Cosmopolitanism or Competition?Late Medieval Pilgrims at the Eastern Christian Holy Places

Abstract

This essay explores the Western Latin pilgrims in the Holy Land in the late medieval period and their reactions to Eastern Christian communities, particularly the Georgians and the Armenians that they encountered during their visits to the Holy places. Basing his argument on travel narratives and using two case-studies – the origins of the Cross and the Prison of Christ, of which memories are located in more than one place following the Churches that claim their property – the author shows how the pilgrims interpreted the diversity of the Eastern Churches and their differences in comparison with the Latin Church, as well as the multilocation of the Holy places. He asks whether we might think of this interaction in medieval Jerusalem as a kind of cosmopolitanism.

Keywords

• Medieval Jerusalem
• Latin pilgrims and Eastern Christian interactions
• Holy Cross
• prison of Christ