The Mary Magdalene Church on Mount of Olives in Jerusalem

THE MARY MAGDALENE CHURCH ON MOUNT OF OLIVES

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The Mount of Olives in Jerusalem is one of the holiest places in the world for Christian pilgrims, as a visitor you can find more than 12 churches dedicated to Jesus and Mary. In this article, I would like to provide some info about the Mary Magdelene church which is considered one of the most important churches in Jerusalem.

 TOUR THE MARY MAGDALENE CHURCH IN JERUSALEM

The church of Mary Magdalene, which stands out against the Mount of Olives, was not built on any holy site, although there are three sites with Christian traditions in the area of ​​the monastery. The church was built by the Russian Tsar Alexander III in memory of his mother Maria Alexandrova named after the Christian saint Maria Magdalena.

Mary Magdalene was present at the crucifixion and so Marcus wrote:

"There were also women who looked into the distance, including Miriam the Magdalene, Miriam, the mother of Yaakov Hatzair and Yossi and Shlomit, who followed him while he was in the Galilee and served him, and many others who immigrated with him to Jerusalem."

The Gospel According to Marcus Chapter 15: 40-41

She is also the one who discovered that Jesus rose from the dead:

"When the Sabbath passed, Miriam the Magdalene and Miriam the mother of Jacob and Shlomit bought in heaven because they intended to come and anoint him

The Gospel According to Marcus Chapter 16: 1
To whom Jesus was revealed after the resurrection:

"And when he arose early in the morning on the first day of the week, he saw for the first time Miriam the tower from which he had cast out seven demons

THE RUSSIAN ASPECT OF MARY MAGDELENE CHURCH 

Russian pilgrimage was relatively developed in the 19th and early 20th centuries until the First World War. The Russians developed pilgrimage services in Jerusalem, and in 1881 the Protestant Imperial Society for the Land of Israel was established by the Russian Tsarist family, headed by Prince Sergei, son of Tsar Alexander II and brother of Tsar Alexander III. The church was designed by the Russian architect Graham in the style of building churches in Russia. The dedication ceremony of the church was in 1888, and Prince Sergei and his wife Elizabeth Fyodorovna were present at the ceremony. On that occasion, Elizabeth asked that one day she be buried in this church. The princess was later murdered by the revolutionaries in the Bolshevik revolution and her body was moved to Jerusalem in 1919 via China. The whole operation was secret since the English did not want to get involved with the Russians, so her body and the body of her servant Barbara were quietly transferred to the crypt of the church. The two later became saints and their bodies were taken to the church itself.

The beauty of the Maria Magdelena Church In Jerusalem is essentially external. The church itself is more modest. On the main wall is a picture of the painter Alexander Ivanov - a great Russian painter in the 19th century. The picture was commissioned by Elizabeth Fyodorovna. The picture shows Mary Magdalene standing in front of the Roman emperor Tiberius with a red egg in her hand. According to the Christian story, Tiberius told her, after presenting her belief, that if the things she said were true, the egg in her hand would evaporate, and indeed she was red. In the church is an icon called "Hudigitria" which was brought from Lebanon and has medicinal properties.

THE CHURCH OF MARY MAGDALENE FROM THE INSIDE

Apart from the two saints buried in the church, there is another famous tomb in the crypt of the church. The tomb is the tomb of Alice, the niece of Elizabeth Fyodorovna and the wife of Prince Andrew Mion. Alice is the mother of the English Queen's husband - Philip. She asked to be buried next to her revered aunt. Alice died in 1969 and her bones were moved to Jerusalem in 1988.

The church of Mary Magdalene has an active monastery and monks and nuns from all over the world.

Inside the church of Mary Magdelene of Jerusalem, the monks show three holy places:

1. A system of stairs attributed to the time of Jesus and then on these stairs away on his way to Jerusalem.
2. A stone on which Miriam's belt fell in her ascension.
3. A rock from which Miriam watched the stoning of Stefanos.

Opposite the entrance gate to the monastery is a fenced pillar called the Betrayal Pillar. This is where Judas Iscariot armed Jesus and thus betrayed him to the Romans according to Scripture:

"While he was still speaking, Judah came and he was one of the twelve, and with him a great multitude with swords and sticks from the heads of the priests and scribes and elders. And the moral with him gave them a sign saying: And he said: Rabbi and kiss him. And they will send their hands in him and they will catch him. "
The Gospel According to Marcus 14: 43-46

CONCLUSION

Would you like to visit The Church of Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem? I offer a private guided tour of Christian Jerusalem, during the visit you will be able to see the highlight of the Mount of Olives and the old city of Jerusalem with a private tour guide Give me a call today, and let's head to Jerusalem.