of water in from the well« 7 . Unlike Egeria, the Bordeaux Pilgrim does these sources is not exhaustive. Rather, I’ve tried to choose a not quote scripture, discuss Bible readings, or state that he few from each source that are particularly illustrative of the prayed. The important part appears to be that this was the 1 Weingarten, Pilgrim 292. 6 For example, the pilgrim notes Viminatium where Diocletian killed Carinus 2 On the form and genre of the Bordeaux Pilgrim’s account Elsner, Itinerarium. (564,9), Hannibal’s burial place at Libyssa (572,4), and Apollonius’ birthplace at 3 Bordeaux Pilgrim 585,5 [Caesarea] Ibi est balneus Cornelii centurionis. – Transla- Tyana (578,1). tions my own unless otherwise stated. 7 Bordeaux Pilgrim 588,3-5 Sechar, unde descendit mulier Samaritana ad eundem 4 Bordeaux Pilgrim 585,6-586,2 Inde est tertio miliario mons Syna, ubi fons est, in locum, ubi Iacob puteum fodit, ut de eo aquam impleret, et Dominus noster Iesus quem mulier est laverit, gravida ft. Christus cum ea locutus est: ubi sunt et arbores platani, quas plantanavit Iacob, 5 Shenhav, Shuni. et balneus, qui de eo puteo lavatur. Water and Proof in Early Christian Pilgrimage Narratives | Rangar Cline 121 place where Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well. The impressive cisterns suggests a parallel to Solomon’s cisterns, well is not only there, it still fows and water from it goes to a which the Pilgrim observed at the place where the Temple baptistery. The well of Jacob is not defunct, of course. It lives once stood 12. Constantine thus becomes a new Solomon, and now serves the purpose of Christian baptism. endowing his new temple with remarkable cisterns, as did Upon arriving in Jerusalem, the frst details noted by the God’s original temple builder 1 3 . Bordeaux Pilgrim are water features. »There are in Jerusalem The fnal passages of the Bordeaux Pilgrim’s account re- two large pools [piscinae magnae duae] beside the Temple ... ports two more sources of water: the spring where Philip which Solomon built; indeed, further inside the city are the baptized the eunuch at Bethsur and Abraham’s well at Ter- twin pools which have fve porches, which are called Beth- ebinthus, i. e. Mamre. Concerning Terebinthus, the Pilgrim saida, where those sick for many years used to be healed. reports the tradition from Genesis 18 that Abraham ate with Moreover, these pools have water that is turbulent and scar- the angels beneath the tree. The well of Abraham referred to let in appearance« 8 . Although there appears to be nothing in the pilgrim’s account does not appear in the Genesis story, left of Solomon’s temple to comment upon, the pools and but it is reported in other sources from the period, depicted water storage demonstrate the truth of stories about the on pilgrimage objects, and appears on depictions of the scene builder-king. The pools’ continued existence validates stories as far away as San Vitale in Ravenna 14. Indeed, according to about the past – specifcally Solomon’s building of the Tem- other sources, Mamre was the site of a signifcant regional ple. The pools at Bethsaida are of course those from John and interreligious festival in the early fourth century, part 5,1-8, but the Pilgrim does not mention that story specifcally. of which focused on Abraham’s well 1 5 . The importance of He mentions that people »were healed there« (sanabantur) the well is also suggested by excavations at Mamre which with the imperfect tense suggesting that they no longer are. discovered the well in the courtyard of the church along with Indeed, his description of the red color of the water suggests lamps and coins left there by visitors – dating from the fourth that the pool may have been put to other uses by the fourth through sixth centuries 1 6 . The Bordeaux Pilgrim does not century 9. Certainly, the Bethesda Pools seem no longer to report any religious rituals at Bethsur or Mamre, although he have been places of healing when the Piacenza Pilgrim visited mentions Constantine’s basilica at the latter. For the Bordeaux around 570, noting that »the pool [of Bethesda] itself has Pilgrim, the water sources serve to confrm the locations of become ruined with waste and here there they wash all that biblical events. He concludes by describing the tombs of the is necessary in the city« 1 0 . The pools are there as evidence to patriarchs at Hebron, the location of which is »two miles past epiphanies, such as Jesus’ healing of the lame man, but from [Terebinth]« and the authenticity of which is confrmed the time of the miracle working power of the pools, and the by the Hebron tombs themselves and the well at Abraham’s angel that later versions of John 5 say stirred the waters, has home at Mamre. passed. The centrality of water sources, wells, and cisterns is also apparent in the Bordeaux Pilgrim’s description of Golgotha Water in Egeria’s Account and the Holy Sepulcher. After briefy mentioning the exis- tence of Golgotha, »where the Lord was crucifed« and that Although references to wells and springs are proportionally the crypt »where his body was laid« is about a stone’s throw fewer in Egeria’s text as compared to the Bordeaux Pilgrim, away from it, he mentions that Constantine has ordered they still fgure prominently. By my count, there are seven a »basilica« to be built. The Pilgrim assists his reader and references in the surviving text of Egeria, which describes defnes »basilica« as »the Lord’s place«, but the only specifc her travels in Sinai, Transjordan, Syria, northern Mesopo- architectural detail that the he offers about Constantine’s tamia, Asia Minor and Constantinople.

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