The inclination to travel to places revered by saints can be said to lie in the religious nature of man. Travels to these places began not in Christian times, but much earlier. Until the time of Christ, the pagans went to worship those places where, in their opinion, the gods revealed their special presence and special power, beneficial to man. The Old Testament believers also had their holy places and undertook pious journeys to them.

The pagans generally preferred local shrines to the shrines of other countries and peoples; however, such pagans as the Greeks and Romans had several revered shrines, to which all of them, without distinction of country or nationality, paid general religious veneration. The most famous shrines of the Greeks and Romans were Delphi, Dodona, and the temple of Jupiter-Ammon. Delphi, in Phocis, where there was a temple of Apollo, enjoyed special fame. Delphi was revered as the center of the whole earth. Travelers from all countries and peoples flocked here. In order to be worthy of knowing the will of the god Apollo, through the priestess-Pythia, pilgrims had to enter the temple after performing the prescribed purification sacrifices, with music and in a solemn procession. The temple of Apollo was filled with various precious gifts brought here by kings, princes and rich private individuals. After that, Delphi attracted many of Dodon's travelers to Epirus. The local oracle was known for its antiquity. The main shrines of this place were a spring and a grove, to which miraculous actions were attributed. The temple in Dodona was magnificent and abounded in gifts brought by religious travelers. In ancient times, the temple of Ammon in Thebes, in Egypt, was also famous. The most famous traveler who visited this sacred place of the pagans was Alexander the Great, who came here to worship with his entire army. There were places that enjoyed special religious veneration of pagans outside Greece and the Roman Empire, for example, in Persia and India.

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* Augusti. Denkwurdigkeiten d. Christl. Archeologie. Bd. X. S. 91.

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Journeys to holy places are also found in the Old Testament Church. It is known that Abraham, the forefather of the Israelites, by God's command, goes with his son Isaac and two servants to sacrifice Isaac - there (to the land of Moriah), where God has indicated to him. Why does God command him to leave his home, make a three-day journey, and choose a special place for sacrifice? Is it not because travel for religious purposes is pleasing to Him, and that there are places in which His favor rests predominantly? Abraham unquestioningly makes a journey to a place that is especially pleasing in the eyes of the Lord (Gen. 22). A second example of the same kind is to be found in the history of the patriarch James. The place where he saw in a dream vision a ladder reaching to heaven, by which angels ascended and descended, he called "the house of God" and "the gates of heaven." Awakening from sleep, he makes the following vow: "If God be with me, and keep me in this way in which I am going, and give me bread and raiment, and I return in peace to my father's house, then this stone, which I have set up as a monument, shall be with me the house of God" (Gen. 28:20-22). Two sides draw our attention to this event. Firstly, Jacob decided to venerate this place as the most important shrine and, secondly, to testify to his veneration as it should in relation to the house of God, by appropriate worship, i.e. by sacrifice. James vows to visit the place where God's favor towards him has been revealed. And indeed, on his return, Jacob visited the place of the house of God and made a drink offering; but whether James visited this place afterwards, the Bible does not say. For the descendants of Jacob and for the prophets of Israel, Bethel always remained sacred. They traveled here, offered sacrifice to the Lord, and God showed His good pleasure to them (1 Sam. 10:3; 2 Kings 12 and 13; 2 Kings 2:23). James and his descendants provide examples of voluntary travel to places of special holiness. The prophets Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha not only approved of visits to Bethel, but also made sacrifices there. - Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy decreed that all male Israel should come three times a year to the place that God (Jerusalem) would choose, namely on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles (16:16). Such a place was Jerusalem, both before the temple of Jehovah was built in it, and after it was built in the capital of Judah. When Solomon built the temple, glorified by God himself, even such persons began to flow here from whom the law did not require it: what the male sex of the Israelites did according to duty, the female sex in Israel began to fulfill of their own free will. For example, it is known from the Gospel that Joseph the Betrothed and the Virgin Mary came to Jerusalem for the feast of Pascha. Jews and Gentiles converted to Judaism from distant lands flocked to Jerusalem for the feast; namely, the Parthians, the Medes, the Elamites, the Cappadocians, the inhabitants of Pontus, Asia, made religious journeys to Jerusalem*. Even pagans came here to worship on the feast (John 12:20). In general, journeys to the Holy Mount of Zion, to the Temple of Jerusalem with its greatest shrines, were a phenomenon that perhaps served as a model for Christian travelers to the Holy Trinity. The earth in antiquity, for in this land the Founder of a new religion suffered, died, and rose again. The Israelites traveled to Jerusalem not only at the request of the law, but also at their own will, as can be seen from the example of the Israelite women, and this circumstance brings the travels of Christians even closer to those in Judea, since Christians have previously made and now make a journey to the Holy Scriptures. The earth is drawn by the heart, not by prescription.

