Travel, Hospitality and Pilgrimage in the Visigothic Kingdom

Fructuosus of Braga travelled with companions across Visigothic Hispania, the parts of the Iberian Peninsula ruled by Visigothic kings. His seventh-century life recounts a pilgrimage toward Saint Eulalia’s shrine in Mérida, a city in modern western Spain, and other journeys by boat and to monastic foundations. It shows movement through the people who made it possible: companions, boatmen, workers and hosts. The Basilica of Saint Eulalia in Mérida marks the city’s important pilgrimage destination.

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Pilgrims on roads and rivers

In one episode of the Life of Fructuosus, his companions travel ahead while he pauses in the woods to pray. A local man takes his plain clothing and bare feet for the appearance of a runaway and strikes him. The hagiographer turns the attack into a miracle story, while placing the pilgrim among companions and strangers whose first meeting could be shaped by his status and appearance.

On the return from the shrine of Saint Gerontius, evening was approaching and the sailors said they had lost their strength and little daylight remained. Fructuosus suggested they take food and rest, asked them to remove the oars, and said the regular prayers with his brothers. The Life credits the prayer with carrying the boat to the opposite bank. The episode connects a river journey to the crew’s rowing, the day’s remaining light, a meal and the religious practice of the travelling group.

Receiving guests at monasteries

The early-seventh-century Rule of Isidore, bishop of Seville, directs monks to receive arriving guests promptly and warmly, provide rooms, wash their feet and supply appropriate provisions. It assigns the gatekeeper responsibility for visitors, including announcing arrivals and guarding the outer enclosure. The cellarer controlled the stores and supplied what was needed for the meals of monks, guests and sick people. Lay workers cleaned and milled grain and baked bread for guests and the sick, while monks made bread for their own community. Hospitality involved a greeting, a place to stay and coordinated labor over food and supplies.

The same rule placed a monk’s own movement under the abbot’s authority: he was not to leave without permission. When the monastery needed a messenger at a town or estate, the abbot selected two trusted, experienced brothers. The community gave monks a blessing before they left and when they returned. A monk sent to another monastery was expected to follow the host community’s routine. These instructions show how religious travel connected permission, delegation and reception.

A staffed house for strangers at Mérida

By the end of the sixth century, Bishop Masona of Mérida had established a xenodochium, a “house for strangers.” He set aside property to support its work and appointed staff and doctors to serve travellers and sick people. According to the Lives of the Fathers of Mérida, the doctors searched the city for sick people, carried them to the house, placed them in prepared beds and gave them light, pleasant food until they recovered. The account describes an active process of finding, transporting, lodging and feeding people in need, backed by the bishop’s resources.

Military movement and controlled journeys

Not all movement served pilgrimage. In 673 King Wamba moved forces across the Pyrenees into Septimania, the Visigothic territory north of the mountains, to suppress Paul’s revolt. Wamba’s campaign against Paul required an organized crossing by royal forces, distinct from a monk’s visit or a pilgrim’s journey to a shrine.

Legal status could also determine whether a host was free to offer shelter. Book IX of the Visigothic Code required a householder who received an enslaved fugitive to notify district authorities. If the owner came, the fugitive was returned; if the fugitive left first, the householder swore not to have encouraged or helped the escape. Another law threatened a free person who concealed a fugitive with the loss of an enslaved person of equal value. The rules placed households and local officials inside the process of reclaiming people who had fled their owners.

Book XII, Title III, rule 20 imposed a different travel control on Jews in an openly coercive campaign against Jewish practice. A Jewish person who said necessity required a journey had to appear before a bishop, priest or judge. If church witnesses attested that the traveller had abandoned Jewish rites, a priest prepared a signed Christian confession promising to avoid fellow Jews’ festivals and wrote to clergy in the districts the traveller planned to visit. If the traveller broke the law, bishops, priests and judges could order a hundred lashes; the traveller could not return home without another church letter. That letter recorded the days from the person’s application to the day of return, making the journey subject to religious and judicial surveillance.