In early Chistian history, Egeria, also known as Aetheria, is the name of a nun who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land about 381 - 384, taking about four years to do it, and who wrote a long letter to her beloved community of nuns at home (somewhere not far from the Rhone) describing her travels. The middle part of Egeria's writing survived and was copied in the Codex Aretinus, which was written at Monte Cassino in the eleventh century, while the beginning and end are lost. But in the 7th century a monk named Valerius wrote a praise about Egeria that gives us a sketch of the rest. Egeria wrote down her observations in a book called Itinerarium Egeriae, or the Travels. This Codex Aretinus was discovered in 1884 by the Italian scholar Gian-Francesco Gamurrini, who found the manuscript in a monastic library in Arezzo. Egeria describes the monks, many holy places and geographical points in her travels and even the early details of the liturgical practices of the church at Jerusalem.

The manuscript has been translated several times, but the best for the average reader is John Wilkinson, Egeria's Travels: newly translated, 1999 with supporting documents and notes.

External link

• Introduction to Egeria and further links to e-texts and commentaries
• Excerpts from the Peregrinatio Ætheriae (Latin)