About the Author: The Swiss Theologian Brother Felix Faber (1441-1502), often Felix Fabri, leaves us one of the most vivid and human accounts of pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Brother Felix speaks of the horrors of life in the hold of a pilgrim ship, as well as the terrors of the sea, things like the fish that “cannot be forced away from the ship save by a fearless look, so that one should lean out of the ship over the water, and unflinchingly look into the eyes of the fish, while the fish meanwhile looks at him with a terrible gaze. If he who looks at the fish grows terrified, and begins to turn his eyes away, the beast straightway rises, snatches him down beneath the water, and devours him.” Here Brother Felix tells the tale of being on board ship at anchor off Cyprus and realizing that he might as well take a group of pilgrims with him to see a site he already knew and pay reverence to the true cross, not of Our Lord, but of the good thief crucified next to Him.
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I went to the stern, and many noblemen allowed me thither, thinking that I had said and done this in jest. So in the poop I hired a servant who knew the way to the Holy Cross, promising him that he should receive a marcella [a coin] from each of my companions, and I also hired a boatman to take us to the shore. But the noblemen, when they saw that I was in earnest, all went away again and left me; howbeit, there remained with me these pilgrims:
Lord Henry of Schomberg, a noble knight and a brave man.
Master John, the priest, an archdeacon from Transylvania, a man of piety and learning.
Master Caspar Siculi, a knight, a brave and strong young man.
Master Burchard Nusdorfer, a knight, a good and merry man.
One Rudolph, a Swiss from Thurgau, a tall and honest man.
One John, a merchant from Flanders, a man of exceeding great thirst.
And Brother Felix, the moving spirit of all these, and the servant whom I had hired, Andrew by name.
We eight went down from the galley into the boat, and when we were set on shore began to discuss how we should manage our pilgrimage; for the hour was late, the sun had set, and it was growing dark. Our guide and servant took us in the dark to a village named Ornyca, one mile distant from the sea, where he roused a countryman whom he knew. This countryman produced wine, bread, and cheese, and we ate and drank. We also hired eight mules in the village, upon which we mounted and set out joyously. Meanwhile the moon had risen, and gladdened our hearts as her light drove away the darkness, for we, the chosen eight, were all comrades. The weather was fine, the country beautiful, the road good, and besides all this the shrubs of that land breathed forth the sweetest fragrance, for almost all the herbs of that isle are spices of divers sorts, which smell by far sweetest in the night time, when they are moist with dew. We continued our journey until the rising of Lucifer, the morning star, which precedes the rising of the sun, when we came to the village which is named St. Cross, where we tied up our beasts and lighted a fire, and my comrades drank, but I abstained, because I meant to celebrate a Mass on the Holy Mount. We also lay down and rested for a little space, and slept until it was bright day, lying on the ground by the side of our beasts.
On the twenty-sixth, which is the feast of the Holy Martyrs John and Paul, when we arose we asked the Greek before whose house we had rested to make ready a good dinner for us, since we meant to return to him from the mount without breaking our fast. So we mounted our beasts and set out, with the Holy Mount before our eyes, shuddering at its height. At the foot of the mount we came into a delicious valley, through the midst of which ran a clear sweet stream of living water, whose banks were full of most beauteous flowers, whose names we did not know, and sweet-smelling shrubs. There were also many trees laden with carob beans, which laymen call “St. John’s bread.” From this valley we made our way up the mount in a very cold shade, because the sun, albeit it was warming all the mountains round about with its rays, yet could not reach us in that valley. Soon we came to the steepest part of the mountain, up which we could not ride our mules, so we tied them to trees, and climbed up on foot with great labour and much sweating; for the mount is lofty and steep, and is said to be in all ways like unto Mount Tabor in the Holy Land, whereon our Lord was transfigured. This I have heard from one who had climbed them both. When we arrived at the top, we knelt in prayer before the church, and sat down in the open air, before entering the church, that we might regain our breath, and wipe away the sweat wherewith we were covered, and cool the heat in which we were. After we had done this I made myself ready first, as was fitting, entered the church, and tolled the bell, that the sacristan might hear it and come. Straightway there came a priest, ignorant of the Latin tongue, who brought out most ancient Latin service books and other things needful for Mass. After the bell had been rung I read a Mass for the Holy Cross, with the collects for the Holy Martyrs John and Paul, and for travellers. After Mass I turned me round to my brethren and comrades, and delivered an address to them, telling them how they should pay meet and worthy reverence to the cross, and pointing out in what respects the cross about to be shown differed from that of our Saviour, and in what respects it was like unto it. I, moreover, warned them not to be over-inquisitive when they viewed it, and not to wish to see a miracle therein, because when we were come to the most holy sepulchre of our Lord at Jerusalem we should see no miracle, and how much less could we look for one here? This I said because we had heard strange and curious tales about the cross which was to be seen there. After this I took a lighted candle in my hands and went to the place where the cross was, and my fellow-pilgrims followed me thither, and the sacristan came with me. When we came to the place the sacristan opened it, so that we had the holy cross plainly to be seen before our eyes. Then I went first up to the cross and kissed it, and viewed it carefully both before and behind. After me came my companions, who paid honour to it, and carefully viewed it, one after another. It is a tolerably large cross, covered in front with plates of silver, gilded, but on the side looking towards the wall it is uncovered, and is made of fine sound wood, like cypresswood. They say that this is the cross of Dysma, the thief on the right hand, to whom our Lord Jesus promised Paradise when on the cross. For the blessed Helena found three crosses beneath Mount Calvary, whereof she threw away that one which belonged to Gesma, the thief on the left hand. The second cross, that of Dysma, she kept. The third, which was the cross of Christ, she openly showed to all the world, that it might be duly honoured. She brought her own cross, that which had been Dysma’s, entire from Jerusalem to this mount, and here she built a great convent for monks, and a church wherein she placed this cross as an exceeding holy relic. She ordered a chamber or closet to be built in the wall over against the altar, and placed the cross within it ; and there it stands unmoved even to this day, albeit the monastery itself has long ago been overthrown even to the ground by the Turks and Saracens, and the monks of the Order of St. Benedict, who once dwelt therein, have been scattered. The position and arrangement of this cross in its place is wonderful. The cross stands in a blind window, and both its arms are let into holes made in the wall, and its foot is let into a hole made in the floor. But the holes which contain the arms of the cross and the foot of the cross are large out of all proportion, and the cross nowhere touches the wall, but is free and clear from contact with the wall on every side. The miracle which is noised abroad about the cross, is that it hangs in the air without any fastening, and withal stands as firm as though it were fixed with the strongest nails, or built into the wall, which nevertheless it is not, because all the three holes are very great, so that a man can put his hand into them and perceive by touch that there is no fastening there, nor yet at the back or at the head of the cross. I might indeed have searched this thing more narrowly than I did, but I feared God, and had no right to do that which I had forbidden others to do. I climbed this mount to show honour to the cross, not to try whether there was a miracle or not, or to tempt God. That this cross may be the more worthy of reverence, they have joined to it a piece of the true cross of Christ. In this chapel hangs a bell, which we rang both before and after Mass, and I said to my companions that we should hear no more bells until we returned to Christendom, which was true, for hereafter I heard no bell for a space of four months, save this one, which we believe to have been placed here by St. Helena, who also placed the cross here.
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*Aubrey Stewart, M.A. translation
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