“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6)
For hundreds of years, travellers passing through the Holy City of Jerusalem have walked the Way of the Cross with reverence, emotion, tears of repentance or simply out of archaeological curiosity. And so, travellers, tourists and pilgrims, mingling with local merchants in a constant and fervent stream, make their way along the Way of the Cross from the Lions’ Gate to the Holy Sepulchre, a distance of approximately one kilometre. As one walks the Way of the Cross, at any time of day it seems that Pontius Pilate’s rhetorical question, posed to Jesus in the courtyard of the Antonia Fortress whilst he was judging Him, still echoes today: “‘What is truth?’ And having said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, ‘I find no fault in Him!’” (John 18:38). And, washing his hands, he left Jesus to be judged by the Jewish people.
In the spring of that year, in the month of April (Nissan in Hebrew), it had been decided that Jesus would be tried by Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. For the chief priests at the Temple in Jerusalem had complained to the Roman authorities on several occasions about Jesus. They accused Him of wanting to be proclaimed King of the Jews and of planning a revolt to overthrow Roman rule. ‘So the soldiers, the captain of a thousand, and the Jewish officials seized Jesus and bound Him. And they took Him first to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. And it was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews, saying: ‘You know nothing at all; nor do you realise that it is better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to perish’” (John 18:12–14).
It was the night from Thursday to Friday. On the Mount of Olives, the lights of a few lamps belonging to the locals flickered here and there; weary from the day’s toil, they had likely retired to rest, but down below, at the foot of the mountain, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus had come with His disciples to spend the final moments of His earthly life in prayer. After Jesus had celebrated the Last Supper in the Upper Room on Mount Zion, surrounded by His disciples, they had all come here, to the grove of ancient olive trees, to pray. He had told His disciples to keep watch and pray, lest they fall into temptation (Matthew 26:41). But they had fallen asleep, scattered amongst the trees. Jesus had knelt down on a rocky outcrop and, with immense inner struggle, had cried out: ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me! Yet not as I will, but as You will’ (Matthew 26:39). At one point, Roman soldiers appeared with lit torches in their hands, searching for Jesus to arrest Him. Judas’s kiss identified Him, showing the soldiers that He was the One who wished to be King of the Jews and whom Judas had betrayed for thirty pieces of silver.
With His hands bound with ropes, the Saviour Christ was to be pushed and carried up across the brook Cherith (of the Cedars), up the steep slope of Mount Zion, towards the house of Annas and Caiaphas, who accepted no responsibility, sending Him to Pilate. Exhausted, bound, and dragged over the rocks, the Son of God bled in the olive-tree courtyard of their house and, still bound, was to be led down once more towards the Fortress of Antonia, to the Praetorium, where the Roman governor Pontius Pilate was stationed.
Thus begins the Way of the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy City of Jerusalem, from Thursday night until Good Friday, at the third hour, up on the Mount of Skulls (Golgotha), when Christ the Saviour commended His spirit into the hands of His Father and cried out with a loud voice: ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ (Matthew 27:46).
Coming from the Valley of Jehoshaphat and the Garden of Gethsemane, the road climbs steeply towards the gateway to the City, known as Bab el-Ghor (the Jordan Gate), as it was named by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century, at a time when the walls of Jerusalem were being rebuilt. This entrance is also known as the Sheep Gate, St Stephen’s Gate or the Lions’ Gate. Each of these names has its own history: the Sheep Gate, because sheep were brought through this passage to be washed in the Pool of Bethesda, after which they were taken to the Temple to be sacrificed in accordance with Jewish religious tradition. St Stephen’s Gate, because not far from this spot, in the Valley of the Cedars, the First Martyr and Archdeacon Stephen was martyred. And the Lions’ Gate, because it has a local history or legend. It is said that during the reign of Sultan Selim I (1512–1520), whilst he was passing through that spot, he encountered two African lions that were preparing to tear him to pieces, because he had wished to alter the appearance of Jerusalem. The sultan then promised that he would not alter anything that already existed, and thus escaped death. On either side of the gate’s façade, the two lions are carved into the stone. The Lions’ Gate is also so named because of a local tradition which recounts that in the 3rd–4th centuries AD, when the bloodiest persecutions against Christians took place in Jerusalem, Christians were thrown into the empty stone basins of the Pool of Bethesda, where they fell prey to hungry lions that tore them to pieces on the spot.
