Strangers in God’s Vineyard: Western Pilgrims at the Crossroads of the Byzantine World

Most of the western Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land in the Middle Ages passed en route through the island of Cyprus, later famously described as the ‘crossroads of the Byzantine world’. What sights met them in the realm that was widely believed to be the location of the vineyards immortalised in the Song of Songs? What centres of spirituality attracted them while on the island? And how did they respond to the shock of cultural encounter with the people and customs of the land? In this talk I explore in detail the accounts of a number of western pilgrims to uncover the experiences of these long-distance travellers and consider the ways in which they sought to understand and negotiate the unfamiliar world that opened up before them.

Dr Sarah James is currently teaching at Imperial College, London. Her research interests are centred around theological writing in the later Middle Ages, asking questions about the ways in which medieval writers engaged with the religious debates of the day, and how ordinary people, for the most part with very limited access to written texts, experienced religion. Her latest publication is Pastoral Care in Medieval England: Interdisciplinary Approaches (Routledge, 2018).

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