Images: not available online; image here from Celi 1923:423, fig. 16; see also Bagatti, pl. XVI,1; Elsner 1997:121; Gibson 2004:85; Grabar 1958: pl. lvi; Vikan 2011:22, fig. 9.
Clavis number: ECMA 116
Other descriptors: none
Location: Museo dell’abbazia di San Colombano
Accession number: none
Category: pilgrimage tokens
Related literature: Life of John the Baptist by Serapion, Protevangelium of James.
Featured characters and locations: Elizabeth, John (the Baptist), ʻAyn Kārim.
1. DESCRIPTION
Material: terracotta
Size: 7 cm. diameter
Image: Mother and child flee toward rocky form at right; Roman soldier with sword pursues at right; above and between is an angel.
Inscription: ΕΥΛΟΓΙΑ ΚΝ ΑΠΟ ΤΗΣ ΚΑΤΑ [. . .] ΑΓΣ ΕΛΙΣΑΒΕΘ (ευλογια κυριον απο της κατα[φυγης της] αγιας ελισαβεθ); “Eulogia of the Lord from the [refuge] of Saint Elizabeth.”
Date: ca. 6th cent.
Provenance: discovered in 1910 in archaeological excavations in the Abbey of St. Columban, located in the town of Bobbio, in the province of Piacenza, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Various pilgrimage souvenirs were contained in a wooden box (now lost) sealed in the saint’s crypt shortly after the abbey’s construction in 614. The materials are now on display in the Abbey’s museum. Initial study, photograph, and description in Celi 1923:422–25. Brief inventories in Boccaccia 1994 and Tosi 1983. The “refuge” where the token was obtained is likely the pilgrimage site of Ein Karim, a valley 7.5 km west of Jerusalem but now a neighbourhood of Jerusalem (on the buildings on the site and the pilgrimage accounts see Baldi and Bagatti 1980:23–24). It contains the remains of several dwellings associated with John the Baptist: two churches of John the Baptist built over ancient remains, one with a cave said to be the site of his birth, the church of the visitation venerated as the stone in which John was concealed, and Mary’s spring, said to be where Mary and Elizabeth met, where even today pilgrims fill flasks with water. The village is mentioned in Joshua 15:60. The earliest mention of it as a pilgrimage site is by Theodosius in 530: “It is five miles from Jerusalem to the house of Elisabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. Elizabeth fled there with her child while Zachary was slain in the temple” (De situ terrae sanctae, lin. 35–36). The Grand Lectionary of the Church of Jerusalem (5th–8th cent.) makes the identification more explicit: “In the village of Encharim, in the church of Elizabeth the Just, her memory” (trans. Michel Tarchinischvili, Le Grand Lectionnaire de l’Église de Jérusalem (4 vols. CSCO 188–205; Leuven: Peeters, 1959–1960], 2:31). Later pilgrims also mention it, including the Russian Abbot Daniel (1106–1107), Phocas (1177), and Theoderich (1172).
2. RELATION TO APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE
The earliest mention of Elisabeth’s flight into the wilderness occurs in the Protevangelium of James (comp. ca. 150–200 CE):
But when Elizabeth heard that they were looking for John, she took him and went up into the hill-country and was searching for any place to hide him, but there was no hiding place. Then Elizabeth sighed deeply and said, “Mountain of God, take me in, a mother with her child.” For Elizabeth was not strong enough to climb the mountain because she was faint-hearted. And immediately the mountain split open and received her. And the mountain was shining a light on her because an angel of the Lord was with them, protecting them. (22:3; trans. Lily Vuong, The Protevangelium of James [Early Christian Apocrypha 7; Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2019]).