Passing through the Sheep Gate, the first memory associated with it relates to the lives of Saints Joachim and Anne, who lived on the other side, not far from the Gate. Being advanced in years and childless, they decided to go into the wilderness to pray, separated from one another, fasting strictly like Saint Elijah, in a cave. They went all the way to the Hozeva Desert, in the valley of the Cherith Brook, and, with humility, wept over their childlessness. After 40 days of severe fasting and prayer, the Archangel Gabriel announced to them both that they should go to the Sheep Gate, to meet there. And God would have heard their prayer, for, not long afterwards, they conceived a child. Thus it came to pass in those days that the infant Mary was born in a cave deep within the Jerusalem countryside and spent three years in the home of her parents, Joachim and Anna, before being presented at the Temple to serve God, just as they had vowed from the very beginning.
Walking along the cobbled lane towards the Way of the Cross, not far from the house where the Virgin Mary was born, lies the Pool of Bethesda.
The Pool of Bethesda
In the 21st century, some biblical archaeologists have claimed that the Pool of Vitezda at the Sheep Gate and the Pool of Siloam (located on the western side of the City), were two large stone cisterns used to collect water from the torrential rains of the winter season. This water was subsequently used for the purification baths specific to miqwa’ot 1 during the major religious festivals in Jerusalem, when huge crowds of Jews would come here from all over 2.
In the time of Christ the Saviour, the Pool of Bethesda had become a place of healing for many sick people, who gathered year after year on the stone edges of the five porticoes 3. And one of these healings was a miracle performed here by the Son of God Himself: ‘After this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, there was a pool, called in Hebrew Vitezda, which had five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of sick people—the blind, the lame, and those with withered limbs—waiting for the stirring of the water. For from time to time an angel of the Lord would come down into the pool and stir up the water; and whoever stepped in first, after the water had been stirred, was made well, whatever disease they were suffering from. And there was a man there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. Jesus, seeing him lying there and knowing that he had been in this condition for a long time, said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ The sick man replied, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; for whilst I am on my way, someone else goes down before me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Get up, take your bed and walk!’” (John 5:1–8).
In the courtyard of the archaeological site of the Pool of Bethesda stands the Church of ‘Saint Anne’, built over the cave where the Virgin Mary is said to have been born, in the home of her parents, Joachim and Anne. Today, the basement of this church is divided between the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, with an entrance from the main street, and the Roman Catholic Patriarchate of Jerusalem, with an entrance from the courtyard of this site.
The Church of Saint Anne
During the reign of Patriarch Juvenal of Jerusalem (422–458 AD), a church was built on this site to commemorate the birth of the Virgin Mary; it was known as the Church of ‘Saint Anne’. The church was destroyed in 614 by the Persians. It was rebuilt a little later by the monk Modest. Around the year 1010, the church was destroyed during the reign of Caliph Hakîm. After 1099, the church was rebuilt once more by the Order of the Knights Templar, who ruled over the Holy Places at that time. A new monastic community was established and flourished here in remembrance of the miracle performed by Christ the Saviour at this site, when he healed the paralysed man at the Pool of Bethesda. Around the year 1130, a large church was built in the Romanesque style over the ancient pools of the Pool of Bethesda and was dedicated to the ‘Nativity of the Virgin Mary’ and ‘Saint Anne’. The church became a chapel for a community of Benedictine nuns. In 1192, Sultan Salah-ed-Din conquered the Holy City and converted the Church of ‘Saint Anne’ into a school of Koranic law. Nevertheless, millions of pilgrims who passed through Jerusalem in those years would discreetly descend into the church’s crypt and pray at the spot where, over a thousand years earlier, the Virgin Mary had been born and where she had spent the first three years of her childhood in the home of her parents, Joachim and Anne.
