Today we drive south of Jerusalem. We drove by the walls around Jerusalem. Field of Blood is a valley where Judas Iscariot hang himself. He was buried in the Potter's field. It became a place where the Jews bury non Jews who die here.
Our first stop was St. Savva's Monastery. It has been operating and serving all daily services since the 6th century. There are about 20 monks there right now.
Only men are allowed to enter the monastery. A few years ago a woman journalist tried to enter disguised as a man and as soon as she stepped in, the earthquake happened in the ares. This was taken as a sign that St. Savva prefers that women should not enter.
The relics of St. Savva are incorruptible and are in the monastery. Our men went in for a visit (you will have to look for one of them to tell you about it) and the girls ended up hanging around the entrance. That is when Fr. Efram came out to talk to us and be host at the front door to the Monastery. Fr. Efram was fantastic, bringing us many gifts. He started with icons and pictures and articles about the monastery. There are relics of many other saints here: St. Savva of course, St. John Damascin (St John of Damascus), St. Xenia of Rome, St. Paraskieva, St. Daniel the Stylite, St. Therapont Bishop of Cypress, St. Haralampi, St. Xenofon and his sons Ioan and Arkady. Fr. Efram brought out for us for veneration a box full of their relics. Then he kept bringing out more gifts, icons, CDs, then tea and coffee, and in the end Greek Pascha cakes, which were the most delicious treats we have tasted on our trip. we must have spent an hour with him, while men visited inside.
From there, we went to St. Theodosius Monastery. This is believed to be the place where the Magi stayed returning home to Persia after bringing gifts to newborn Christ. This church had a crypt with many saint mothers (how appropriate, since tomorrow is Mother's Day): St. Theodosius, St. Evlogia (mother of st. Theodosius), St. Sophia (mother of St. Savva), St. Asija (Mother of Cosmas and Damian), St. Maria (mother of John and Arkady, and who's husband was St. Xenofon).
Next we stopped at the Church of Shepperds Field.
Lunch was falafel in Bethlehem. Betlehem means "house of bread". It is also often called the city of David.
T0 get to the Church of Nativity, we had to walk a little bit through the old town of Bethlehem, right past "Stars and Bucks" coffee shop! Church of the Nativity is the oldest church in the Holy Land. It was saved from destruction three times actually: first time it was spared during the Persian destruction in 614. Since the
Wise Men were Persian Kings, when Persians saw that their ancestors were here, they did not destroy the church out of respect for them. The second time the destruction by the Egyptioans did not happen
because the kalif who ordered the destruction died before they got to it and the army turned around to go back home before they got to this church. Most recently it was miraculously saved during the 1967 six day war, when an Israeli missile was launched towards it, fell through the roof, fell and damaged the floor not far from the main (Greek) iconostas, but DID NOT EXPLODE!!!
Birthplace of our Lord
Place of the manger
On the way from the Church of Nativity, we stopped at a gift store owned by an Orthodox family. This is were we were to do most of our shopping to contribute to the Christian community, and to be certain we are buying authentic Holy Land - made articles. So different to go from the place where Christ was born to shopping for trinkets and souvenirs..... Lots of moments like that on this trip....I don't have any pictures from there......
Final stop for the day was Prophet Elijas Monastery. All I remember from this visit was lots of Russian tourists eating at the restaurant right next to the church.
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