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Pilgrimage of Etheria

Egeria, tr. McClure and Feltoe, 1919

20. Charræ (Haran)

Then, after three days spent there, it was necessary for me to go still farther, to Charræ, as it is now called. In holy Scripture it is called Charran,¹ where holy Abraham dwelt, as it is written in Genesis when the Lord said unto Abram: Get thee out of thy country, and from thy father’s house, and go to Charran and the rest.² And when I arrived at Charræ I went straightway to the church which is within the city, and soon I saw the bishop of the place, a truly holy man of God, both monk and confessor, who deigned to show us all the places there that we desired. He took us at once to the church, which is without the city on the spot where stood the house of holy Abraham; it stands on the same foundations, and it is made of the same stone, as the holy bishop said. When we had come to the church, prayer was made, the passage from Genesis was read, one psalm was said, and after a second prayer the bishop blessed us and we came out. Then he deigned to take us to the well whence holy Rebecca used to fetch water,³ and the holy bishop said to us: “Behold the well whence holy Rebecca watered the camels of holy Abraham’s servant Eleazar”; thus he deigned to show us each thing. Now at the church, which is outside the city, as I said, ladies, reverend sisters, where Abraham’s house was originally, there is now the martyr-memorial of a certain holy monk named Helpidius. It happened very pleasantly for us that we arrived on the day before the martyr’s feast of saint Helpidius, which is on the twenty-third of April.⁴ On that day it was of obligation that all the monks from all parts and from all the borders of Mesopotamia should come down to Charrae, even the greater ones who dwelt in solitude, whom they call ascetics. For this day is observed with great dignity there on account of the memorial of holy Abraham, whose house stood where the church now is, in which the body of the holy martyr is laid. So it happened to us very pleasantly beyond our expectations that we should see these holy monks of Mesopotamia, truly men of God, as well as those whose good report and manner of life had reached men’s ears far and wide, whom I thought that I could not by any means see, not because it was impossible for God to give me this, Who had deigned to give me all things, but because I had heard that they never come down from their dwellings except on Easter Day and on this day. For they are men who do many wonders, and, moreover, I did not know in what month was the day of the martyr’s feast which I have mentioned; but at God’s bidding it came about that I arrived on the day that I had not hoped for. We stayed there two days, for the memorial day and for the sake of seeing those holy men, who deigned to receive me very willingly for the sake of salutation, and to speak with me, of which I was not worthy. Nor were they seen there after the memorial day, for they sought the desert without delay in the night, each one returning to his own cell. In that city I found scarcely a single Christian excepting a few clergy and holy monks — if any such dwell in the city; all are heathen. And in like manner, as we gazed with great reverence at the place where the house of holy Abraham was at first for the sake of his memorial, so do those heathen gaze with great reverence at a place about a mile from the city, where are the memorials of Nahor and Bethuel. And since the bishop of that city is very learned in the Scriptures, I asked him, saying: “I beg of you, my lord, to tell me that which I desire to hear.” And he said: “Tell me, daughter, what you wish, and I will tell it you, if I know it.” Then I said: “I know by the Scriptures⁵ that holy Abraham came to this place with his father Terah and with Sarah his wife, and with Lot his brother’s son, but I have not read when Nahor and Bethuel came here; I know only that afterwards Abraham’s servant came to Charrae that he might seek Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, for Isaac the son of his master Abraham.”⁶ Then the holy bishop said to me: “Truly, daughter, it is written as you say, in Genesis, that holy Abraham came here with his relatives, but canonical Scripture does not say when Nahor and his relatives and Bethuel came here, but it is plain that they did come here afterwards, since their memorials are here at about a mile from the city. The Scripture does indeed relate⁷ how holy Abraham’s servant came here to take holy Rebecca, and how holy Jacob came here when he took to himself the daughters of Laban the Syrian.” Then I asked where was the well where holy Jacob watered the flocks which Rachel, the daughter of Laban the Syrian, was feeding. The bishop said to me: “The place is six miles hence, near the village which then was the farm of Laban the Syrian, and if you wish to go there, we will go with you and show it to you; there are also many very holy monks and ascetics, and a holy church.” I also asked the holy bishop where was that place of the Chaldees where Terah lived at first with his family,⁸ and the holy bishop said to me: “The place, daughter, of which you ask, is at the tenth station hence, as you go into Persia. There are five stations from here to Nisibis, and five stations thence to Hur,⁹ which was a city of the Chaldees, but there is now no access for Romans, for the Persians hold the whole country.¹⁰ This district is specially called the Eastern; it is on the borders of the Romans, the Persians and the Chaldees.” And many other things he deigned to tell me, as did also the other holy bishops and holy monks, but all they told us was from the Scriptures of God or of the acts of holy men, that is of monks, either the wonderful things that those already departed had done, or what those who are still in the body do daily, at any rate those who are ascetics. For I would not that your affection should think that the monks ever told me any other stories except from the Scriptures of God or else those of the acts of the greater monks.

Rachel’s Well. The Return to Antioch

Now after two days which I spent there, the bishop took us to the well where holy Jacob had watered holy Rachel’s flocks;¹¹ the well is six miles from Charrae, and in its honour a very great and beautiful holy church has been built hard by. When we had come to the well, prayer was made by the bishop, the passage from Genesis was read, one psalm suitable to the place was said and, after a second prayer, the bishop blessed us. We saw also, lying on a spot near the well, that very great stone which holy Jacob had moved away from the well, and which is shown to-day. No one dwells there around the well, except the clergy of the church which is there and the monks who have their cells near at hand, whose truly unheard-of mode of life the bishop described to us. Then, after prayer had been made in the church, I visited, in company with the bishop, the holy monks in their cells, giving thanks both to God and to them, who deigned with willing mind to receive me in their cells wherever I entered, and to address me in such words as were fitting to proceed out of their mouth. They deigned also to give me and all who were with me eulogiae,¹² such as is the custom for monks to give those whom they receive with willing mind into their cells.

And the place being in a large plain, a great village over against us was pointed out to me by the holy bishop, about five hundred paces from the well, through which village our route lay. This village, as the bishop said, was once the farm of Laban the Syrian, and is called Fadana;¹³ in the village the memorial of Laban the Syrian, Jacob’s father-in-law, was shown to me; the place was also shown to me where Rachel stole her father’s images.¹⁴ So, having seen everything in the Name of God, and bidding farewell to the holy bishop and the holy monks who had deigned to conduct us to the place, we returned by the route and by the stations through which we had come from Antioch.

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