His notices of the Holy Places at Jerusalem, however, are of the highest interest, and some of them are of great archaeological value. Among these, special attention may be called to his references to the Church of Calvary with its three memorial crosses outside its eastern wall; his statement that the stone in front of the sepulchre was only a copy of the one which the angel rolled away; his allusion to the column that marked the spot where, tradition said, the Jews had tried to carry off the body of our Lady; and his placing of the Church of Sion in the middle of Jerusa
The Hodoeporicon of St. Willibald by Huneberc of Heidenheim Preface
To the venerable priests, deacons, abbots and brethren beloved in Christ, whom our holy bishop, as a good leader and tender father, has appointed throughout his diocese to be priests, chaste levites, monks and novices, to all these who live under religious observance, I, an unworthy sister of Saxon origin, last and least in life and manners, venture to write for the sake of posterity and present to you who are religious and preachers of the Gospel a brief account of the early life of the venerable Willibald. Although I lack the necessary experience and knowledge because I am but a weak woman, yet I would like, as far as lies in my power, to gather together a kind of nosegay of his virtues and give you something by which you may remember them.
And here I repeat that I am not urged on through presumption to attempt a task for which I am so ill fitted. It is your authority and kindness and God’s grace which has prompted me to describe the scenes where the marvels of the Incarnate Word were enacted, for Willibald visited and saw these places with his own eyes and trod with his feet in the footsteps of Him who was born into this world, suffered and rose again for our sake.
Of all these places Willibald has given us a faithful description. For this reason, it did not seem right to allow these things to pass into oblivion, nor to be silent about the things God has shown to His servant in these our days. We heard them from his own lips in the presence of two deacons who will vouch for their truth: it was on the 20th of June, the day before the summer solstice.
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