ARCULF. - Bishop in Gaul (see unknown). He made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 670 and recounted his journey to St. Adamnan (v.), abbot of Hy or Iona (Hebrides, Scotland).

He had stayed 9 months in Jerusalem, visited Bethany, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Hebron, the Jordan, the Dead Sea; then, passing through Damascus, Tyre, Alexandria and Crete, he had reached Constantinople, remaining there from Easter to Christmas. After a stop in Sicily, A., according to Bede, instead of returning to Gaul, would have ended up at Hy, driven there by unfavorable winds (Hist. eccl. gentis Anglorum, 5, 15; PL 95, 256). Others, however, doubting the accuracy of this account, think that A. went later to Hy from France, attracted there by the fame of holiness of that monastery.

A.'s account was written in lucid form by Adamnan, who used A.'s notes embellished with sketches. It was widely disseminated through the work of King Alfred. It is of the greatest usefulness, both because it is preserved in its entirety, and because it makes known to us the holy places at the beginning of the Arab domination in Palestine.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: Text in: Adamnanus, Libri tres de Locis sanctis ex relatione Arculfi, ed. P. Geyer, Itinera Ithoros, nare, IV-VIII (CSEL, 39), Vienna 1898, pp. XXXIII-IX, 219-97; H. Vincent and F.-M. Abel, Jerusalem, II, Paris 1914, p. XXXVI.

Gaetano M. Perrella

@incollection{ec1_arculfo, author = {Perrella, Gaetano Maria}, title = {Arculfo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {1848--1849}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/arculfo} }

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