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* Binterim. Denkwiiidigkeiten d. Christ-katolishen Kirche. Bd. IV. Theil. 1. S. 611-614.

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Let's turn to the history of travels to St. The Earth in Christian times. We know very little about Christian travelers in St. John's Day. The earth in the first three centuries of the Church. Several reasons for this phenomenon can be indicated. First of all, there were not so many Christians in these centuries as in the following centuries: there were fewer Christians, and there were fewer travelers to the Holy Scriptures. Earth. Further, the persecution of the Christians of these centuries was a condition that did not predispose to travel: travel to holy places is a kind of self-denial; but self-denial was given many reasons for persecution, so that the feat of travel was less necessary than in quiet times. With the change of circumstances, especially much travel began in the fourth century: it was the time when peace was established in the Church with the accession of Constantine the Great; a quiet time gives more convenience and opportunity to undertake journeys than an anxious time, when pagan emperors reigned. Further, the places sanctified by the sufferings of Christ were deliberately desecrated by the pagans through the construction of pagan temples on them; in Jerusalem it was difficult to find what they came here for; the holy places were desecrated. Let us also add that many shrines, with which the memory of Christ's sufferings were connected, were hidden, under a bushel: the cross of Christ, the cave of His burial were not yet opened. All of this may explain why we know so little about travels to St. John's Cathedral. Earth for the first three centuries. However, bliss. Jerome, who lived in the fourth and fifth centuries, has left us clear evidence that the journeys to St. The earth began very early and took place all the time until the fourth century, when this podvig became commonplace. He says: "It would be long to count now how many evangelists there have been in all the time from the Ascension of the Lord to the present day, how many martyrs, how many men most skilful in church teaching have gone to Jerusalem. They all thought that there would be less religiosity in them, less knowledge, and that they would not attain the highest virtue if they did not worship Christ in those places where the First Gospel shone from the cross." True, we cannot confirm the truth of Jerome's words with numerous examples; but there is no reason to doubt that the travelers to St. They were found before the fourth century, although they may have been few: Jerome had a good knowledge of the history of the Christian East. The oldest testimony about travelers in St. We find the land in Eusebius. It tells of a journey here by a bishop from Cappadocia, in the second century. Here are the words of Eusebius: "Alexander received a revelation in one night. Following the divine command, he went from Cappadocia to Jerusalem to pray and visit the holy places, and was received by the brethren very friendly, so that they did not want to let him go home, referring equally to the revelation he had seen that very night." Alexander, bishop of Cappadocia, remained in Jerusalem, becoming co-ruler with the aged local bishop Narcissus (Church History. VI, 11). From the time of the third century, one can also point to a traveler who visited St. The earth, we mean the Alexandrian teacher Origen. Although Origen's arrival in Palestine had other motives than the desire to venerate the holy places (Eusebian Church History. VI, 19), but he does not lose sight of this purpose, and later he himself testified that he was in Jerusalem with the intention of beholding and reverently honoring the feet of the Saviour, His apostles and prophets (in the Commentary, on John Toth. 6. Sar. 24). Unfortunately, from the history of the Church up to the fourth century, it is only possible to point to these examples of travelers in the Holy Scriptures. Earth. The reason for this, in part, lies in the fact that ancient writers in their writings noted only those travelers who were famous in some way, were famous persons, and did not consider it their task to notice all travelers who are not known in history.