As a token of gratitude from the Turks for the Crimean War (1854–1856), they presented the ‘Church of Saint Anne’ to France as a war prize. Excavation work began in 1878. The Dominican friars from the Biblical School in Jerusalem succeeded in bringing to light the crypt of the Virgin Mary’s birth and the basins which were the site of the miracle performed by Christ the Saviour during His earthly life.
Following the Via Dolorosa, leaving behind the Church of St Anne and the Pool of Bethesda, the road climbs towards the place where the Lord’s Passion began on Good Friday, namely: the Fortress of Antonia.
Dawn had not yet broken when Christ the Saviour was brought into the courtyard of the Fortress of Antonia. He had been held in the Praetorium, his feet bound in chains and shackled to stone blocks, awaiting his appearance before Pontius Pilate to be judged. ‘Pilate sought to release Him; but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you release this Man, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who makes himself a king is against Caesar.’ So Pilate, hearing these words, brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgement seat, in the place called the Pavement, and in Hebrew, Gabbatha. It was the day before the Passover, about the sixth hour, and Pilate said to the Jews, ‘Behold your King!’ So they cried out, ‘Take him! Take him! Crucify him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests replied, ‘We have no king but Caesar.’ Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. And they took Jesus and led him away to be crucified” (John 19:12–16).
Thus began the Passion of the Son of God on the Way of the Cross in Jerusalem. The route is marked by fourteen Stations representing the fourteen key moments of this journey. The Old Fortress, or Fort Antonia, was divided in two by the cobbled lane which today bears the name Via Dolorosa.
The first and second stations are situated opposite the Umariyya Muslim Boys’ School, which stands on the site where, in the time of Christ the Saviour, the Antonia Fortress once stood. Today, the site of Jesus’ trial and condemnation is in the courtyard of the Roman Catholic School of Theology, the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum. The Station of Jesus’ Condemnation, His Trial before Pontius Pilate, is the place where Pilate, seated on his throne and surrounded by his troops, speaks to the Saviour: ‘Your people and the chief priests have handed You over to me. What have you done?’ Jesus replied: ‘My Kingdom is not of this world. If My Kingdom were of this world, My servants would have fought to prevent Me from being handed over to the Jews. But now My Kingdom is not from here’” (John 18:35–36). In the courtyard of today’s Biblical Institute, above the spot where Christ the Saviour was bound to a stone pillar, mercilessly flogged, spat upon and struck on the head, several orange trees in bloom, with their multicoloured and fragrant blossoms, spill over in abundance onto the archaeological artefacts, which bear witness to the Romans’ passage through these places. In the courtyard, in a beautiful Franciscan chapel known as the Chapel of the Crowning with Thorns, the vaulted ceiling depicts the Passion of the Lord on the day of His trial and condemnation: ‘Then Pilate took Jesus and had Him flogged. And the soldiers, having woven a crown of thorns, placed it on His head and clothed Him in a purple robe. And they came up to Him and said, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and they struck Him on the face” (John 19:1–3).
On the way to the third station there is an arch in the wall called ‘Ecce Homo’ (Behold the Man, in Latin). The stone arch was built by the Romans in AD 70 to support the existing wall.
That spring, in that very year, the Jews who had rebelled against the Romans had barricaded themselves inside the Fortress of Antonia. Others stood on the roofs of neighbouring houses, shouting and mocking Jesus. ‘And Pilate went out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, ‘Behold the Man!’ When the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him!’ The Jews replied, ‘We have a law, and according to our law He must die, because He has made Himself the Son of God’” (John 19:4–7).
Beyond the stone arch known as Ecce Homo lies a Roman Catholic church called the Sisters of Sion. Continuing along the Via Dolorosa, beneath a heavy iron door lies the Prison of Jesus, or, as it is known in local tradition, the Praetorium. There, in the basement of the building, lies a prison hewn from the rock—a dark and cold dungeon—which brings tears of humility at the thought that, for a few hours, on the night of His betrayal, Jesus breathed in that cell alongside the 12 dangerous thieves of Jerusalem. It is from this spot that, year after year, the Way of the Cross procession begins on Good Friday.
