The Wandering Jew at St Albans

The legend of the Jew doomed to wander until Christ’s return is first told in any detail by the chronicler of St Albans Abbey, whose work Matthew Paris carried on. In 1228 an archbishop from Armenia visited the abbey, and when the monks asked about a man said to have seen the Passion and to be still alive, his interpreter said the archbishop knew him well. He was Cartaphilus, Pilate’s porter, who struck Jesus as he was led out and told him to go faster, and was told in turn that he must wait until Christ came again.