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E00411: The Piacenza Pilgrim mentions the tomb of *Leontios (martyr of Tripolis, S00216), in the record of his visit to Tripolis (Phoenicia) during his journey to the Holy Land. Account of an anonymous pilgrim, written in Latin, probably in Placentia (northern Italy), c. 570.

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posted on 2015-04-22, 00:00 authored by robert
Pilgrim of Piacenza, Itinerarium 1

First recension
Venimus in partes Syriae in insula Antharidus et inde uenimus in Tripoli Syriae, in qua sanctus Leontius requiescit; quae ciuitas tempore Iustiniani imperatoris subuersa est a terrae motu cum aliis ciuitatibus.

'We came to the land of Syria at the island of Anataradus, and came from there to Tripolis in Syria, the resting-place of saint Leontius. This and other cities were destroyed in the reign of the emperor Justinian by an earthquake.'


Second recension
Et inde uenimus in partibus Syriae, ubi requiescit sanctus Leontius, quae ciuitas tempore Iustiniani imperatoris subuersa est a terrae motu cum aliis ciuitatibus.

'We came to the land of Syria where is the resting-place of saint Leontius. This and other cities were destroyed in the reign of the emperor Justinian by an earthquake.'


Text: Geyer 1898, 159 and 196. Translation: Wilkinson 2002, 129.

History

Evidence ID

E00411

Saint Name

Leontios, martyr in Tripolis (Syria), ob. c. 303-312 : S00216

Saint Name in Source

Leontius

Related Saint Records

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 Syria with Phoenicia Palestine with Sinai

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Piacenza

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

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

Major author/Major anonymous work

Pilgrim of Piacenza

Cult activities - Places

Burial site of a saint - unspecified

Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs

Pilgrimage

Cult Activities - Relics

Bodily relic - entire body

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.

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).

Usage metrics

    Evidence - The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity

    Categories

    Keywords

    S00216History

    Licence

    CC0

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