In the early 12th century Hegumen Daniel made foot pilgrimage to Palestine. He turned to be one of the first Europeans to journey long distances on foot to the East and make accurate notes about his travels. His unique travelogue Life and Pilgrimage of Danylo, Hegumen from the Land of the Russians became not only the most ancient Russian narrative of pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but also one of the brightest works of Old Russian literature as a whole. 

 

His travelogue was extremely popular in Russia and became a paragon for all the following Russian journey narratives. Meanwhile, it has practically no data on its author himself, who was definitely an original and vivid personality. Despite the accuracy and clarity of the pilgrimage description, a variety of interesting and captivating details, neither exact years of the pilgrimage nor its duration are known. Other medieval sources also tell nothing about Hegumen Daniel the Traveller.

Most likely he took the monastic vows in the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves. It is considered that he was the clergyman of the Chernigov land. Besides, the prominent historian N. M. Karamzin hypothesized that after completing the pilgrimage “this traveler could be Daniel who was appointed the bishop of Yuryev in 1113 and died on September 9, 1122”.

 

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