Jerusalem Explored, Volume 1—Text: Being a Description of the Ancient and Modern City, with Numerous Illustrations Consisting of Views, Ground Plans and SectionsPierotti, Ermete
History
Jerusalem Explored, Volume 1—Text: Being a Description of the Ancient and Modern City, with Numerous Illustrations Consisting of Views, Ground Plans and Sections
Pierotti, Ermete
Jerusalem -- Antiquities; Jerusalem -- Description and travel
The Greek pilgrims of high rank are conducted into apartments assigned
to them, where they are well lodged and nourished, according to their
importance and dignity. They are not asked for money, but are given to
understand the wants of the community, and the needs of the Church; so
that they pay liberally for the hospitality they have received, and for
the churches and Sanctuaries they have visited. The common pilgrims,
after reposing two days in the great convent of S. Constantine, are
presented to the Patriarch, who receives an offering from each, under
the name of a contribution to the wants of the churches and convents of
his diocese. They are then conducted into the Church of the
Resurrection, where they pass a night in prayer, and make other
offerings to the Guardian of the Sepulchre for the maintenance of the
Sanctuaries. On being brought back into the convent, a plentiful repast
is provided for them, and their names are enrolled for the pilgrimages
to the Jordan and Nazareth, for which they pay a tax. They are then
conducted to their lodgings, or rather dens, in one of the numerous
convents in Jerusalem. On taking possession of these, they pay a sum
proportionate to the expense of their pilgrimage, amounting only to
eight or ten shillings. They must, however, make a present in addition,
to the church of the place, to those who have brought them, to the
Superior who receives them, and to the laics who assist to instal them
in their new quarters. When they are settled, they are taken to visit
the Tomb of the Virgin and all the churches of the convents, where they
pay. They make pilgrimages to Bethlehem, and all the other remarkable
places. They buy relics, ask for prayers and blessings, but always pay;
so that after being entertained at their own expense for four or five
months, and after having expended their resources, many are obliged to
sell their baggage to return to their native lands, taking back with
them the articles they have acquired with so much toil, all of which
however have received a blessing. That they are crowded together, and
may be said to occupy dens rather than lodgings, appears from the fact,
that sometimes eight persons are quartered in a room 16 or 18 feet
square, who have not unfrequently met for the first time, and are from
different countries; so that the reader may easily conceive the
inconveniences they suffer, and the maladies that are caused by the
straitened accommodation, especially when the winter happens to be more
rainy than usual. Notwithstanding all the observations that have been
made on this barbarous manner of lodging, they are always tenacious of
their ancient customs; but as Russia now provides well for her own
pilgrims, it is to be hoped that the Greeks, having more space, will
find some better manner of accommodating theirs.
With the Armenians the pilgrims are better cared for in every respect;
but they have to pay for everything, as with the Greeks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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