The third station is the place where Jesus fell for the first time under the weight of the Cross. This chapel was built with donations from Polish Catholic faithful at the end of the Second World War, as a token of gratitude for the divine help received in saving the Polish people from destruction. Today it is a chapel of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, situated on the corner of El-Wad Road. On the façade is a beautiful white marble sculpture depicting Jesus falling beneath the cross. A mural inside the chapel depicts Jesus falling beneath the cross, whilst beyond the horizon of this material world, an army of angels transfigured in light look on in awe and sorrow at the greatest tragedy in human history.
The fourth station is located inside an Armenian Catholic church. This was rebuilt in 1881 on the site of a basilica dating from the time of Saint Empress Helena, which was called Saint Sophia. According to tradition, the site is also known as ‘Mary’s Sandals’. It was here that Jesus met His Mother for the last time and they embraced. A fragment of a 4th-century AD mosaic, depicting the outline of two sandals, has been preserved in the current floor of the church’s basement. It is said that the Mother of God stood on that spot when she saw the Saviour Christ carrying the Cross on His back.
The fifth station is the place where Jesus met Simon of Cyrene: ‘And as they were leading Him away, they seized a certain Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid the cross on him to carry it behind Jesus’ (Luke 23:26). Imprinted on the wall is the hand of Jesus, as He leaned on it beneath the weight of the cross. Today, a Franciscan chapel stands on this site.
The sixth station is the site that today houses a small Catholic convent, the ‘Little Sisters of Jesus’. It was here that Jesus is said to have stopped, sweating and with blood streaming down His Holy Face. The Virgin Veronica, a young Jewish woman from Jerusalem, held out her handkerchief to Him. Tradition has it that, as a sign of gratitude for her loving gesture, Jesus wiped His Face with the handkerchief and left His image imprinted upon it. Since then, in Byzantine iconography, the image of Jesus painted on a cloth has been called the ‘Holy Veil’.
The seventh station is the place where Christ the Saviour fell for the second time under the weight of the cross. In Jesus’ time, this was the way out of the City, through the Old Gate: ‘And from the Gate of Ephraim, we passed by the Old Gate’ (Nehemiah 12:39).
At that time, it was also known as the Gate of Judgement, for it was through this gate that those condemned to death were led out of the City and taken outside the walls to be crucified. Today, another Franciscan chapel stands on that spot. Traces of the city gate can still be seen: two column capitals which remind us that from that spot the road climbed, beyond the walls of Jerusalem, towards the summit of Mount Golgotha: ‘And carrying His own cross, He went out to the place called the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha’ (John 19:17).
The eighth station is at the spot where Jesus met the women of Jerusalem and spoke to them for the last time: “And a great crowd of people and women followed Him, beating their breasts and weeping for Him. And turning towards them, Jesus said to them: ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children! For behold, the days are coming when they will say: ‘Blessed are the barren women, and the wombs that have not borne children, and the breasts that have not nursed!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains: ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills: ‘Cover us!’ For if they do this to the green wood, what will happen to the dry?’” (Luke 23:27–31). Beyond the high stone walls lies the Greek Orthodox monastery of Saint Haralambos the Martyr. Above the monastery’s high wall is the stone inscription ‘NIKA’, meaning ‘Jesus the Victor’.
The ninth station is located within the courtyard of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem and marks Jesus’ third fall under the weight of the cross. From here, Jesus will begin his ascent to Golgotha.
The tenth station is already inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Mount Golgotha. The Son of God was placed on the cross and nails were driven into his hands and feet. ‘And two others, criminals, were led away to be put to death with him’ (Luke 23:32).
The eleventh station marks the moment when, as the Lord Jesus Christ hung on the Cross, His tunic was taken and lots were cast: “And when they came to the place called The Skull, they crucified Him there, along with the criminals, one on His right and the other on His left. And Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!’ And, dividing His garments, they cast lots” (Luke 23:33–34).
