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The Mount of Olives is a mountain east of the Old City of Jerusalem. It’s named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes.
Jewish Cemetery
The Mount of Olives is the location of the most important Jewish cemetery in Jerusalem, dating back to the First Temple period. It contains around 150,000 graves and began to take its present shape in the 16th century. The cemetery can be seen from any high point in the Old City.
Chapel of the Ascension
For Christians the Mount of Olives was the location of many important events in the life of Jesus, most notably the Ascension. The Chapel of the Ascension sits at the spot Christians believe the Ascension took place. The first church was built there in 390, enclosing a stone believed to contain Jesus’ last footprints. That church was destroyed by the Sassanids in 614 and rebuilt in the late 7th century.
The Crusaders built another church in the 12th century, but it was destroyed by Saladin in 1187 and only the chapel enclosing the stone was saved. The chapel was converted into a mosque and the left footprint was moved to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount, but Christian pilgrims would still visit the site in numbers. In an act of good faith, Saladin allowed Christians to worship in the chapel and built another mosque next to it. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to visit.
My Experience
There are a handful of important churches on the Mount of Olives, but our pilgrimage group only had time to visit two monasteries owned by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. On a future trip, I plan to see some of the other important religious sites.
Monastery of the Men of Galilee
First, after leaving Gethsemane, which is at the foot of the Mount of Olives, we went to the Monastery of the Men of Galilee. After passing through the gates, we walked through a peaceful olive grove until we came to an open space containing the bell tower and church.
Our guide, Archbishop Aristovoulos of Madaba, explained to our group that the church sits on the site of the first appearance of Christ to his disciples after the Resurrection. It’s also where the Virgin Mary received information about her death from an angel.
The Monastery of the Men of Galilee contains two churches. One is dedicated to the Men of Galilee while the other is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The complex is also used as the crypt of the Patriarchs of Jerusalem. Both churches were closed and we were only able to visit the grounds.
Monastery of the Ascension
The second monastery we visited sits across the street from the Chapel of the Ascension. The Monastery of the Ascension sits on 12 acres of land purchased by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem in 1845. At that time, the Ottomans were in control of the city and only allowed the construction of a residential building.
In 1987, Archimandrite Ioakim of Chios, Greece, began collecting money from pilgrims for the construction of a church. He was denied a building permit hoping that authorities would grant one later. In 1991, Archimandrite Ioakim began construction of a large church and a smaller church in the basement. He finished construction in one year and temporarily placed a large round icon of Christ Pantocrator in the dome.
However, instead of a building permit, Israeli authorities came with two bulldozers and knocked down the church in under two hours. As one of the bulldozers began to destroy the floor of the church, which was also the ceiling of the basement church, the icon in the dome rolled in front of the bulldozer and stopped. The rest of the demolition was called off, saving the basement church from destruction.
We walked down and visited the tiny basement church, which is covered in beautiful icons and Byzantine frescoes.
Also inside was a photo of Archimandrite Ioakim atop the rubble of the church. The round icon that rolled in front of the bulldozer hangs on the wall.
