Have you ever visited the Holy Land? If so perhaps you, like so many others, count it among the greatest experiences of your life. Believers have been going there to retrace the steps of Jesus for a long time. Now over two million people travel to the Holy Land every year to visit places important in Bible history.

Most of us would feel privileged if we could get a week or two in the Biblical locations. Imagine what it would be like if you could take three years tracing your Christian and Biblical roots. That is exactly what a mysterious lady did long ago (381 -384) and she was wise enough to keep a diary of her travels. And she would be happy to know that we are reading her notes, especially since they were lost for hundreds of years.

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Meet Egeria (a.k.a. Etheria)
The lady who left us the narrative of her pilgrimage was named Egeria, and her journey took place around the end of the fourth century. A native of Spain, Egeria spent three years traveling to Egypt, Israel and Syria, and she wrote an account of her travels for her sisters back home. In 1884 a partial manuscript of her narrative was found in the library of the Brotherhood of St. Mary in Arezzo, Italy. The eleventh century manuscript had been copied by monks at the monastery of Monte Cassino.

Who Was This Lady?
Since her travel narrative tells little about herself, exactly who Egeria was is not clear, but she must have been a lady of spunk and adventure to even make such a trip. Much of her time would have been spent in travel to and from the East. Once in Constantinople, it would have taken her eight more weeks to reach Jerusalem, traveling 21 miles a day over 1200 miles. Egeria also must have been a lady of some leisure and wealth to have spent three years traveling in the East. She may have been a nun and wrote her narrative for her fellow-nuns back in Spain. Possibly she had some connections with the imperial court at Constantinople. Emperor Theodosius the Great was from Spain. Though no mention is made of Egeria in the surviving court records, the very fact that she arrived in Constantinople about the same time as the Spanish Theodosius suggests some connection. Theodosius' wife Aelia Flacilla and his niece Serena were staunch Christians and implacable foes of paganism. What relationship, if any, Egeria might have had with these devout ladies is unknown.

Studying Scripture on Location
The surviving manuscripts do not have the beginning of Egeria's account. What we do have begins at Mt. Sinai, where Egeria went to see all she could that might relate to the Exodus. Everywhere she went Egeria found guides, monks, and religious leaders who would show her the sites, then she would read the Scriptures focusing on where she was and the Biblical significance of the place. Implicit in all her pilgrimage was a desire to deepen her understanding of the Scriptures by seeing the very places where Biblical events occurred. Her description of the places visited is always subordinate to the truth of Scripture itself. At Sinai she climbed to the top of the mountain where the Glory of God had shown. Resident monks showed her where it was thought the golden calf had stood as well as the burning bush, whose roots were still well established!