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.