The holy priest Arculf, traversing the region of Samaria, came to the
city of that province called in Hebrew Sichem, by Greek and Latin
usage Sicima. It is wont to be called Sichar too, though wrongly. Close
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to this city he saw a church built outside the wall, which is so shaped as
to branch into four parts extending towards the 4 cardinal points of the
world, in the likeness of a cross as it were. A plan of it is given below.
In the interior, as its centre, facing all of the 4 wings, is the fount of
Jacob, which is wont to be called a well too. One day at the sixth hour
Sichem then, which is also Sicima, a priestly city at one time and a
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city of refuge, is in the tribe of Manasse and the mount of Effraim, where
also are buried the bones of Joseph.