An explicit mention of the story in relation to Ein Karim is found in the Life of John the Baptist (comp. ante 14th cent.):
Elizabeth feared that her son might be killed as well, so she took him and went to see Zechariah in the temple and she said to him, “My lord, come, let us go with our son John to some other land, lest Herod the unbeliever kills him because of Jesus the Messiah. Mary and Joseph already left for Egypt. Come, before they kill our son John and turn our joy into grief.” Zechariah answered, “I cannot leave the service of the temple of the Lord and go to a foreign country where they worship idols.” She said to him, “What should I do to save my little boy?” The old man replied, “Rise and go to the wilderness near ʻAyn Kārim and if it pleases God, you will save your son. If they come looking for him, they will shed my blood instead of his.” (3:6–9; trans. Slavomír Čéplö, “The Life of John the Baptist by Serapion,” in vol. 1 of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures [ed. Tony Burke and Brent Landau; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016], pp. 262–92).
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baldi, Donato, and Bellarmino Bagatti. Saint Jean-Baptiste: dans les souvenirs de sa Petire. Studium Biblicum Franciscanum. Collectio Minor 27. Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1980 (see pp. 23–27 and pl. XVI,1).
Boccaccia, Bruna. Il Museo di San Colombano in Bobbio. Castelsangiovanini, 1994.
Burke, Tony. “The New Testament and Other Early Christian Traditions in Serapion’s Life of John the Baptist.” Pages 281–300 in Christian Apocrypha. Receptions of the New Testament in Ancient Christian Apocrypha. Edited by Jean-Michel Roessli and Tobias Nicklas. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014 (esp. p. 295).
Celi, Gervasio. “Cimeli Bobbiesi: in occasione delle feste commemorative di S. Colombano.” La Civiltà Cattolica 74.2 (1923): 504–14; and 74.3 (1923): 37–45; 124–36; 335–55; 422–39 (see pp. 422–25).
Elsner, Jás, and Simon Coleman. Pilgrimage: Past and Present in the World Religions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995 (see pp. 78–89).
Elsner, John. “Replicating Palestine and reversing the Reformation: Pilgrimage and Collecting at Bobbio, Monza and Walsingham.” Journal of the History of Collections 9.1 (1997): 117–30 (esp. 119–21).
Gibson, Shimon. The Cave of John the Baptist: The Stunning Archeological Discovery That Has Redefined Christian History. New York et al.: Doubleday, 2004 (see pp. 25–43, 84–85)
Grabar, André. Les Ampoules de Terre Sainte (Monza, Bobbio). Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck, 1958 (p. 44 and pl. LVI).
Hunter-Crawley, Heather. “Pilgrimage Made Portable: A Sensory Archaeology of the Monza-Bobbio Ampullae.” Herom 1.1 (2012): 135–56 (esp. 136–39).
Peppard, Michael. The World’s Oldest Church: Bible, Art, and Ritual at Dura-Europos, Syria. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.
Sondini, Jean-Pierre. “La terre des semelles: images pieuses ramenées par les pèlerins des Lieux saints (Terre sainte, Martyria d’Orient).” Journal des savants 1 (2011): 77–140 (p. 83 and fig. 6).
Tosi, Michele. Bobbio: guida Storica Artistica Ambientale della Città e Dintorni. Bobbio: Archivi Storici Bobiensi, 1983.
Vikan, Gary. Early Byzantine Pilgrimage Art. 1982. Rev. ed. Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Collections Publications 5. Washington, DC: Dunbarton Oaks, 2010 (pp. 21–22 and fig. 9).
4. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
“Ain Karem–St. John in the Desert.” Custodia Terrae Sanctae: Franciscans Serving the Holy Land. Online: https://www.custodia.org/en/sanctuaries/ain-karem-st-john-desert. (Includes video and photo gallery).
“Ayn Karim.” Zochrot.
“Ein Karem.” Wikipedia.
Peters, Sister Danielle. “Holy Land during Mary’s Life: The Holy Land: In the Footsteps of Mary of Nazareth.” All About Mary. Marian Library at the University of Dayton. Online: https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/h/holy-land-during-marys-life.php.
Entry created by Tony Burke, York University, 7 January 2021.