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From Gader along the Jordan   Some confusion obscures the next section of the Traveler's account, because he writes (improbably) that he next reached the place where Jesus fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread, which he describes as a wide plain with olive trees. Afterwards he continued on to the site of Jesus' baptism. There, he notes, were located the heights of Hermon (Mount Mizar) of the Book of Psalms. The Traveler recalls how a cloud rose from the springs at the foot of the mountain during the first hour, and when the sun set it passed over Jerusalem, the basilica in Zion, the basilica of the tomb of the Lord, and the basilica of St. Mary and St. Sophia at the Praetorium, where the Lord was judged. Dew fell like rain over the holy sites, and the Traveler recounts that the doctors gathered it and used it to prepare all of the meals in the hostels, since it was believed to cure many ills wherever it fell, according to Psalm 133:3—"It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling onMount Zion." The Traveler relates that on that side of the Jordan, two miles from the river in the valley where Elijah hid when the raven brought him bread and meat, is the spring where Saint John dwelt around the valley. Nearby was the city of Livias,where two and a half of the tribes of Israel stayed before crossing the Jordan. People drank from a freshwater spring there for purification and the healing of many diseases. Not far away was the Dead Sea, into which the Jordan flowed near Sodom and Gomorrah and at whose shores sulfur and clay accumulated. In July, August, and September lepers often soaked in the sea for entire days. In the evenings they would bathe in the baths of Moses, and sometimes, the Traveler adds, "God willing," one of them was cured. The Traveler was amazed that neither straw nor wood floated on the Dead Sea, nor could human beings swim in its waters. No life survived in its waters, and anything thrown in would sink to the bottom. The Traveler spent the Epiphany near the Jordan, and he recounts a number of miracles that occurred at the place of Jesus' baptism that night. A column surrounded by a grille was erected on the site, and at the place where the water returned to its riverbed, a cross was set up in the water. Marble stairs led down into the river from both sides. On the eve of the Epiphany, a large crowd of people held vigils. Morning prayers were said at the fourth or fifth cockcrow. When morning prayers were over, the priest descended to the river accompanied by the deacons. When the priest began to bless the water, the Traveler claims, the Jordan immediately receded and its water stood until the baptism was finished. Shipowners from Alexandria had people there with jugs full of scented oil, and while the water was being blessed before the baptism, they poured them out into the water and then filled them up again with the scented riverwater, which they then used as a blessing before sailing. When the baptism was over, the people went down to the river to receive a blessing wearing linen clothes or wrapped in fabric that would later serve them as shrouds. When the proceedings ended, the waters returned to their place. On that bank of the Jordan was a cave with cells for seven virgins, who were sent there as children. Whenever one died, the Traveler relates, she was buried in her cell and a new cell dug for the next girl sent to the cave so that the number of virgins was always seven. Outside the cave were people who took care of them. According to tradition, the handkerchief that covered the Lord's face was kept here. Across the Jordan, not far from the baptismal site, stood the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, which contained two hostels.  |
