Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Crusader Church in Ein Karem near Jerusalem

Feast of the Visitation of Mary (Mother of Jesus) to her cousin Elizabeth (Mother of John The Baptist) in Ein Karem
Ein Karem – where Mary exclaimed the Magnificat – “my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit doth rejoice in God my Savior.”

Crusader Church of the Visitation
In Ein Karem near Jerusalem


According to Christian tradition, John the Baptist was born in Ein Karem, leading to the establishment of many churches and monasteries. In 2010 the neighborhood had a population of 2,000.  It attracts three million visitors a year, one-third of them pilgrims from around the world.

According to the Bible, Mary went "into the hill country, to a city of Judah" when she visited the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth. According to Catholic tradition and dogma, Mary brought forth the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. Theodosius (530) says that the distance from Jerusalem to the place where Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, lived is five miles. The Jerusalem Calendar (dated before 638) mentions the village by name as the place of a festival in memory of Elizabeth celebrated on the twenty-eighth of August.

The Anglo Saxon Saewulf on pilgrimage to Palestine in 1102-1103 wrote of a monastery in the area of Ein Karim dedicated to St. Sabas where 300 monks had been "slain by Saracens.” The site of this crusader church was purchased by Father Thomas of Novaria in 1621.


In 1672 the Franciscan order received a “Firman” from the Ottoman Sultan and 'large sums of mon[ies]' were expended in an extensive rebuilding program.

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