We arrived at Ein Karem on 25 December, the birth place of John Baptist and his family, after the stops at the birth place and death of Jesus. The area was hilly, with hills and valleys several miles west of Jerusalem. The Church of Visitation was built, destroyed and rebuilt for the high priest Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth. So was the Church St John Ba Rahim, dedicated to St John, 10 minutes of walking apart. The Church of Visitation was situated on a higher hill, more than 500ft of inclination to walk to the outside gate. We had a small short gathering in the chapel below, where the well was; and walked to the top stairway to the main church. A Mass was celebrated on this day of the 25th by our priests. Our time was short by ending the Mass on the clock a Franciscan priest came up to signal our time in the church was over as the father was preparing for the next visit by another group. So we exited the church, walked down hill and walked to the church of St John the Baptist 10 minutes way, through alleys and turns.
EIN KAREM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In a peaceful valley between mountains and hills, surrounded by the beauty of natural groves, nestles one of Jerusalem’s most picturesque neighborhoods - Ein Kerem, "Spring of the Vineyard" in Hebrew.
Like an island in a sea of green forest in southwest Jerusalem, Ein Kerem has charming stone houses adorned with arches, churches whose bells chime in the clear air and lovely paths paved with stone.
Ein Kerem is a pilgrimage site for many Christian visitors, who come here year after year. According to Christian tradition, this is where Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, miraculously became pregnant. This is also where he was born. Tradition teaches that during her pregnancy, Elizabeth was visited by a family relative - Mary, who was also pregnant, with Jesus, Luke 1: 39-46. The two women met beside the village well and Mary drank from its cool waters. That place is now called Mary’s Well. The village around the well grew and its waters are considered holy. Many pilgrims come to drink from the well and take the holy water away with them in bottles.
Since the Byzantine period (1,500 years ago), in the 5th century over a cave supposed to be part of the dwelling house of Zacharias and the site if the birth of John. The original church was destroyed and built by the Crusaders and again destroyed after their departures. The present church was built in 1885 by the Franciscan.
The 2-story church of the Visitation is built over the site where Elizabeth hid when she knew herself to be with child and where Mary came to visit her. On the wall facing the Church the Magnificat is written in 41 languages on ceramic plagues.
Today there a few active churches and also a few monasteries. Two of the churches are named after John the Baptist, one Catholic and the other Greek Orthodox. Both were built in the late 19th century on the ruins of previous churches. The Catholic church has an ancient mosaic floor and a grotto thought to be the birthplace of John the Baptist.
The Church of the Visitation was built in 1955, on the foundations of a Crusader church built in the traditional location of the summer home where John the Baptist’s parents lived when Mary visited Elizabeth. The church is built around a large stone behind which Elizabeth hid John the Baptist from Herod’s soldiers, who were ordered to kill all children under the age of two.
The Sisters of Zion Convent, also in Ein Kerem, was built as an orphanage. Today it is home to 13 nuns who run a modest hostel. The nearby Gorny Monastery, also known as the Moscovia (because it resembles churches in Moscow) is reached via a steep, winding path. This Russian-Orthodox church was built in the l
