Hospitality

HOSPITALITY. - From hospes (whence hospitium, hospitalis, hospitalitas), it is the act of welcoming a stranger into one's home.

I. HOSPITALITY AMONG NON-CHRISTIAN PEOPLES

Hospitality is universal among primitive populations, both among individuals and among groups, because since the stranger is potentially an enemy (hospes and hostis have the same root: Varro, De lingua lat., 4,1; Cicero, De off., I, 12) he could bring malevolent influences into the place where he is hosted, and therefore it is well to make him a friend and even to help him in case of need. Hence among present-day primitive peoples, after the first encounter with the stranger, negotiations are established with exchanges of gifts, followed by the aggregation of the guest to the community, with various manifestations of friendship: sacrifices, binding with the same rope, exchange of blood, pipe of peace, etc. In Rome, in the rite of the fetiales, the territory of the stranger is rabu and therefore they use rites of magical disinfection (serbena) and particular incantations when they enter hostile territory (Livy, I, 24; IX, 5). In Greece, hospitality is an obligation sanctioned by Zeus Xenios, protector of the stranger. In Homer (Iliad, III, 350) the Trojan War is caused by Paris's betrayal of hospitality committed against Menelaus. This point of view is confirmed by Aeschylus. Odysseus (Od., VI, 119; IX, 175; XIII, 201), when he lands in a foreign land, asks himself whether it is inhabited by hospitable people who fear Zeus, protector of the stranger. In Rome too, Jupiter is the protector of the guest (Juppiter hospitalis: Cicero, Ad Quintum fr., 2, 11). The stranger passing through enjoys there the security guaranteed by the paterfamilias who hosts him (hospitium privatum). There was in use among the Romans a tessera hospitalis (generally of wood; in the army it was oral, almost a watchword) or token of recognition, which guaranteed the identity and the security of the host and of the guest (Plautus, Poen., I, 5, 27; Deum hospitalam ac tesseram mecum fero).

The development of civilization made the duty of hospitality a simple form of courtesy; Varro (De arch., VI, 10) suggests building next to the main dwelling a smaller one destined for receiving guests.

Nicola Turchi

II. HOSPITALITY AMONG THE HEBREWS AND CHRISTIANS

All Oriental peoples held (and still hold) hospitality in honor, attaching to it a character of sacred inviolability. It was widely practiced by the Hebrews, and God often visibly blessed those who gave it generously. Its most important manifestations may be seen in: Gen. 18, 3-8: Abraham; ibid. 19, 2-3: Lot; Ex. 2, 19-20: Moses; Ios. 6, 23: Rahab; Iudc. 19: the Levite of Ephraim; Job 31, 31-32, etc. Hospitality consisted in having the stranger spend the night under one's tent or in one's house, in giving him the opportunity to wash his feet and refresh himself, which naturally extended to the company accompanying him.

Among Christians, hospitality, often called humanitas, was considered the most authentic outward expression of the virtue of charity, and the same expiatory function was attributed to it as to almsgiving; and such a character it indeed had, if one considers the difficulties that strangers, almost down to our own days, encountered in finding decent hotels or inns. Christians were impelled to fulfill this duty of human solidarity by the examples contained in Sacred Scripture and by the ceaseless exhortations of their pastors. From the Gospels they learned that Christ, after having welcomed it several times, had numbered it among the works of mercy that the Supreme Judge will remember at the final judgment (Mt. 25, 34-46). From the other New Testament books they could see that the Apostles had always strongly recommended it: "Be generous in hospitality," St. Paul prescribed to the Romans (12, 13; cf. Hebr. 13, 2), to whom he recommended the deaconess Phoebe, probably the bearer of the letter, that they receive her "in the Lord as is fitting for the saints" and assist her "in whatever she may need, for she too has assisted many and myself as well" (16, 1-2). "Be freely hospitable to one another without grumbling," insisted St. Peter (I Pt. 4, 9). St. John praised the Christian Gaius for the hospitality he gave to pilgrims and concluded: "We therefore ought to welcome such men, to cooperate with the truth" (III Io. 5-8). Bishops, deacons and widows were to attend to this work (cf. I Tim. 3, 2; 5, 10; Tit. 1, 8); indeed this office was later to be particularly reserved to deacons, entrusted as they were with the administration of the Church's goods and of the faithful's offerings. Commenting on the above-mentioned texts of the Old and New Testaments, the Fathers, ecclesiastical writers and theologians constantly took the occasion to extol the merit and the duty of hospitality. Among the many texts that could be adduced, only a few from Christian antiquity are recalled here. St. Clement assigns to hospitality the first place after faith (cf. I Clementis, 10, 7; 11, 1; 12, 1), and recalls the splendid manifestations of the hospitality of the Church of Corinth (ibid. 1, 2). The Didaché devotes ch. 12 to this duty, to be performed with discernment. Hermas likewise recommends it to the Christian, "because hospitality gives occasion to do good" (Mandatum, VIII, 10; cf. also Similitado, VIII, 10, 3). Aristides affirms that Christians rejoice in receiving pilgrims into their homes as if they were true brothers (cf. Apologia, 15; trans. L. Vona, L'apologia di Aristide, Rome 1950, pp. 107-108). The Church of Rome is praised by St. Dionysius of Corinth for the assistance it gave to brothers from abroad (cf. Eusebius, Hist. eccl., IV, 23, 10). For Tertullian the whole of Christianity was a "conteressatio hospitalitatis" (De praescriptionibus, 29). St. Cyprian grants the faculty of drawing from his personal means what was needed to assist strangers (cf. Epist., VII, ed. G. Hartel in CSEL, III, 2, p. 485). Despite the precautions the communities took to avoid abuses - the Didaché ordered that no brother capable of working should be maintained for more than three days (cf. ch. 12) - even from antiquity there was no lack of spongers who skillfully exploited the good faith of Christians, such as the cunning Peregrinus described by Lucian (Peregrinus, 16). Notwithstanding the abuses, the sacred duty of hospitality knew no hindrance in the Church; indeed this "non mediocris virtus," this "publica species humanitatis," a distinctive mark of every Christian, and above all of every bishop (Ambrose, De Abraham, I, 5, 32; PL 14, 435; De Officiis, II, 21, 103; PL 16, 131; cf. St. Augustine, Serm. 355, 1, 3; PL 39, 1570; Sidonius Apollinaris, Ep. VII, 9; PL 58, 578; Council of Paris of 829, ch. 14; MGH, Concilia, II, 1, p. 621), would become a characteristic of monasticism both Eastern (cf. Rufinus, Hist. Monacorum, 7; PL 21, 418; Palladius, Hist. Lausiaca, 14; PG 34, 1047 etc.; P. De Meester, De monachico statu iuxta disciplineam byzantinam, Vatican City 1942, pp. 171-72, 286-87) and Western (cf., for example, the Rule of St. Benedict, ch. 53). In fact every monastery had its guesthouse for receiving pilgrims and wayfarers (cf. Egeria, Itinerarium, ed. H. Pétrée, Paris 1948), and moreover, at particularly dangerous places of transit (cf., for example, the much-frequented Alpine passes of the Great and Little St. Bernard: v. BERNARDO DI AOSTA) as well as in the great centers of pilgrimage, hospices directed by religious communities arose. In Rome the various Scholae that received the pilgrims of individual nations were much frequented. In the entry CARITÀ will be found listed the numerous works created by Christian piety to assist pilgrims and needy strangers. It should also be noted that the primordial features of international law have been discerned in the institution of hospitality (Tamassia).