The Virgin Mary in the Holy Land - The places where the Mother of God lived and suffered

The land that stepped on his feet

The Holy Land is, for the Christian, the land of Mary's feet. No other human being has been present at the most decisive moments in the history of salvation in such an intimate and silent way. Mary was in Nazareth when the angel announced the mystery. He was in Bethlehem when the Son of God was born between the cold and the straw. He was in Cana when Jesus did the first miracle by intercession from her. He was at the foot of the Cross when the world broke into two. And it was - according to the unanimous tradition of the Church - in the Upper Room when the Holy Spirit came down upon the apostles.

To travel the Marian places of the Holy Land is to follow the steps of a mother: her joys, her silences, her fears, her unwavering faith. The Franciscans have been guarding these places since 1342, when Pope Clement VI officially entrusted them with the custody of the Holy Places. For almost seven hundred years, these friars have preserved the access of pilgrims to the places where the Holy Family lived.

Nazareth: the house of the Annunciation and the Basilica of the Annunciation

Nazareth, in the Galilee of northern Israel, was in the time of Jesus a small people of just a few hundred inhabitants, so irrelevant that Nathanael asked, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (Jn 1: 46). In this anonymous town, in a house whose location the tradition has preserved, the archangel Gabriel appeared before a young woman named Mary and changed the history of the universe.

On the place of the Annunciation - the house of Mary in Nazareth - has been raised the Basilica of the Annunciation, the largest Christian church in the Middle East. The present basilica was built between 1955 and 1969 by the Italian architect Giovanni Muzio, on the remains of three previous churches (from the 4th century, from the 5th century and from the 12th century crossed). At the lower level of the basilica is preserved the cave - grotto - that archeology and tradition identify as the part excavated in the rock of Mary's house.

But what makes this basilica a unique place in the Marian world is something that often goes unnoticed to visitors: the mosaics of the Virgin Mary donated by countries around the world. More than fifty nations have provided a representation of Mary, created by local artists with the style and features of her own people. There's a Japanese Mary with kimono. An African Mary with the colors of the sub-Saharan fabrics. A Latin American mestiza. A Filipino Mary. A Chinese Mary. A native American Mary.

To contemplate these mosaics is to understand something essential: Mary does not belong to a culture or a time. She is the mother of all peoples, and all peoples have recognized her as their own. The Basilica of the Annunciation is the place where this Marian universalism becomes visible in the most beautiful way.

"Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you."
- Lc 1.28. The angel's first words to Mary. These words were spoken in Nazareth, and the world changed.

Ein Karem: The Visitation and the Song of the Magnificat

After the Annunciation, the Gospel of Luke tells us that Mary "rose and went in a hurry to the mountain region" (Lk 1.39) to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was also miraculously pregnant - the future John the Baptist -. The place of this visit is Ein Karem, an ancient Arab town today integrated in the south-west of Jerusalem.

Ein Karem is a place of extraordinary beauty. In the time of Jesus was a village in the hills of Judea; today it is one of the most picturesque neighborhoods of Jerusalem, with steep streets, gardens and the tranquility that the city's tourist neighborhoods often lose. In this town is the Church of Visitation, built on what tradition identifies as the house of Zechariah and Elizabeth.

The lower church of the Visitation, built on a cave, retains according to tradition the exact place where Elizabeth and Mary were greeted. It was here that the Gospel says that John the Baptist - still in his mother's womb - "jumped with joy" by listening to Mary's voice (Lk 1: 44). And it was here that Mary pronounced the Magnificat, the most beautiful song of the New Testament:

«Proclama mi alma la grandeza del Señor, se alegra mi espíritu en Dios mi salvador […] Su misericordia llega a sus fieles de generación en generación.»
- Lc 1.46-55. The Magnificat of Mary, pronounced in Ein Karem.

The outer walls of the Church of Visitation are decorated with the text of the Magnificat in forty-two languages, on painted ceramic plates. Each language remembers that Mary's song belongs to all humanity.

Bethlehem: the birth and role of Mary

The Basilica of the Nativity of Bethlehem is the oldest Christian place still in use in the world. Originally built by the Emperor Constantine in 330 on the cave that tradition identified as the place of birth of Jesus, it has suffered destruction and reconstructions, but its essential plant has been standing for sixteen centuries.

In the heart of the basilica, under the main altar, is the Grotto of Nativity. A 14-point silver star - placed in 1717 and stolen and reclaimed several times - marks the exact place where, according to tradition, Jesus was born. The Latin inscription reads: Hic of Virgin Mary Jesus Christ natus est ("Here was born Jesus Christ of the Virgin Mary").

The role of Mary in Nativity is that of every mother: to give birth in conditions of extreme precariousness, away from home, without the usual support. The Gospel account stresses that "there was no place for them in the inn" (Lk 7: 7). Mary, who has carried God in her womb for nine months, gives birth in a cave or stable. No comfort, no recognition. There is only faith and love.

The Basilica of Nativity is today the heritage of humanity UNESCO and is jointly administered by the Latin Catholic Church (Franciscan), the Greek Orthodox Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church. This ecosystem of co-administration - which has sometimes generated conflicts and which at other times is an example of coexistence - is in itself a sign of the importance of the place for all Christianity.

Jerusalem: Sleeping on Mount Zion

The oldest Christian tradition places the end of Mary's earthly life - her "sleep" or transit to Heaven, held on August 15 - in Jerusalem, on Mount Zion, very close to the Upper Room (the place of the Last Supper and Pentecost). On this place a church called Hagia Zion (Saint Zion), destroyed and rebuilt several times throughout history.

