In the Russian Compound – most of it incongruously co-opted by the Jerusalem police department when I was there! – is the magnificent Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. The Compound is only a short distance up Jaffa St. from the New Gate of Old City Jerusalem. I lived for some time in the Old City with a Palestinian family, on the street which is called the Via Dolorosa until it takes a turn - which I would see when I looked out the window of my room - into the Holy Sepulchre. Viewed from this vantage point, our cathedral rises above the Jerusalem skyline like an exquisitely crafted diadem, crowning the Holy City.
For a period Vladika blessed me to live in the Russian monastery called Gornensky – of the “hill country” as St. Luke (1:39) so well characterizes it – where St. John the Baptist was born. Just like the Russian nuns, I had a little house built Arab-style with the thick masonry walls, so effective in winter’s chill as also summer’s heat, but with very Russian windows: 3 panes and the “fortochka”!
What is now such a church of such splendor was very incomplete and somewhat in ruins when I was there – I can’t wait to see it, and, of course, worship in it with Vladika!
What is now such a church of such splendor was very incomplete and somewhat in ruins when I was there – I can’t wait to see it, and, of course, worship in it with Vladika!
I made 3 pilgrimages to Jerusalem, each time on the feast of my Mama’s repose (although each time I planned another date, but circumstances forced a change): Jan. 6, the feast of Epiphany in the western Church, and (“old calendar”) Christmas Eve in the Russian Church! Each time I stayed through Pascha, and on occasion Pentecost! So I became Orthodox by celebrating with Vladika all the major Christian mysteries, and at the sites where these Gospel events actually occurred!!!
The Church of St Mary Magdalene, on the Mount of Olives, near the Garden of Gethsemane, where the Via Dolorosa begins, is the final resting place – in accord with her own wish - of the New Martyr St. Elizabeth, the Grand Duchess who was the sister of the Royal New Martyr Tsarina Alexandra of Russia.
It is also across the Kidron Valley from the sealed Golden Gate through which – legend has it - the Messiah will pass. I was very interested in the Hulda Gates of the Temple Mount, since I felt especially close to my daughter Hulda when I was in the Holy Land. Her two daughters, Jessi and Donna were not above taking advantage of this! For instance, I once found them pulling each other around our sun porch on a bed quilt! When I upbraided them, they blithely informed me they were in their way to Jerusalem – knowing I wouldn’t hamper such a worthy enterprise as that!!!
It is also across the Kidron Valley from the sealed Golden Gate through which – legend has it - the Messiah will pass. I was very interested in the Hulda Gates of the Temple Mount, since I felt especially close to my daughter Hulda when I was in the Holy Land. Her two daughters, Jessi and Donna were not above taking advantage of this! For instance, I once found them pulling each other around our sun porch on a bed quilt! When I upbraided them, they blithely informed me they were in their way to Jerusalem – knowing I wouldn’t hamper such a worthy enterprise as that!!!
The monumental flight of steps leading up to the second (Herodian) temple mount, through the Hulda gates. The staircase consists of 15 pairs of alternating broad (90cm) and narrow (30cm) steps. This is one of the remains of the southern entrance.
A closer look on the [reconstructed] stairs is seen above, with Mount of Olives on the background. The steps are arranged in a pattern of broad-narrow step, probably intentionally in order to force the climbing visitor to the temple to look down in order to follow the steps - thus seeming to bow to the holiness of the great temple. With little doubt, the entrance of Jesus into the temple mount was through these steps or through the entrance above the Robinson arch.