The twelfth station commemorates the Saviour’s Death on the Cross: “It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, when the sun was darkened; and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit!’” (Luke 23:44–46).
“So Jesus, seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son!’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home” (John 19:25–27). In the chapel on Mount Golgotha, to the right of the Holy Cross, there is a bust of the Mother of God carved from precious wood, set in a glass display case. The statuette is called the ‘Sorrowful Mother of God’4 and was donated to this holy site by the Queen of Portugal, Maria I of Braganza, in 1778 5. Of the Holy Cross on which Christ the Saviour was crucified, only a few fragments remain, placed amongst the icons and kept in the custody of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The one now on Golgotha is crafted from silver, depicting the crucified Son of God. On the right is Saint John, and on the left, the Mother of God. A multitude of silver candles burn perpetually before the Holy Table on which the Divine Liturgy is celebrated. Beneath the Holy Table lies a deep hollow in the stone, framed by a silver rosette, a gift from King Carol I of Romania to these Holy Places.
The Thirteenth Station: The Descent of the Lord from the Cross and His Placement on the Stone of Anointing in a White Shroud: ‘So the soldiers came and broke the spears of the first man and of the one who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, seeing that He had already died, they did not break His flutes. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out. After this, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus but kept it secret for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to take His body away. And His body was anointed with a mixture of aloe, myrrh and storax. Nicodemus, who had previously come to Him by night, also came, bringing about a hundred litres of a mixture of myrrh and aloe. So they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in a shroud with the spices, as is the Jewish custom at burial” (John 19:32–40).
The Fourteenth Station, The Burial of Jesus and His Resurrection: “Now in the place where He had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid. So, because it was the Jewish day of preparation, they laid Jesus there, since the tomb was nearby” (John 19:41–42).
In the time of Christ the Saviour, there was a grove of olive trees on Mount Golgotha. In the morning, when the women who had brought the spices came, according to Jewish custom, they exclaimed: ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’ But, lifting up their eyes, they saw that the stone had been rolled away; for it was very large. And, entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right-hand side, dressed in a white robe, and they were terrified. And he said to them, ‘Do not be afraid! Are you looking for Jesus of Nazareth, the One who was crucified? He has risen! He is not here. Here is the place where they laid Him’” (Mark 16:3–6).
Also within the grounds of the Church of the Resurrection, extending from it, there is a chapel named the Chapel of Saint Mary Magdalene. This is housed within the Church of ‘Saint James the Apostle, the Lord’s kinsman’. It is said that, on this spot, Christ the Saviour appeared to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection. She wanted to touch Him to convince herself that He was the Lord, but He said to her: ‘Do not hold on to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father’ (John 20:17).
The Way of the Cross, which begins in the Garden of Gethsemane, ends at the Church of the Resurrection or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where, beneath the dome of the great basilica, crowds of people from all over the world gather to glorify God. For from the tomb of the Lord Jesus Christ, Life sprang forth through His Resurrection. This Way of the Cross is nothing other than proof of God’s love for humankind. This Via Dolorosa constantly urges us to recall that April night, marked by the Saviour Christ’s sacrifice for the forgiveness of the sins of the human race. Although today’s Jerusalem in the Old City is no longer the same as it was in the Saviour’s time, the Way of the Cross remains suspended in the history of humanity, imbued with mysterious calls to the Light of Christ’s Resurrection, which took place exactly as foretold and which has made us eternal in His love!
- 1
Miqwa'ot (Hebrew) – Jewish rituals.
- 2
Shimon Ghibson, The Final Days of Jesus: The Archaeological Evidence, Lion Hudson, New York, 2009, pp. 64–65.
- 3
Pridvor – A stone cistern used to collect rainwater.
- 4
Fr. John Kenneth Campbell, O.F.M., The Stations of the Cross in Jerusalem, Cana/Carta, Jerusalem, Israel, 1986.
- 5
G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville, The Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, Carta, Jerusalem, 1994, p. 49.