British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 885

CHAPTER XXII.

on Constantine's initiative, St. Helena ordered the building of another basilica over the Grotto at Bethlehem where Our Lord was born, and a third on the Mount of Olives above the Grotto hallowed in Christian tradition as the place to• which Our Lord was accustomed to withdraw with His Apostles and instruct them in the Faith. All three basilicas bad been practically completed when the Pilgrim of Bordeaux visited Palestine in A.D. 333. The Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre was dedicated with great solemnity in the presence of over three hundred bishops in September, 335.

16. These great works marked the beginning of the distinguished era of Byzantine art and achitecture in Palestine which continued uninterrupted under Constantine's successors (save under Julian the Apostate A.D. 337-363) until shortly before the Arab conquest of Jerusalem in A.D. 638. A few of the more important churches which were built in the course of these three centuries will be mentioned later in this memorandum. Tbere is only space to mention here the Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives which was completed at a date prior to A.D. 378 and the Church of the Agony in Gethsemane which was built during the reign of Theodosius (A.D. 379-395). In the meantime it is time to turn to more general considerations.

17. It is obvious that with the fresh impetus given to religious life in Palestine by the events described in the preceding paragraphs, the Holy Land would attract ever more and more pilgims from the outside world. Mention has been made above of the visits of earlier pilgrims : from now onwards the number of pilgrims steadily increased. Many of them have left records of their visits and impressions, and from about the beginning of the fourth century a large and important collection is available. An excellent and well documented selection of these records has been recently published by Father Baldi, O.F.M. under the title "Encheiridion Locorum Sanctorum" : "Handbook of the Holy Places". For the immediate purpose of this memorandum it will be of interest to examine very briefly a section of an account entitled "Peregrinatio ad Loca Sancta" : "Pilgrimage to the Holy Places" written by the Spanish abbess Aetheria who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land about A.D. 385. She visited Jerusalem during Holy Week and Easter of that year, and has left a description of the highest interest and importance of the Christian religious services which she attended and the churches where the services were held, as well as of the communities taking part therein. The services were conducted throughout in Greek "quia necesse est Graece legi" : "because it is necessary that

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