Jon Paul Heyne: A Pilgrim's Prioritization of Problems: The Importance of Doctrinal Divisions in the Placentini Itinerarium

Written c. 570, the Placentini Itinerarium, a travel account by the anonymous “Piacenza Pilgrim,” provides a remarkably disinterested view of inter-Christian relations in a world still heavily shaped by theological disputes. Visiting shrines in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine in an age when bishops and monks, such as John of Beth Rufina and John Moschus, presented pilgrimage sites as sharply defined according to doctrinal differences—where Christians of the “wrong creed” miraculously converted and those of the “right creed” remained free from error through visions of the saints—the Piacenza Pilgrim remains almost entirely silent on Christian doctrinal variations. This anonymous traveler was not, however, ignorant of or indifferent to religious differences, as some have suggested. Nor was he simply presenting an idealized portrait of his religious experience, as others have argued. Recounting often tense encounters with Jews, Samaritans, and pagans, the Piacenza Pilgrim reveals an acute sensitivity to religious divisions in the Late-Antique Levant and a willingness to lambast those practicing contrary to his Christian beliefs. Placed within the context of these descriptions of inter-faith relations, the pilgrim’s near silence on Christian doctrinal differences reveals his own prioritization of religious problems. Relative to Jews, Samaritans, and pagans, Christians of questionable creeds were far less problematic or worthy of note for the pilgrim. Through his implicit ranking of religions, therefore, the Piacenza Pilgrim provides an approach to Late Antique doctrinal disputes distinct from the more dominant vision of episcopal and monastic contemporaries.