K. Heyden (Univ. Bern): Palestine a Religious Homeland for Western Christians?

In the last quarter of the 4th century, the idea of Palestine as a religious homeland became very popular in the Christian ascetic circles of Rome. Some aristocratic women moved to Palestine and established monasteries in Jerusalem and Bethlehem together with their male ascetic fellows. Others remained in Rome but were in close contact to the emigrants through letters and gifts. In my talk, I will reconstruct the hagiographic discourse about the Holy Land from this correspondence with a special focus on how the idea of Palestine as a religious homeland is constructed in these letters. What biblical traditions are embraced? What social and political backgrounds of the time play a role in the discourse about the Holy Land in Palestine? How and why is Palestine established as a religious homeland in polemical opposition to Rome? Some iconographic evidence – sarcophagi and mosaics – will also be included to give an impression of how the idea of the Holy Land shaped the religious imagination of Christians in late antique Rome.