Highlights from the Road: In the Footsteps of Pope Benedict XVI

Mount Scopus

Of archaeological interest is the ancient tomb of Nicanor of Alexandria, a contemporary of King Herod, which is located in the picturesque Hebrew University Botanical Gardens.

Also located on Mount Scopus is the British military cemetery, where soldiers who fell during the first world war are buried. The peaceful graveyard, untouched by the passage of time, is a sobering reminder of the vast reach of that war.

Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum

Upon his arrival at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, Pope Benedict XVI laid memorial wreath in the Hall of Remembrance, a tribute to the victims of the Holocaust.

The foremost museum on the Holocaust in the world, Yad Vashem is the second most-visited site in Israel after the Western Wall. The vast complex of museums, memorials and research centers that comprises Yad Vashem occupies 45 acres. It would take days to see all of the exhibitions and memorials of Yad Vashem.

The museum was first initiated as a memorial in 1942, when word of the Nazi death camps reached the inhabitants of Palestine. Since that time, Yad Vashem has traced millions of names and photos of victims, and incorporated them into the memorial monuments.

The Temple Mount

The Temple Mount, where the Jewish Temple once stood, is the holiest site in Judaism.  In ancient times, the Jewish people would journey on foot from all over the country  to worship in the Temple and to celebrate the Temple festivals. Jewish tradition associates the Temple Mount not merely with the Temple, but also with pivotal events in the Bible, such as the creation of Adam, Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac and Jacob’s dream.  

Following the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in the ninth century, the Temple Mount was transformed into Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary, where the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque now stand. When the Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099, they regarded the Temple Mount as holy to Christianity and turned the Dome of the Rock into a church.

In later centuries, Islam incorporated the belief that Muhammad’s Night Journey took place on the Temple Mount.

The Western Wall

Jews all over the world pray towards Jerusalem. But in the Holy City itself, they pray towards the Western Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism. For thousands of years, this wall that flanks the Temple Mount has been the scene of much yearning and heartfelt prayers.

The Wall was built by King Herod, who in 37 A.D. renovated the Second Temple by flattening the peaks of the Temple Mount and building support walls around it. The Western Wall was once one of these support walls, but its main distinction is that it was the wall that was nearest the Temple’s Holy of Holies, home of the Divine Presence.

 The Room of the Last Supper

The Room of the Last Supper, or the Cenacle, is located on  the second floor of a building on Mount Zion. The room is built on the site of Jesus’ Last Supper, as well as the place where the Holy Spirit descended upon his disciples during Pentecost. It is also the site of the Mother of All Churches, where the earliest Christians worshiped under the auspices of Saint James.

The building that now stands on the site is only the most recent in a long and storied history. Part of the building was destroyed by Titus of Rome, and was later built into a church by Emperor Theodosius I. The church was later expanded and then destroyed twice, once by Persian invaders and once by the Muslim caliph Al-Hakim.

The current building as it now stands was built by the Crusaders in the twelfth century. Franciscan monks occupied the Cenacle until the Turks expelled them in the fifteenth century, turning the church into a mosque. It was only when the State of Israel was established in 1948 that Christians were permitted to return to the site.

Gethsemane and The Kidron Valley

Gethsemane and the Kidron Valley represent one of the peak events of the pope’s pilgrimage: Here he will hold Mass in the company of an estimated 20,000 pilgrims.

Today, Gethsemane is encircled by magnificent landmarks to the faith. One of these landmarks is the Church of All Nations, also known as the Basilica of Agony. Its distinction is that it houses the Rock of Agony, the bedrock beside which prayed on the night before his Crucifixion.

Other holy sites near Gethesemane include the Tomb of the Virgin Mary, where Mary was entombed before her Assumption, and the Grotto of Gethsemane, where Jesus was captured after he was betrayed by Judas Iscariot.

The Kidron Valley is notable as a place where Jesus crossed many times between Gethsemane and Bethany.

The Church of the Nativity

The most venerable church in the Holy Land that is still in use, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is built above the grotto where the birth of Jesus took place. Here the pope will engage in private prayer, before performing a Mass that will be open to the public.

The cave beneath the Church of the Nativity, the birthplace of Jesus, is one of the most sacred sites to the Christian faith. The original basilica was built by Saint Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, in the fourth century. This basilica was destroyed in the sixth century, and rebuilt decades afterward by the Emperor Justinian I.

As the birthplace of Jesus, the Church of the Nativity is the focal point of Christmas celebrations, drawing thousands of pilgrims from around the world each year. The Roman Catholic church within the compound is the Church of St. Catherine, where the Midnight Mass is held by the Latin Patriarchate on Christmas Eve.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The pope’s pilgrimage will conclude where the life of Jesus came to an end, only to begin again: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

For more than a thousand years, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been a pilgrim destination for Christians around the globe. The church marks the place where Jesus was crucified, buried, and at last resurrected. The church complex consists of both the tomb of Jesus and Golgotha, the hill where he was crucified. Located in the Old City of Jerusalem in the Christian Quarter, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is one of the most sacred sites within the faith.

 It was Emperor Constantine who in the fourth century commanded that the pagan temple that stood on this site be destroyed in order to perform excavations. These excavations led to the discovery of the Holy Sepulchre, the tomb where Jesus was buried prior to his miraculous Resurrection. Now, as in days of old, present-day pilgrims wend their way up the Via Dolorosa, following the same path that Jesus took to meet the crucifixion.