The present church, the Benedictine Abbey of the Sleep, was built between 1898 and 1910 with German funds and was inaugurated in the presence of the Kaiser William II. It is a building of austere and solemn beauty, with an interior roundabout that recalls the great basilicas of the ancient world. In the crypt a marble image of Mary lying - asleep, not dead - is venerated with an expression of serenity that many pilgrims describe as the image of perfect peace.

The Abbey of Sleep is the most important Marian pilgrimage place in Jerusalem. The German Benedictines who guard it celebrate the liturgy daily, and the pilgrims from all over the world come especially on August 15.

The Tomb of Mary in the Gethsemane

At the foot of the Mount of Olives, in the garden of the Gethsemane - the place where Jesus prayed the night of his arrest - there is one of the oldest and least known churches in Jerusalem: the Church of the Tomb of Mary. A long staircase descends to a space excavated in the rock where, according to tradition, Mary's body was deposited before her Assumption to Heaven.

This church has an extraordinary particularity: it is venerated simultaneously by four different religious communities. The Franciscans celebrate Mass in it. The Greek Orthodox Church has its own space of veneration within the same crypt. The Armenian Apostolic Church too. And - a fact of immense symbolic value - Muslims also venerate the place: there is in the church a mihrab (niche of prayer that indicates the direction of Mecca), placed in the Middle Ages by the Muslim rulers of Jerusalem, who respected and venerated Maryam.

This coexistence in the same sacred space of Christans and Muslims around Mary is a powerful sign of the ability of the Mother of God to unite what history has separated.

The Via Dolorosa: the 4th season and the encounter of the eyes

The Via Dolorosa - the "Camino de la Adargura" - is the route that Jesus followed according to tradition from the court room of Pilate to Calvary. It is divided into fourteen stations, and the fourth is particularly significant from the Marian point of view: the encounter of Jesus with his Mother on the way to the Cross.

The canonical Gospel does not explicitly describe this encounter, but the Christian tradition has preserved it forcefully since the first centuries. The medieval iconography represented it countless times: the look of Mary who finds the look of Jesus, the weight of the Cross, the silence that says everything. The eyes of a mother and a child who go to find the greatest pain.

In the place where tradition places this meeting, in the Via Dolorosa of Jerusalem, there is a small Armenian chapel - the Church of Our Lady of Spasmo - with a low relief that represents the 4th season. Next to it is the Chapel of Flagellation, in charge of the Franciscans, from which many groups begin the meditation of the Via Dolorosa.

To meditate on the 4th season is to understand that Mary was present not only in the light moments - the Annunciation, the Nativity, Cana - but also in the center of suffering. His motherhood does not end when pain begins: it is precisely when it becomes more radical, more total, more definitive.

The Franciscans: custodians of Mary's memory since 1342

In 1342, Pope Clement VI issued the bulls Gratiam agimus y Nuper charissimaewhich officially entrusted the Franciscan minor friars with the custody of the Holy Places of the Holy Land. This commitment, renewed and confirmed by successive potatoes over almost seven centuries, remains in force today.

The Custody of the Holy Land, a Franciscan institution based in the San Salvador convent of Jerusalem, manages more than thirty sacred places in Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Cyprus. Among these places are the main Marian shrines: the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, the Church of the Visitation in Ein Karem, the Latin part of the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and the Abbey of the Sleep in Jerusalem (the latter in the hands of the Benedictine).

The Franciscan presence in the Holy Land has not only been liturgical and spiritual: it has also been of resistance and preservation. In times of persecution, war, expulsion, the Franciscans remained - sometimes at the cost of human lives - so that the access of pilgrims to holy places would never be interrupted. His motto is Custodit et servit: «Guarda y sirve».

• c. 6 a.C.Mary was born in Jerusalem - according to tradition - daughter of Joaquin and Anne. His family home was located next to the Probatic pool, where today the Church of Santa Ana is located in Jerusalem.
• c. 4-2 a.C.The angel Gabriel appears to Mary in Nazareth. Maria visits her cousin Isabel in Ein Karem and pronounces the Magnificat.
• c. 4 a.C.Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Mary wrapped him in diapers and laid him in a manger.
• c. 30 d.C.Mary is at the foot of the Cross in Calvary (Jn 19: 25). It is entrusted to the beloved disciple.
• c. 30-50 d.C.Mary spends the last years of her life, either in Jerusalem or in Ephesus with John. His Sleeping and Assuming to Heaven.
• 330The Emperor Constantine orders to build the Basilica of Nativity in Bethlehem and the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
• 1342Pope Clement VI entrusts the Custody of the Holy Places to the Franciscan. One of the longest spiritual custodians in history will begin.
• 1955-1969Construction of the new Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, with the mosaics of Mary from all countries of the world.
• 2012The Basilica of the Nativity of Bethlehem is inscribed on the UNESCO List of World Heritage, being the first Palestinian site to enter that list.

The Magnificat: the song of Mary for all time

Among all the Marian treasures that the Holy Land conserves, there is one that is not of stone or mosaic: it is the Magnificat, the song that Mary spoke in Ein Karem when she met Elizabeth. It is the most extensive text directly attributed to Mary in the Gospels. And it's one of the most revolutionary and most beautiful texts in the whole Bible.

The Magnificat is not just a personal thanksgiving: it is a first-class theological and social statement. Mary sings that God "brings down from the throne the powerful and exalts the humble," who "fills the hungry with goods and unlocks the rich" (Lk 1: 52-53). In the mouth of a young Galician with a humble condition, these words have a force that has resonated for twenty centuries in the hearts of those who suffer.

The Church prays the Magnificat every afternoon in the Vespers. In all the monasteries of the world, in all the cathedrals, in all the oratoriums where the Liturgy of the Hours is prayed, Mary's voice rises at sunset. The Magnificat was born in Ein Karem, but it belongs to every day and every place in the world.

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