#basili

Pilgrimage in the Byzantine Empire

Pilgrimage in the Byzantine Empire involved the Christian faithful travelling often huge distances to visit such holy sites as Jerusalem or to see in person relics of holy figures and miraculous icons on show from Thessaloniki to Antioch. Well-worn routes resulted along which regular stopping points allowed pilgrims to sleep, eat, and be cared for in a network of monasteries and churches. For many pilgrims, their journey was the last they would ever make, and Jerusalem, especially, became a place where hospitals and hospices catered for the faithful until they were interred in the tombs they had pre-booked so as to rest in peace at the very centre of the Christian world.

Origins & Purpose of Pilgrimage

Saint Helena, the mother of Constantine I (r. 306-337 CE), was one of the great founders of churches, notably in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and it was during her visit to the Holy Land in 326 CE that she claimed to have discovered the True Cross, that is the actual wooden cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. Helena is widely credited with being one of the most important figures in making pilgrimage fashionable amongst devout Christians. The practice got another boost when Constantine himself made a visit to Jerusalem in 335 CE.

Pilgrimage really took off in the 5th and 6th centuries CE as other sacred sites sprang up across the empire. The skeletal remains, items of clothing, and tombs associated with holy figures, famous holy artworks and their potential for working miracles, the healing waters of sacred shrines, and even famous living holy men and women were all reasons for Christians to leave their homes and travel great distances. Pilgrimage in the Byzantine period was, though, less about making an arduous journey which had value in itself and more about getting to a final destination and being able to see and venerate Christianity's treasures in person, to actually be for a time in the places where wondrous things had occurred in the distant past, and by so doing reaffirm one's faith.

The travel plans of pilgrims were disrupted, if not actually ended, by the Arab conquest of the Levant by the mid-7th century CE. Byzantine armies reconquered parts of the Middle East in the 10th century CE, and the Crusaders, too, ensured a steady stream of pilgrims could still make the arduous journey to the Holy Land. Constantinople, too, was a major attraction to pilgrims from within and outside the empire's territories and remained so until the 15th century CE.

Leo VI

Leo VI was emperor of the Byzantine empire from 886-912 CE. He was the second emperor of the Macedonian dynasty and is sometimes known as “Leo the Wise” in reference to his prolific literary output which ranged from orations to law codes. Leo's military campaigns abroad were not at all successful, and the empire witnessed defeats to the Bulgars in the Balkans and the Arabs in Sicily and the Aegean. At home, it was a different story, and the emperor's reign was a rare one of stability, peace, and prosperity for his people.

Parentage & Succession

Leo, although officially the son and heir of Basil I (r. 867-886 CE) was widely rumoured to actually have been the son of Michael III (r. 842-867 CE). This was because Basil's wife and Leo's mother was Eudokia Ingerina, who had formerly been the mistress of Michael. Basil had had another son - his eldest, favourite, and first-choice heir, Constantine - but he had died prematurely in 879 CE of unknown causes. Basil's relationship with his second-choice heir was a troubled one. Leo, forced to marry a young girl of his father's choosing - the pious Theophano - had acquired himself a mistress named Zoe Zautsina who, naturally, his father disapproved of. Basil tried, unsuccessfully, to break the relationship by banishing the girl and making his son a virtual prisoner in a wing of the royal palace. Beaten, imprisoned, and threatened with blinding, it is perhaps no wonder that Leo might have borne a grudge which would one day prove fatal for his father.

Basil I died in 886 CE. The cause, according to official records, was a hunting accident. The tale was a tall one involving the 74-year-old emperor being dragged an improbable distance through the woods by a stag and then rescued by a group led by Zoe's father. It seems much more likely that Leo arranged for his father to be helped off his throne. It is, perhaps, significant that one of the first acts of the new 19-year-old emperor, now Leo VI, was to exhume Michael III's body from his nondescript grave and entomb him with full imperial honours in a fine marble sarcophagus in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople.