Mount of Olives Herstory Part II

 

This is the second half of my description of the Mount of Olives: Herstory tour led by Sara Yarden.  (Click here for part I) Part I describes Sara's background and her comments at the Chapel of the Ascension and the Tomb of Huldah .  

After leaving the Tomb of Hulda, we exited to the left and walked along the street named for Rabi'a Al 'Adawiyya, the Sufi poetess honored along with Huldah and a Christian saint named Pelagia.

We did not enter the Pater Noster ("Our Father") church, but stopped and discussed for a minute how the first church here built by Helena was destroyed by Persians, then rebuilt by Crusaders and destroyed by Saladin, then partially rebuilt by a French noblewoman named Princess de la Tour d'Auvergne until the money ran out.  There is a cave enshrined here where Jesus taught his disciples about the end of days, and the beautiful words of the Lord's prayer are celebrated with ceramic plaques in 140 languages.  

We walked out from the village toward the Seven Arches Hotel, and this was our view: the Dome, the Old City, West Jerusalem in the background, and a Muslim cemetery in the foreground.  Sara said that many Muslims believe Jesus will come to Jerusalem to judge the world at the end of days;  he will come from Damascus on a white horse, cross this valley on a bridge with seven arches, and enter the now sealed Golden Gate, so that motivates many Muslims to want to be buried here.  I hadn't heard that explanation about the seven arches, but there is a hotel on this hill called the Seven Arches hotel, which is controversial to believing Jews because it apparently was built over part of the cemetery.  

Sara said the Jewish belief in life after death goes back at least 2000 years, and this area is revered as the site of the final judgment.  Zechariah 14 says that the Messiah will stand on the Mount of Olives, which will divide, and water will pour through the Kidron Valley, also called Jehoshephat.  If the Kidron is full of water, the unwary could be swept down to the base of the Hinnom valley, which represents Hell because of ancient idol worship there.  If that torrent of water continues down the Kidron valley, it ends up at the Dead Sea, another symbol of death.  The Jewish tradition is to be buried with their feet facing the temple, so when they rise up they are ready to greet the Messiah. 

This is a huge Jewish cemetery that wraps around the southern end of the Mount of Olives.  Tightly crammed, this cemetery is some of the most expensive real estate in the country. 

We were chatting at the entrance to the cemetery, when suddenly a man started yelling at us in Hebrew to leave.  Sara calmly but firmly replied in Hebrew that we were going to visit a tomb and led us expertly between the rows.  There was no visible path, just a slightly wider space between one row and the next.  After winding through the sea of memorials, we climbed over a railing and stopping by one tomb in particular.  

Like the other memorials, it was a rectangular stone box with a Hebrew inscription, even the date was in Hebrew letters.  A distinctive feature of memorials here is the use of rocks rather than flowers.  Sara explained that by placing rocks on top, mourners are adding to the memorial and building it higher.  

This was the resting place of Hannah Rochel, also known as Hannah Rachel Verbermacher, or the Maiden of Ludmir.  Hannah lived in what is now northwestern Ukraine in the early 1800s.  At the time, Hebrew instruction was for boys, while girls may have used the Hebrew alphabet but spoke and prayed in Yiddish.  Hannah's father was wealthy and provided a good education for her, so she studied Hebrew and Torah.  After an fainting spell and vision at her mother's grave, Hannah kept the Jewish rituals traditionally reserved for men, such as praying multiple times a day with a prayer shawl and tallit.  She taught from the Torah, gathered disciples around her table, and was credited with miracles like other Hasidic rabbis.  

So understandably, Hannah's actions made waves.  Eventually she was pressured to marry, but the marriage didn't last long.  The details of Hannah's family life are widely contested.  She is called a maiden in some sources and a widow in others.  Sara told of a member of one of her tours by the name of Bardach who claimed to be a descendant.  According to their family tradition, Hannah Rochel had a child who got sick, and she promised God that if the child were healed she would worship in Jerusalem.  Another account says she moved to Jerusalem because she felt she had lost her spiritual powers when she got married.1  For whatever reason, Hannah moved to Jerusalem near the Temple Mount's Cotton gate and resumed her rituals.  She was known as a rabbi for women, and groups of women followed her to Rachel's Tomb every month.   She died in Jerusalem in 1888 and was buried without fanfare, but in 2004 renewed interest in her story led to the installation of the current headstone.2  As recently as 2014 her title "Maiden of Ludmir" was still considered too controversial to have a street in Jerusalem named after her.  I happen to live on Hadassa Lampel street, and Sara's street is named after Naomi, so naming a street  after a woman is not without precedent.   

The themes of Hannah's story are slightly different from the temptress/saint dichotomy found in Pelagia and Mary of Egypt's narrative, but there are still hints that in her culture, piety and sexual expression were mutually exclusive even within marriage, i.e. her detractors assumed that forcing her to marry would curtail her religious activities.  One commentator said that while it was seen as acceptable for some men to choose celibacy for the sake of God, it was considered an aberration for women to do the same.3   

As we left the cemetery, Sara explained that the practice of praying at the tombs of righteous leaders is viewed with mixed feelings.  Many orthodox Jews feel this borders on idolatry, but other Jews (such as Moroccan Jews) feel comfortable praying at the tomb of an illustrious biblical figure or rabbi, asking for special favors for the sake of the righteousness of the person enshrined there.  The Tomb of Rachel is one such location where women might choose to pray about fertility issues in hopes of that prayer being more readily answered.

We next walked downhill to the chapel of Dominus Flevit.  The unique shape of this chapel is meant to remind the viewer of a teardrop.   Here on the Mount of Olives, the Savior wept, not for his own impending death, but for the destruction he knew awaited the people of Jerusalem. 

The altar in the Dominus Flevit chapel depicts a hen gathering her chickens, a very maternal image.  

As this tour was on a Monday, the Russian Orthodox Church of the Mary Magdalene was closed to tourists, but we could see its distinctive onion-shaped domes from the corner of the Dominus Flevit overlook.  This church features a grand mural of Mary testifying of Jesus Christ before Emperor Tiberias, with a miraculous red egg as proof.  Dying eggs a bright red color is still an Easter tradition in Orthodox Christianity.  

Sara told us that although Mary Magdalene was actually a wealthy woman who supported Jesus and his disciples financially, later traditions about Mary Magdalene gave her a backstory as a repentant sinner, another fallen woman who was rehabilitated (like Pelagia and Mary of Egypt).  

In my opinion, the problem with this temptress-to-saint paradigm is not the focus on redemption-- I personally believe that as imperfect humans we need the merits and mercy of Jesus Christ to move beyond our mistakes ranging from small to great.  But the polarizing paradigm Sara is describing implied that women were either evil or holy, with no middle ground, while men were accepted as complex people with a mix of good and bad traits.  There do seem to be many cases where the stories told about women function as one-dimensional morality tales, either cautionary or inspirational, rather than treating women as fully formed main characters of their own stories.   But maybe some of that oversimplification is the result of trying to encapsulate someone's life in a few brief sentences, (as I am admittedly doing right now!)

The Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene is the final resting place of several influential women.  For instance, the Grand-duchess Elisabeth was a much-courted Hessian princess who converted to Russian Orthodoxy when she married into the Russian royal dynasty.  After her husband's assassination, she became a nun, funding a convent and hospital in Moscow.  Elisabeth was killed in 1918 after the Bolshevik Revolution, and now lies in state in the chapel on the Mount of Olives along with her fellow nun Barbara.  Barbara had been Elisabeth's servant, but followed her into the convent and later to death.  Both women were canonized and lie in state in the chapel.  

  

The real Princess Alice is on the left.  (On the right is actress Jane Lapotaire in the Crown) 

Elisabeth's niece, Alice of Battenberg (Princess of Greece and Denmark, mother of Prince Philip of Great Britain and grandmother of King Charles III) is buried in the crypt below the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene, in fulfillment of her wishes to be buried near her aunt.  Born with a hearing disability, Princess Alice married into the royal family of Greece, had five children, and dedicated much of her life to charity, religion, and health care for poor and war- torn areas.  Princess Alice was honored for hiding a Jewish family during WWII.  After treatment for schizophrenia and subsequent widowhood, she became a Greek Orthodox nun.  

Our last site for the day was the Sepulchre of St. Mary, also called the Tomb of the Virgin Mary, nicknamed Mary's Grotto.  This church is in the Kidron Valley at the foot of the Mount of Olives.  The current structure is the crypt of what was a large Crusader church.  Saladin dismantled its upper floors and repurposed the stones in other building projects (possibly reinforcing the old city walls).  We entered and descended into a vaulted grotto ornamented with hanging lamps and paintings of saints.  

Many Christians believe that Mary the mother of Christ was given special access to heaven after her mortal life was over.  Both Orthodox and Catholic Christians believe that Mary's body was take to heaven ("assumption"), but they differ as to whether she first died a peaceful but mortal death then was resurrected 3 days later, as may Orthodox believe, or whether her united body and soul were taken to heaven without dying first, as many Catholics believe.  Both Orthodox and Catholic denominations often use the word "dormition" or sleep to refer to Mary's final moments.   At any rate, it is an empty tomb that we see here  at the bottom of the stately crypt.

Supplicants have left notes or money here within the glassed-in funeral bench.

The visual representation of the dormition of Mary is shown in this painting of Jesus standing over his "sleeping" mother, cradling what looks like an infant in his arms.  This small, white-shrouded figure represents his mother's soul, and here he stretches out his other hand to claim her mortal remains.  

Another tradition surrounding Mary's death is that she had gathered all of the apostles, except Thomas, who had been far away in India.  So when Thomas arrived three days later, the apostles opened Mary's tomb again so he could venerate her, but he looked in and found it was empty.  Some accounts say that Mary appeared to Thomas and gave him her sash (cincture) so that he could prove to the others that she had been taken to heaven.  

As we exited the stairs,  we stopped at a chamber on the left halfway up.  It is currently a location for commemorating Mary's parents,  Anna and Joachin, but an older tradition links this place to the grave of Melisande, who was a Crusader Queen in the 12th century.  Melisande was the daughter of the king of Jerusalem and an Armenian princess, and she was coronated together with her husband and young son in 1131.  She had to defend herself against both men , and at her husband's death,  she was firmly in power.  She reigned (or co-reigned) Judea and Galilee for over 20 years before her son eclipsed her and took control of everything but Nablus.4  Melisande is credited with overseeing the reconstruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre  in 1149 to its present form.  

The Sepuchre of St. Mary is shared space revered by 7 different Orthodox denominations, and as Muslims also revere Mary, the East Jerusalem neighbors are respectful of the site as well.  Sara told us of a time she was passing the church after close and saw a Muslim woman and her young daughter knocking on the door.   The priest kindly let her them,  and Sara followed out of curiosity.   The mother led her daughter down the long staircase to the empty tomb.   Then she proceeded to tell her little girl that her name, "Miriam," came from Mary, the Mother of Jesus mentioned in the Quran.  She told her daughter that she should have faith like her namesake, and the mom promised to bring her daughter back every year on her birthday.  

The sight of this Muslim woman keeping Mary's memory alive was very touching to Sara.  She loves instances of shared sacred space, especially when women of the past are being celebrated and their memories are being kept alive by the careful retelling of their life stories.   

1 https://mishpacha.com/the-maiden-of-ludmir/  Dr. Pearl Hertzog, 6 Nov 2013.

2https://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Judaism/His-StoryHer-Story-Hannah-Rochel-Vebermacher, April 4, 2017.

3  https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/ludomir-maid-of  Accessed 7 Oct 2022

4  https://epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu/woman/30.html Accessed 8 Oct 2022

Mount of Olives: History and Herstory part I

 

[This is a lengthy post because some of my friends wanted to join us on this tour but were unable to, so forgive me for being excessively wordy!  I usually try to reign in that impulse!!]

We had the privilege yesterday of taking a tour of the Mount of Olives with a fabulous tour guide, my dear friend Sara Yarden.  Sara grew up in Sweden, went to law school in Israel, converted to Orthodox Judaism as a young adult, married a man named Ophir who was leading her tour of the City of David, and is raising four sons and a daughter in Israel.  

Joining me on the tour were Jo Ann Seely, who is a scholar and adjunct teacher as well as the spouse of a current BYU Jerusalem Center faculty member, Marvel Earnshaw who is serving as the housing and medical couple and is one of the most intelligent, inquisitive, life-long learners I have ever met, and Heather Farrell, who has written several books on women in the scriptures and is currently working on a masters at Hebrew University.  

With all this brain power, we were stumped by the very first set of instructions:  Meet at the Chapel of the Ascension at 8:30 am.

So this is us at 8:25 standing outside the CHURCH of the Ascension (Russian, with the tall, pointy bell tower).  Sara, on the other hand, was at the CHAPEL of the Ascension (with a round-topped minaret) which is further south. It took a few frantic texts and a phone call to arrive at the right place.

 By the way, there are at least 2 other locations that celebrate the ascension of Christ on the Mount of Olives: the Augusta Victoria church--officially called the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Ascension--has a massive square bell tower and a hospital.  The other site was the Eleona church built by Constantine's mother Helena and named after Greek word for olives.  It stood near where the Pater Noster complex is now but only ruins mark where it used to be.

This points out a common theme of Holy Land touring, which is, that most events in the Life of Jesus Christ have at least 2 possible sites where that event could have taken place.  One one hand, (adapted from Gary P. McBride) having multiple sites is good so that we don't get tempted to worship the place more than God whose intervention in history made the place sacred.  On the other hand, having more than one site can cause us to enter into debates about the exactness of the place.  Looking for physical evidence to stand up to others' conclusions can distract us the "spirit of the place," which is the spirit of the Lord bearing witness of sacred events as we ponder and remember.

This is the sign for the Chapel of the Ascension, where we finally connected with Sara.  

Sara's excellent instruction began with the subject female pilgrims, who came to Jerusalem in great numbers to visit the churches built here starting in the 4th century.  Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, identified many sites for churches.  Helena seems to have been devout and motivated by faith.  Constantine seems to have been motivated by a desire to unite his kingdom by unifying Christianity. These sites attracted Christian pilgrims from far and wide, many female.  

For instance, Egeria was a woman from Spain or Portugal who visited Jerusalem between 380 and 384  and wrote about her travels and religious observances.  Poimenia was another early pilgrim; around 390 she traveled to Jerusalem and donated money toward building a church on the Mount of Olives.  

Sara pointed out that for many women, life back home was constrained by limited roles and expectations, but pilgrimage to Jerusalem was considered a respectable reason to travel.  Once here it was expected that they would follow a pattern of liturgy, travelling between sites and read certain scriptures and prayers at each site.  This may have meant exercising autonomy in ways not possible back home.  Heather mentioned that Eliza R. Snow visited the Holy Land (1872-73) and wrote about her experiences, and Sara added Selma Lagerlöf as another example of a late 19th century traveler and writer.  

The Chapel of the Ascension is a small part of what used to be a Byzantine church, destroyed by Fatimid Al Hakim, rebuilt by Crusaders as arches surrounding a protrusion of rock.  Salahdin destroyed churches with strategic importance as fortifications, but since Muslims respect and revere Jesus, the small shrine in the middle of the church was left standing.  

The structure was once open to the sky to suggest the vertical motion of Jesus ascending to heaven, but now a small dome covers the space.  The protrusion of rock protected by this domed chapel bears an indentation like a footprint.  You can imagine the stones bearing witness of the divinity of Jesus as he ascended to Heaven.  

Inside the chapel is a prayer niche (mihrab) for use in Muslim worship, and a mosque now stands outside the central courtyard to provide a more private place for prayer.  This leads us to another theme encountered in the Holy Land:  It is common for one site to be revered by more than one group or subgroup of worshippers.  Examples of this kind of shared sacred space include Nabi Samwil, the tomb of Elijah in Haifa, and the tomb of Hulda, which was our next site.  But often these shared spaces become more used by one group and less used by another group.  

Speaking of precious stones in octagonal settings, Sara reminded us that just across the Kidron Valley, the Dome of the Rock has a similar octagonal design.  When a round or octagonal church surrounds the remains of a saint, it is called a martyrion.  What does the Dome of the Rock surround?  A protrusion of stone on which is a footprint attributed to Mohammad on his night journey.  Sara loves the mirror image of the two footprints just across from each other, made by two of the most highly revered figures in history.  (She mentioned another octagonal church which once stood between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, commemorating a rock upon which Mary rested on her way to Bethlehem.)

(The Kathysma, ruins of octagonal shrine between Jerusalem and Bethlehem)

The courtyard of the Chapel of the Ascension is a sacred space shared by several denominations of Orthodox Christians, especially during the Orthodox Feast of the Ascension, 40 days after Orthodox Easter.  Sara recommends trying to come at that festival to see the courtyard crowded with pomp and circumstance,  patriarchs, priests, ceremonial guards in full regalia, and worshippers encircling the chapel and then reverently entering in a way that, to Sara, hearkens back to the pilgrimage rituals captured in Egeria's writings so many centuries ago.

Sara told us briefly about another famous woman of Jerusalem, Queen Helene of Adibene from the area of modern-day Iraq, who converted to Judaism in the 1st century.  She lived in Jerusalem for a time, and was buried here, most likely in the Tombs of the Kings at the intersection of Saladin street and Nablus Road in Sheikh Jarrah.  