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* Creations of Bl. Jerome. T. I. P. 11. Kiev, 1879. We will quote the same edition below, namely volumes II and III (letters).  ** Augusti. Op. cit. S. 102.

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The fourth century of the Christian Church, on the contrary, presents numerous examples of journeys to the Holy Scriptures. Earth. How many of the most famous persons "with youthful speed," as Eusebius put it, rush to Jerusalem, how many glorious teachers of the Church hasten to this holy place, how many unknown simple believers flow to the same goal! At the head of all the famous travelers in St. The land was to be built by the mother of Constantine the Great, St. Helena. Eusebius says of her: "Acknowledging that it was her deed to repay God the debt of her pious disposition, and also intending to thank Him for her son-king and her grandsons, this old woman of extraordinary intellect hastened to the East with youthful rapidity, and with royal solicitude surveyed the wondrous land, cities and villages, in order to perform due worship of the feet of the Lord, and, according to the words of the prophet,  "to worship in the place where His nose stands" (Psalm 131:7)." His stay in Jerusalem and St. Helena marked the earth with the construction of various churches (which we will talk about below). The country, seeing the humiliation of the Saviour, made such an impression on the royal personage that with great humility she wanted to serve God where He had self-abasementd Himself. Helen, according to Eusebius, leaving all the ornaments proper to her dignity in the most modest clothes, so as not to be recognized, mingled with the mass of the people and distributed generous alms (Life of Const. III, 42, 45). And according to the historian Rufinus, Helen's humility extended even further. While in Jerusalem, she invited the virgins who lived there to her table, and she herself served them at the table as a simple slave (Hist. Eccles. Lib. I. Cap. 8). The example of the Empress, who made a trip to St. From that time on, travelers to St. The earth flows from different countries, from the most remote places, and often in large masses. The historian Sozomen testifies that especially many Christians flocked to Jerusalem in those days when the celebration of the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross was celebrated. From the time of the consecration of the temple, built under Constantine the Great on Golgotha, this feast was celebrated annually, was very solemn and lasted 8 days. "On the occasion of this celebration," the historian notes, "many people flock there to visit the holy places, from almost all the sunflowers" (II, 26). Blessed Jerome, who himself visited the holy places of Palestine in the second half of the fourth century and lived there for a long time, testifies that at that time a multitude of Christians began to flow to Palestine from various places. He writes: "The best Christians in the world come together here. Every one of the best men of Gaul is hurrying here. The remote Briton has just begun to succeed in religion, leaving the West for a place so famous from rumor and from biblical memories. And what about the Armenians, the Persians, the peoples of India and Ethiopia, the country near Egypt teeming with monks, Pontus, Cappadocia, Syria, and Mesopotamia? They, in the words of the Saviour: "For where there is a corpse, there shall the eagles be gathered" (Matt. 24:28), - flock to these places and present to us a spectacle of all kinds of virtues" (Works I, 11-12). St. At the end of the fourth century, St. John Chrysostom said in one of his church discourses: "Tell me, where is the tomb of Alexander (Alexander the Great)? Point out and tell me when he died? Even their own people do not know Alexander's sepulchre, but even barbarians know the sepulchre of Christ and the tombs of the servants of the Crucified One. These coffins are more brilliant than the royal palaces, not only in the size and beauty of the buildings, but, what is much more important, in the zeal of those who flock to them. In the intercession of the already deceased, both the skin-maker and the fisherman, the one who is clothed in the diadem has need"*.