The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane is an episode in the life of Jesus. After the Last Supper, Jesus enters a garden where he experiences great anguish and prays to be delivered from his impending death on the cross ("Take this cup from me") while also submitting to his Father's will. The incident is described in the

Synoptic Gospels The gospels of Gospel of Matthew, Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Mark, and Gospel of Luke, Luke are referred to as the synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in a similar sequence and in similar or sometimes identical ...

Matthew 26:36–46Mark 14:32–42Luke 22:39–46
.

Gospel narratives

According to the

, immediately after the Last Supper, Jesus retreated to a garden to pray. Each gospel offers a slightly different account regarding narrative details. The gospels of

Matthew Matthew may refer to: * Matthew (given name) * Matthew (surname) * ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497 * ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith * Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Ch ...

and Mark identify this place of prayer as

Gethsemane Gethsemane () is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem where, according to the four Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus underwent the agony in the garden and was arrested before his crucifixion. It is a place of great resona ...

. Jesus was accompanied by three Apostles: Peter, John and

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

, whom he asked to stay awake and pray. He moved "a stone's throw away" from them, where he felt overwhelming sadness and anguish, and said "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. Nevertheless, let it be as You, not I, would have it." Then, a little while later, he said, "If this cup cannot pass by, but I must drink it, Your will be done!" (; in Latin Vulgate: ). He said this prayer thrice, checking on the three apostles after each prayer and finding them asleep. He commented: "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak". An angel came from heaven to strengthen him. During his agony as he prayed, "His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down upon the ground" (). At the conclusion of the narrative, Jesus accepts that the hour has come for him to be betrayed.

Tradition

In Roman Catholic tradition, the Agony in the Garden is the first Sorrowful Mystery of the

Rosary The Rosary (; la, , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), also known as the Dominican Rosary, or simply the Rosary, refers to a set of prayers used primarily in the Catholic Church, and to the physical string of knots or b ...

and the First Station of the Scriptural

Way of The Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Way of Sorrows or the Via Crucis, refers to a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion and accompanying prayers. The stations grew out of imitati ...

(second station in the Philippine version). Catholic tradition includes specific prayers and devotions as acts of reparation for the sufferings of Jesus during His Agony and Passion. These

Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ Catholic tradition includes specific prayers and devotions as '' acts of reparation'' for insults and blasphemies against Jesus Christ and the Holy Name of Jesus. These include the sufferings during the Passion of Jesus. Similar prayers as '' Act ...

do not involve a petition for a living or dead beneficiary, but aim to "repair the sins" against Jesus. Some such prayers are provided in the ''

Raccolta The ''Raccolta'' (literally, "collection" in Italian), is a book, published in many editions from 1807 to 1952, that collected the texts of Roman Catholic prayers and briefly described other acts of piety, such as visiting and praying in particula ...

'' Catholic prayer book (approved by a Decree of 1854, and published by the Holy See in 1898) which also includes prayers as Acts of Reparation to the Virgin Mary. In his encyclical ''

Miserentissimus Redemptor ''Miserentissimus Redemptor'' is the title of an encyclical by Pope Pius XI, issued on May 8, 1928 on reparation to the Sacred Heart. This encyclical deals with the concepts of Acts of Reparation and atonement. Referencing Pope Leo XIII's ency ...

'' on reparations,

Pope Pius XI Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City fro ...

called Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ a duty for Catholics and referred to them as "some sort of compensation to be rendered for the injury" with respect to the sufferings of Jesus. Catholic tradition holds that Jesus' sweating of blood was literal and not figurative.

