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The Monastery of Saint Gerasimos of the Jordan, also known as Deir Hajla, is located near the city of Jericho. It’s one of the oldest monasteries in Palestine.
Introduction to the Monastery of St. Gerasimos
The monastery was founded in 455 by St. Gerasimos (d. 475), a monk from the town of Myra (now Demre, Turkey). It was built atop a cave believed to be used as a shelter by the Holy Family as they fled from Herod the Great and the Massacre of the Innocents. It was originally called the Monastery of Kalamon and was destroyed by the Sassanids in 614.
The Crusaders rebuilt the monastery in the 9th century, and it was refurbished in the 12th century by Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. It was rebuilt again in 1588 and destroyed around 1734. Today’s Monastery of Saint Gerasimos dates back to 1885. It belongs to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
Today, the monastery is a popular pilgrimage site for Orthodox Christians. Outside the monastery is a small area with a café and tables. Inside the courtyard is a gift shop selling icons, religious items, and souvenirs.
Church
The church is quite small and I remember it being very hot inside. It’s entered by climbing up a staircase from the monastery courtyard. The first section of the church is the narthex, which contains a case holding skulls and relics.
The nave is not as elaborately decorated as most of the Orthodox churches we visited in the Holy Land, but it’s still beautiful. There’s a nice wooden iconostasis in front of the altar.
The walls and columns are decorated with frescoes. They depict important saints of the Orthodox church as well as the Holy Family. However, what really caught my eye was the mosaic floor. The entire floor of the church is covered in different designs.
One mosaic depicts a lion closely tied to the life of St. Gerasimos. It’s said that the saint found the lion wandering in the desert with a thorn in its paw. After removing the thorn and treating the wound, the lion loyally followed St. Gerasimos and served the monastery. When the saint died, the lion sat on his grave and died of grief. There’s also a statue of the lion outside the gates.
Crypt
The cave at the Monastery of Saint Gerasimos, used as a shelter by the Holy Family, is now the crypt of the church. It contains a chapel and an icon commemorating the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt. There’s also a rare icon of Galaktotrophousa, which depicts Jesus nursing at the Virgin Mary’s breast.