Side note--my own opinion here --It is interesting to me that when the remains of a woman are found buried with honor at great expense, those who make the discovery assume that it must be one of the women that is known based on available sources at that time.  I'm oversimplifying, but I wonder if scholars said, "Here is this tomb with an inscription mentioning a queen.  Of the five (or twenty-five) powerful women we have heard of from that time period, it must have been Queen Helene."  I wonder if that same phenomenon of identification based on a limited number of known influential women could explain why three women are celebrated at the tomb we visited next.

Tomb of Rabia Al Adawiyya/Hulda/Pelagia

We walked around the corner and down the street to an arched room with stairs leading downward.  As I recall, this was once the crypt of the Byzantine Church of the Ascension.

 

This  upper room has a mihrab (on the right in green) pointing south to Mecca to guide Muslim prayer groups.

We headed down the stairs in darkness at first, as if to heighten the mood and theatrical anticipation, but the temporary power outage ended and the mysterious gloom dissipated as the lights blinked on and the excellent instruction resumed.  

These stairs show signs of creative engineering, or re-engineering.  

Off to the right is the tomb in an arched recess in the wall (arcosolium).  It is off-centered and closer to the right side of the arch, and covered with an embroidered cloth.  

I have seen this type of embroidery-covered tomb in places like Nabi Samwil or the tomb of Rachel. Often these tombs are cenotaphs or empty tombs to memorialize someone when the exact location of the burial is unknown.  This would be like installing a headstone in your ancestor's hometown cemetery, not knowing exactly where they are buried, but wanting them to be remembered.   

The embroidery on top is the Shehada, the Muslim declaration of faith.

  Muslims come here to venerate Rabi'a Al-'Adawiyya, a 9th century Sufi mystic and poetess from Basra, Iraq.  From humble beginnings (traditions say she was orphaned and enslaved) she became a very influential religious leader who renounced worldly possessions and embraced extreme humility.  She is still read and loved and followed to the present day. Sara said on one tour, she had a Pakistani many who said Rabi'a was the person he follows as a Sufi.   According to later Sufi poets who wrote about her, Rabi'a fervently wished to worship God out of pure love, not in order to pursue rewards or escape punishments.  There is a story about her walking around the streets of Basra carrying a jug of wine and a jug of oil.  People said, "Rabi'a, why are you carrying a jug of water?" and she said, I want to put out the flames of hell.  Then they asked, "Okay, but why are you carrying a jug of oil?"  and she said, "Because I want to set fire to paradise.  I want people to worship God for his own sake, not for the hope of reward in paradise or because of fear of punishment.  

Sara pointed out that this is ironic because the Mount of Olives is all about judgment, the Kidron Valley is associated with the last days, the Mount of Olives reminds us of resurrection 

In another poem, Rabi'a says,
In my soul, there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church where I kneel. 
Prayer should bring us to an altar where no walls or names exists.
In my soul, there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church that all dissolve in God.

There is a site in Iraq commemorating Rabi'a as well, but to Muslims it is not a great concern that there is a competing site, it's more about revering and remembering her.

To the left (East) of the memorial is a small chamber, currently carpeted with prayer rugs.  In this small niche lived the second woman memorialized here, Pelagia of Antioch in the 6th century, who was said to have led a sinful life until she was touched by the message of Jesus Christ.  At that point, she renounced all the trappings of femininity, shaved off her beautiful hair, dressed in sackcloth, and even deprived herself of food that kept her body vital.  She came to Jerusalem dressed as a monk and lived in this cave until her death. 

Okay, my opinion again: I felt in awe of Pelagia's intensity of worship but also slightly claustrophobic kneeling there.  I can't imagine choosing to live in this cave as an escape from the constraints of daily life--how tortuous must her former life have been that she would feel more comfortable here!  I am so grateful that my life has been spared the abuse and shame that these women experienced.   Or maybe it was Pelagia's dread of judgment that drove her to such extreme self-abasement and renunciation.  I am so grateful to live in a faith tradition where I conform in a few ways --trying to follow God's commandments and follow the promptings of His spirit--but I can still enjoy the blessings of family, wider social connection, education, jobs, not to mention food.  I had a harder time connecting with this one. 

