The Emperor Constantine's mother, St.
Helena, was, at seventy-eight years of age, the first royal pilgrim to the holy places.

After the Pagan revival, vainly attempted by the Emperor Julian, the number and zeal of the Christian visitors to Jerusalem were redoubled.

At the beginning of the fifth century, St.
Jerome wrote, from his retreat at Bethlehem, that Judea overflowed with pilgrims, and that, round about the Holy Sepulchre, were heard sung, in divers tongues, the praises of the Lord.

He, however, gave but scant encouragement to his friends to make the trip.

"The court of heaven," he wrote to St.Paulinus, "is as open in Britain as at Jerusalem;" and the disorder which sometimes accompanied the numerous assemblages of pilgrims became such that several of the most illustrious fathers of the Church, and amongst others St.Augustine and St.Gregory of Nyssa, exerted themselves to dissuade the faithful.