Arculf

Arculf a French bishop, lived in the last half of the 7th century. He is known by his journey into Palestine, which he undertook with Peter the Hermit, a native of Burgundy. He spent nine months -in exploring the holy places, especially of Jerusalem and its surroundings. He then visited Damascus and Tyre, going afterwards to Alexandria, to the Isle of Crete, and to Constantinople. He returned to Rome by sea, visiting Sicily on his way. It is said that, desiring to revisit his native country, he again embarked on the sea, and was thrown by a tempest upon the coast of Great Britain, and came to the Isle of Hy, in Ireland. Adamnan, priest of the Monastery of the Isle of Hy, treated him very kindly, and to him he related his adventures. Adamnan wrote out this recital, and in 698 presented it to Alfred, king of Northumberland. It consists of three books, of which the first contains Arculf's description of Jerusalem, the second gives his travels in the Holy Land, and the third presents the wonders of Constantinople. Bede gives an extract of it in his Hist. Eccles., and the Jesuit Gretser published it at Ingolstadt in 1619. Mabillon published it in vol. iv of his collection of the Acta Sanct. Ord. S. Bened. - A translation in English is printed in Bohn's Early Travels in Palestine, p. 1 sq. See Hist. Lit. de la France, iii, 650652; Cave, Hist. Lit. i, 599, ed. Oxon.; Smith, Dict. of Christ. Biog. s.v.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.