 

According to Sara, this story reflects the problematic paradigms of women as either sinful or as extremely pious, with no middle ground.  In this view, sexuality and even in some cases motherhood is portrayed as reducing a woman's holiness and spiritual power.  This invites us to explore ways in which women who desired to become holy had to conform to male standards of religiosity.  In what ways did these women renounce their femininity, in some cases disguising themselves as men to better serve God.  This was a very foreign way of looking at women and spirituality, compared to my own worldview.  I'm glad this is so bizarre from a modern standpoint, but I think it still warns us to guard against thinking in this polarizing way, that women are either saints needing to be placed on pedestals, or else they are sinners deserving to be avoided and silenced.  

The third woman venerated here since the 14th century is Huldah, the biblical prophetess living at the time of Josiah.  When Josiah renovated the temple and found scrolls that spoke of laws that they had not been keeping, he went to the highest religious authority of the day, and that was Huldah, living in what is now Mt. Zion or the westward expansion of ancient Jerusalem.  Josiah feared that the nation would be punished for their breach of duty, and Huldah confirmed that imminent destruction was hanging over the nation.  Because of Josiah's repentant obedience, he would not see the desolation, and therefore the nation would be spared a little while (2 Kings 22).  Because of Huldah's interpretation, Josiah ordered a sweeping reform, removing poles for idol worship in the Hinnom valley, and ordering the people to resume keeping the Passover festival.  

Hulda featured on a modern Israeli stamp

The Talmud says that Hulda was buried just inside the city, near the gates of the temple, and the southern gates of Herod's Temple are called the Hulda gates.  

Heather added that as a result of the reform prompted by Josiah's consultation with Hulda, worship at the temple at Jerusalem was consolidated and emphasized.  Heather mentioned that worshippers usually entered the temple through the triple gates and left through the double gates, except in cases of mourning, when they went the opposite direction.  She loves that this tradition acknowledges the need to support one another in times of mourning, which we can only do if we are aware.  Sara connected this tradition to the current practice of mourners arriving intentionally late to Kabbalat Shabbat services so that those in the congregation can be aware of their loss and offer consolation at appropriate times throughout the week.

Huldah was said in the Talmud to have been a descendent of Rahab, the harlot in the story of the spies in Jericho, echoing the paradigm of women leaving behind a sordid past or tainted lineage in order to become holy.  Even Rabi'a al 'Addawiyeh was said to have been a slave, which implies that she was fleeing prostitution or abuse.  Sara said, tongue in cheek, that if we are looking for the common red thread running through these three stories, that is it.   Each of these women were somehow associated with backstories that paint them or their ancestors as having been rehabilitated from a degenerate past in order to find a holy life.   Another woman whose legacy follows this paradigm is Mary of Egypt, a saint in Orthodox Christianity memorialized in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  Mary of Egypt's story was associated with this site during the Crusades, probably because she has a similar narrative arc to Pelagia.

The tradition in this place is to walk around the tomb, which is not easy, and therefore if you succeed, it is a sign that your prayers (for forgiveness) are answered.  So we all squeezed one by one around the tomb.  Marvel handed her phone to someone before making a circuit, not because she wanted a photo, but because she didn't want the phone to be scratched while in her pocket!  Maybe this is like the eye of the needle image, that one has to put spiritual concerns ahead of earthly possessions in order to come close to God.

 

Two more interesting things about this site:  There is a faint red cross painted on one wall, to the left of the cave of the Saint Pelagia.

   

To the right of the tomb, visible as you exit, is a shallow inscription in the form of a tabula ansata (two-handled plate) that faintly says in Latin, "Domitilla, no one is immortal."  Domitilla is a Roman woman's name, it can mean something like "Little tamed one."  The words are consistent with a burial site.  There is the hint of a cross below the inscription.  

So we haven't answered the question of who exactly is buried here, but clearly it is a place to reflect on the contributions of great holy women, explore the dubious legacy of philosophies about women even within religious traditions, and keep these three particular women alive as we share their stories.  

"Domitilla, no one is immortal"

(I can't see the original letters in the worn stucco, but this grim translation doesn't hint at any Christian hope for redemption.  It sounds coincidentally like a quote by Sallust, Etenim nemo ignavia immortalis factus est, "No coward is made immortal" Sal. Jug. 85)

Here is the entrance gate if you want to visit.  There was no entrance fee, but we left a donation on the way out.

This is longer than  I anticipated, so let's call this part 1.  To be continued.

Things I love about Jerusalem: People. And food. And people who cook good food!

