Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 1.: The Exploration of the WorldVerne, Jules
History
Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 1.: The Exploration of the World
Verne, Jules
Discoveries in geography; Explorers; Voyages and travels
Christians martyred in the time of the Emperor Decius.
They made some stay at Patara and at Mitylene, and then went to
Cyprus and Paphos; we next find the party, seven in number, at
Edessa, visiting the tomb of St. Thomas the Apostle. Here they were
arrested as spies, and thrown into prison by the Saracens, but the
king, on the petition of a Spaniard, set them at liberty. As soon as
they were set free they left the town in great haste, and from that
time their route is almost the same as that of the Bishop Arculphe;
they visited Damascus, Nazareth, Cana, where they saw a wonderful
amphora on Mount Tabor, where our Lord was transfigured, and the
Lake of Tiberias, where St. Peter walked upon the water; Magdala,
where Lazarus and his sister dwelt; Capernaum, where our Lord raised
to life the son of the nobleman; Bethsaida in Galilee, the native
place of St. Peter and St. Andrew; Chorazin, where our Lord cured
those possessed with devils; Caesarea, and the spot where our Lord
was baptized, as well as Jericho and Jerusalem.
They also went to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the Mount of Olives,
and to Bethlehem, the scene of the murder of the Innocents by Herod,
and Gaza. While they were at Gaza, Willibald tells us that he
suddenly became blind, while he was in the church of St. Matthias,
and only recovered his sight two months afterwards, as he entered
the church of the Holy Cross at Jerusalem. He went through the
valley of Diospolis or Lydda, ten miles from Jerusalem, and then
went to Tyre and Sidon, and thence, by Libanus, Damascus, Caesarea,
and Emmaus, back to Jerusalem, where the travellers spent the winter.
This was not to be the limit of their exploration, for we hear of
them at Ptolemais, Emesa, Jerusalem, Damascus, and Samaria, where St.
John the Baptist is said to have been buried, and at Tyre, where it
must be confessed that Willibald defrauded the revenue of that time
by smuggling some balsam that was very celebrated, and on which a
duty was levied. On quitting Tyre they went to Constantinople and
lived there for two years before returning by Sicily, Calabria,
Naples, and Capua. The English pilgrim reached the monastery of
Monte Cassino, just ten years after his first setting out on his
travels; but his time of rest had not yet come, as he was appointed
to a bishopric in Franconia by Pope Gregory III. He was forty-one
years of age when he was made bishop, and he lived forty years
afterwards. In 938 he was canonized by Leo VII.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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