sacred sites: Europe 891 immediately became a popular site for prayer and attracted numerous Jewish pilgrims every year Christians were more interested in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built by the emperor Constantine in the fourth century over the spot in Jerusalem where Jesus was said to have been crucified This church was deeply revered by Christians in Europe It was destroyed by the Egyptians in the 11th century, one of the events that precipitated the First Crusade in 1099 The Christian conquerors rebuilt the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and converted the Muslim sites of the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque to Christian places Other sacred sites in Israel were important to Jews and Christians People visited Nazareth because it was Jesus’ adult hometown Bethlehem was particularly important to Christians in its role as the birthplace of Jesus Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity was built by Constantine in 330 over a cave called the Holy Crypt, where Jesus was believed to have been born Close to the Holy Crypt was a grotto where Jerome, an early church father, translated the Bible into Latin in about 400 For Jews, Bethlehem was sacred as the birthplace of the biblical king David, father of Solomon The tomb of the Jewish woman Rachel, the wife of Jacob in the Hebrew Bible, was also a sacred site to Jews and was traditionally believed to be on the outskirts of Bethlehem Constantinople was an important city to both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians The church Hagia Sophia, or Holy Wisdom, was one of the largest and most beautiful churches in the world at the time, and many visitors reported being struck by awe upon seeing it The bishop of Constantinople, known as the ecumenical patriarch, had his seat at Constantinople After the Great Schism of 1054, which split apart the eastern and western churches, Constantinople became the most important city in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the bishop of Constantinople took responsibility for administering Orthodox churches in nonOrthodox regions Within western Europe, Rome was the most important holy city Christian tradition held that the saints Peter and Paul had founded churches there and died within the city The pope’s seat was in Rome, and the city was full of churches and shrines The church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, built on the site of an ancient Roman temple to the goddess Minerva, housed the headless body of Saint Catherine of Siena (her head was in Siena) who had died there in 1380 Santa Maria Maggiore was a major church built in the fifth century and dedicated to the Virgin Mary It contained an icon of Mary supposedly painted by the evangelist Luke, a silver urn containing the fragments of the Christ child’s cradle, and the grave of Saint Jerome, translator of the Latin Vulgate bible A road called the Via Francigena became the main route for pilgrims heading to Rome in the 900s Although its route varied depending on where pilgrims started, by tradition one end was in Canterbury, England, and the other was in Brindisi (Italy), the main port of disembarkation for the Holy Land Numerous shrines lay along the way Santiago de Compostela was a cathedral in Galicia, Spain, said to mark the burial site of the apostle James According to tradition, James’s body was brought to Spain and buried after he died in Jerusalem The site supposedly became known to Christians after a shepherd saw a bright light glowing over the burial site James became the patron saint of the local people, who believed that he had helped them in their battle against the Moors Another road, called the Way of Saint James, was the main route to Santiago de Compostela The trail had several departure points in France, among the, Paris and Arles The trails met up in the Pyrenees and led on to Galicia Thousands of people from all over Europe visited the shrine during the medieval period Another major medieval pilgrimage was the journey to Nidaros, Norway, the site of the Christ Church (also known as Nidaros Cathedral), built in the 12th century This cathedral was built over the tomb of Saint Olaf, who had brought Christianity to Norway and the other Scandinavian territories in the 10th century People flocked there every year on July 29, hoping to gain spiritual favors by visiting the reliquary that housed Olaf’s bones There were literally thousands of other sacred sites in medieval Europe, some quite significant and well known Glastonbury, England, was said to be the place where Joseph of Arimathea built the first church in England during the first century He was thought to have brought with him from Jerusalem the Holy Grail, the chalice Jesus used at the Last Supper, and placed it in the church Legend said that when he got off the boat on arrival he struck the ground with his staff, which caused a hawthorn tree to grow This tree, called the Holy Thorn, attracted many medieval pilgrims Saint Patrick’s Purgatory was a pilgrimage to Station Island in County Donegal, Ireland During the fifth century Saint Patrick was said to have felt some doubts about the success of his mission God showed him a pit in the ground called Purgatory, a place where Christians would be purified before entering heaven People came from all over Europe to visit this site, and monks would often spend a month at a time there, fasting and meditating Assisi in Italy attracted its share of visitors Saint Francis of Assisi was canonized in 1228, and shortly thereafter Pope Gregory IX had a basilica built in Assisi in his honor Saint Clare, the other saint associated with Assisi, was herself a medieval pilgrim who had visited the major sacred sites She was canonized in 1255 Pilgrims came to Assisi to visit Santa