589

c.1155. Patriarch F[ulcher] of Jerusalem, A. ecclesiae sancti sepulcri prior and the entire convent of the Holy Sepulchre address a sealed general letter to all Christians, prelates and faithful, rich and poor. Because many who wish or have vowed to visit Jerusalem are prevented from doing so through illness, poverty and so on, they offer this consolation. Having collected relics from the sites of Christ’s Nativity and nurture in Bethlehem, his abandonment in the Temple, his capture in Gethsemane, his Passion on Calvary, his glorious tomb in the Holy Sepulchre, his Ascension on the Mount of Olives, the death of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Mount Sion and her burial in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, they have incorporated them in a crucifix, dedicated to the blood of Christ, which is to be brought to the West by Conradus canonicus, the patriarch’s representative, promising those of the faithful incapable of the journey who venerate it absolution of their vows and the same indulgence they would have received had they been to Jerusalem.