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Pilgrimage in the Holy Land

St John Phocas, tr. Stewart, 1889

Chapter 15

Beyond this, outside of the city, towards the eastern part thereof, in the midst of the great ravine-like chasm which divides the Mount of Olives from the Holy City, lies the place called Gethsemane, wherein is the tomb of our most blessed Lady the Virgin, and the garden wherein our Saviour often rested with His disciples. Here also are three churches; that furthest to the left, lying in a hollow place beneath the earth, contains the blessed tomb of the Virgin. Now this church is very long, and entirely covered by a semicircular vault.¹ In the midst of the church stands the tomb, which is like a pulpit,² wrought of stone in the shape of a building composed of four arches. On the eastern side of it there is, as it were, a bed³ wrought out of the same stone, and decorated with white marble, whereon the immaculate body of the Blessed Virgin was laid by the Apostles after it had been brought from Sion. Above this there is another church, which is a grotto, wherein the Lord’s Prayer was spoken, and the Apostles grew heavy with sleep and slept. At the foot of the Mount of Olives, about a stone’s-throw distant, stands the third church, at the place where the Gospel tells us that our Lord, after reproaching His disciples because of their indolence, betook Himself again to prayer, when sweat ran from Him like drops of blood. In this garden the Betrayal took place, and Judas deceitfully kissed his Master, and the rabble of the Jews held Him fast. On the opposite side of the garden, on the upper part of it, over against Sion, is a church, and under it a grotto, into which Peter entered after the Denial, and wept bitterly. Here is a picture of the Apostle in his grief. Above Gethsemane and the Church of the Lord’s Prayer the Mount of Olives is to be seen, divided, as I said before, from the Holy City by the Valley of Jehosaphat and the Valley of Weeping; the place is, therefore, a hill, which is a little higher than the city; wherefore it does not appear very large when viewed from the direction of the city, but if you look at it from the direction of Jordan and Bethany, it looks very lofty indeed, for it rises by a gentle ascent from the desert. On the top of the Mount is the place where our Saviour often conversed with His disciples after His Resurrection, and where afterwards He wrought that most sublime miracle, His Ascension. Near this, in a grotto below, may be seen the place wherein St. Pelagia performed her ascetic labours, and wherein her blessed body now rests in a stone coffin. Near this is another church, where our Lord gave His disciples the prayer ‘Our Father.’ On the left side of the city is a monastery of Latin monks, built, it is said, upon the foundations of an old monastery, founded by the celebrated Melane. In front of this mountain, behind the city, as you come from Samaria, is a monastery,⁴ into which, after the blessed protomartyr Stephen was stoned and laid in the place which we have mentioned, his holy and blessed body was brought by Gamaliel. The ravine, which starts from Gethsemane, proceeds as far as the laura⁵ of St. Saba and the desert of Ruba,⁶ which lies around the Dead Sea and Sodom.

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