Our long-time contributor Fr Lawrence Lew, who is an extremely talented photographer, was on pilgrimage in the Holy Land recently, and has very kindly shared with us some of his pictures.
The Carmelites’ Stella Maris Monastery in Haifa, built in the 19th century, stands on the slope of Mt Carmel; the dome of the church was decorated by the Maltese Carmelite Luigi Poggi (1924-28).
A view of the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem, with the church of the Holy Sepulchre at its heart. The tower on the right is one of the newest churches in the Old City, that of the Lutherans.
The icon of Christ Crucified on Calvary
The Aedicule of the Tomb and the rotunda.
The votive lamp directly in front of the icon of the Resurrection that surmounts the entrance to the Aedicule.
Enamelled icons of the Resurrection of Christ and of the Apostles above the entrance into the Aedicule.
The crypt chapel of St Helena;This 12th-century chapel, officiated by the Armenians, is bounded by ancient walls and pillars that constituted the foundation of the Byzantine nave of the Holy Sepulchre church.
12-century stone work on the façade.
The dome of the catholicon, the Greek Orthodox church, seen from the entrance.
The dome of the catholicon is 65 feet in diameter, and sits directly over the centre of the church, which in medieval cosmogony was considered to be the very center of the world (and rightly so!)
The basilica of Christ’s Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane; built by Antonio Barluzzi between 1919 and 1924, using funds donated from many different countries, and hence also known as the Church of All Nations.
The Basilica of the Nativity, dating to 565, the only Byzantine basilica in the Holy Land which was not ravaged and plundered by the Persian invaders in the 7th-century. According to legend, their commander Shahrbaraz was moved by the depiction above the church entrance of the Three Magi wearing the garb of Persian Zoroastrian priests, so he ordered that the building be spared.
St Catherine’s Cloister, a construction of the 12th century adjoining the Basilica of the Nativity.
A picture of St Simon Stock in the same church - happy feast day!
The “Ecce Homo” Church
The grotto of the Incarnation
The church of the Primacy, in Tabhga by the Sea of Galilee, contains a limestone rock which is venerated as a “Mensa Christi – table of Christ.” According to tradition, this is the spot where Jesus is laid out a breakfast of bread and fish for the Apostles, and then told Peter to “feed my sheep” after the miraculous catch, as recounted in the last chapter of the Gospel of St John.
Mt Sion, with the Dormition Abbey on the right, built in 1900, and on the left further down the hill, the church of St Peter in Gallicantu, where Caiaphas had his house.
The pool of Bethesda.
This fountain stands near the Shepherds’ Chapel outside Bethlehem, which marks the field where the shepherds were told by an angelic choir of Christ’s birth.
The basilica of St Stephen, rebuilt by the Dominicans in the 19th-century on the site of the basilica which the Empress Eudoxia had erected in 5th-century church, and which housed the relics of St Stephen, at his original burial site.
The basilica of the Transfiguration on Mt Thabor, another modern work by the great architect of the Holy Land sites, Antonio Barluzzi. It was built in the early 20th century on the ruins of an ancient (4th-6th-century) Byzantine church, and a 12th-century church of the Crusader Kingdom period.
Jerusalem seen from Mt Sion