Holy Hour

In the Catholic tradition, is the basis of the

Holy Hour Holy Hour () is the Roman Catholic devotional tradition of spending an hour in Eucharistic adoration in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. A plenary indulgence is granted for this practice. The practice is also observed in some Lutheran churc ...

devotion for Eucharistic adoration. In the Gospel of Matthew: "Then He said to them, 'My soul is very sorrowful even to death; remain here, and watch with Me.'" () Coming to the disciples, He found them sleeping and, in Matthew 26:40, asked Peter: : "So, could you not watch with Me one hour?" The tradition of the Holy Hour devotion dates back to 1673 when Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque stated that she had a vision of Jesus in which she was instructed to spend an hour every Thursday night to meditate on the suffering of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Commentary

Justus Knecht gives three possible causes for Christ's sadness and agony: 1. He saw before Him the many and inhuman torments which awaited Him. He pictured all these terrible sufferings, enduring them in anticipation. 2. Christ took the sins of men on Himself, so as to offer satisfaction to the divine justice in their stead. Now that He was on the point of completing His work of Redemption, the horrible mass of evil, abomination and guilt came before His holy Soul and filled it with abhorrence and aversion. “Him, that knew no sin, for us God hath made sin, that we might be made the justice of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5, 21). 3. He knew beforehand how many souls would be eternally lost in spite of His bitter Passion and Death, because they would not believe in Him and would not love Him. Roger Baxter in his ''Meditations'' reflects on the angel comforting Christ, writing, "Good God! is it possible that the eternal Son of God should borrow comfort from His creatures? Observe how the Father of lights at last sends comfort to those who persevere in prayer. Imagine what reasons the angel might use in comforting your agonizing Saviour. He probably represented to Him the necessity of His passion for the redemption of mankind, and the glory that would redound to His Father and Himself. All this Christ understood infinitely better than the angel, yet He did not refuse the proffer of consolation, in order to teach you to respect the advice and consolation of your inferiors."

Artistic depictions

There are a number of different depictions in art of the Agony in the Garden, including: :* '' Agony in the Garden'' – an early (1459–1465) painting by the Italian Renaissance master

Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 26 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his father ...

:* '' Agony in the Garden'' – a painting by romantic poet and artist William Blake, c. 1800, conserved at the Tate Britain in London :* '' Agony in the Garden'' – a painting by the Italian artist Correggio, dating to 1524 and now in Apsley House in London :* '' Agony in the Garden'' – a painting by the Italian artist Andrea Mantegna, dating from 1458–1460 and conserved at the National Gallery in London :* '' Agony in the Garden'' – a painting by Andrea Mantegna, dating from 1457–1459 and conserved at the

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours (English: Museum of Fine Arts of Tours) is located in the bishop's former palace, near the Tours Cathedral, cathedral St. Gatien, where it has been since 1910. It displays rich and varied collections, including t ...

:* '' Agony in the Garden'' – a 1510s painting by Gerard David formerly attributed to

Adriaen Isenbrandt Adriaen Isenbrandt or Adriaen Ysenbrandt (between 1480 and 1490 – July 1551) was a painter in Bruges, in the final years of Early Netherlandish painting, and the first of the Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting of the Northern Renaissance. ...

, now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg :* '' Christ on the Mount of Olives'' – a painting by Baroque painter

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...

, c. 1605 :*'' Christ on the Mount of Olives'' – a painting by Paul Gauguin, 1889 :* '' Christ on the Mount of Olives'' – an oratorio by classical composer Ludwig van Beethoven :* "Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say)" – In the rock opera ''

Jesus Christ Superstar ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' is a sung-through rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. Loosely based on the Gospels' accounts of the Passion, the work interprets the psychology of Jesus and other characters, with ...

'' by

Tim Rice Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice (born 10 November 1944) is an English lyricist and author. He is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote, among other shows, ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'', ' ...

and

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, ...

, Jesus sings this song in which He confronts God about His coming fate, ultimately accepting it by the end of the song. An orchestral reprise is heard after the crucifixion in the form of "John Nineteen: Forty-One".

Medical conjectures

Some in the medical field have hypothesized that Jesus' great anguish caused him to experience

hematidrosis Hematidrosis, also called blood sweat, is a very rare condition in which a human sweats blood. The term is from Ancient Greek ''haîma/haímatos'' ( αἷμα/ αἵματος), meaning blood, and ''hīdrṓs'' ( ἱδρώς), meaning sweat. Sig ...

. It is believed that only Luke the Evangelist described Jesus as sweating blood because Luke was a physician.

References

{{Authority control Angelic apparitions in the Bible Sorrowful Mysteries Gethsemane