 

I left some pretty amazing people behind in the States.  That has been tough.  Each time I come back, more of our kids have graduated and moved on to college and beyond.  

As hard as it is to be away from family and friends back home, it is satisfying to meet and get to know some wonderful people.  

When the students aren't here yet, our church congregation is small but full of sweet sisters and brothers who try to look out for each other!

Being away from family and home gives the Americans among us something in common! There are several local members here, too, but for most it is difficult to meet in person, which is a challenge, but so satisfying when we get to see them!

This is Sana, a good friend and amazing cook!  Her specialty is stuffed grape leaves, but she also makes meat-stuffed potatoes in tomato sauce that are out of this world!

Good times with Heather, Marvel, and Elna at HaMesila restaurant in First Station, where Elna knows everyone and ordered us Shakshuka with white sauce (eggs poached in savory cream).

There are youth for Emily to hang out with!   (the Marcous kids)

Friends from the past in the building:  (The amazing Properzi kids!)

Future friends in the district: (Tel Aviv, Beer Sheva, and Jerusalem youth near Absalom's tomb)

Young Women and Young Men Leaders (after a rockin' game of chair soccer--only one bloody nose and one black eye)

There are friends in the ward to explore with (Properzis and Ferrells at Haniya Spring)

And friends from school to invite over: (Eva, friend since kindergarten)

More people pictures:

We booked a tour called Mount of Olives: Herstory with Sara Yarden.  Sara is the ultimate collector of female friends, most of them deceased, because she loves keeping alive stories of influential women from the past.  It was outstanding how she made history more clear and connected the dots of different women in the history of the holy land.  She told us about queens of Jerusalem, a female rabbi who challenged the "Hebrew is for boys, Yiddish is for girls" barrier, wealthy women who built churches, and princesses who became nuns.  She gets really excited when she sees instances of inter-denominational worship, such as this site, which is venerated as the tomb of a Muslim Sufi poetess (Rabia Al Adawiyya), a Christian nun (Pelagia), and a Jewish prophetess (Hulda).  

Noemi Weinstein is a music afficionado and former head of the concert program at the Jerusalem Center.  Now she is retired but still enjoys the free concerts when she can!

The Properzis as well as some of our delightful service couples came over for cake and ice cream last month!

Eran Hayet, the director of the BYU Jerusalem center, welcomes Kent Jackson, former Associate Academic Director, here leading a group of alumni.

These two have put a lot of years of their life into the Jerusalem Center and could tell you a lot of crazy stories!  Jo Ann came here for the first time in the 80's with a young family, husband finishing his dissertation, and three weeks' notice!  Tawfic handles security, staffing, technology, and the biggest Christmas celebration on the Mount of Olives.

New friends!  We actually met Nili at the grocery store in French Hill, and we had a nice visit a few days later with her good friend.  

Jihan Khoury is teacher's aide at the Anglican School, a dear friend, and an amazing cook. 

Avital, Elaine, and Jo Ann are just a few of the amazing, organized women who make this program work!

Shulamit near is the talented woman who painted the panorama of Jerusalem that hangs in my living room at home and in my apartment here.  Frank always thinks it is funny to have a painting on the wall here that is so similar to the view from the window, but I love it!  

Raghad is the sweetest, kindest person I know, and I know a lot of amazingly kind people!  She works at a school for older children with special needs and is a college student as well.  This girl is going to go far!

Nahum was involved in the construction and maintenance of the center way back in the early days!

Chef Mervat cooks amazing meals for the BYU Jerusalem Center students.  Her specialty is a creme brule dessert which we ate at our simulated Seder meal, painstakingly and beautifully browned with a culinary blowtorch!

And you gotta love these students!  They bring the center to life!

The Seder flower committee

Helpers assembling school kits for the Humanitarian activity.

Field trippin' with Brother Judd!

My niece's companion's younger sister!  I love the small world connections!  

The neice of a former student when we were here in the past.

Great-neice of Janna Coombs, one of the service couples from a few years ago.

We are fasting and praying for a student who is experiencing kidney problems right now.  Health is fleeting, we are all in God's hands, and it's a miracle when all those organs and tissues do their jobs right without us even thinking about them!

We never know when might be the last chance to say something encouraging or visit someone or stop and listen.  Last time we were here, I had one friend pass away, another friend had a stroke, then covid shut down nearly everything.  I hope to do better this time to seize the day! 

My favorite people in the Holy Land!