The Chapel of the Ascension ( he, קפלת העלייה ''Qapelat ha-ʿAliyya''; el, Εκκλησάκι της Αναλήψεως, ''Ekklisáki tis Analípseos''; ) is a chapel and shrine located on the
Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet ( he, הַר הַזֵּיתִים, Har ha-Zeitim; ar, جبل الزيتون, Jabal az-Zaytūn; both lit. 'Mount of Olives'; in Arabic also , , 'the Mountain') is a mountain ridge east of and adjacent to Jeru ...
, in the
At-Tur
At-Tur ( ar, الطور, ; The Mount) is the 52nd chapter (''sūrah'') of the Quran with 49 verses ('' ayat''). The surah opens with the oath of the Allah swearing by the Mount, which some believe is Mount Sinai, where the Tawrat was reveal ...
district of Jerusalem. Part of a larger complex consisting first of a
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
church and monastery, then an
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
ic
mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
, it is located on a site traditionally believed to be the earthly spot where
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
ascended into
Heaven
Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...
after his
Resurrection
Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, which ...
. It houses a slab of stone believed to contain one of his footprints.
Origin
Almost 300 years after the ascension of Jesus, early Christians began gathering secretly in a small cave monastery on the Mount of Olives.
["Chapel of the Ascension". ''faith.nd.edu''. Retrieved 2022-11-16.] The issuance of the
Edict of Milan
The Edict of Milan ( la, Edictum Mediolanense; el, Διάταγμα τῶν Μεδιολάνων, ''Diatagma tōn Mediolanōn'') was the February 313 AD agreement to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire. Frend, W. H. C. ( ...
by the
Roman Emperor Constantine I
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...
in 313 made it possible for Christians to worship without government persecution.
By the time of the pilgrim
Egeria's travels to
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
in 384, the spot of veneration had been moved to the present location, uphill from the cave, which had been integrated into the Constantinian
Church of Eleona.
[Murphy-O'Connor, Jerome (2008-02-28). ''The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700''. OUP Oxford. .] The first church was erected there a few years later, before 392, by a lady from the imperial family, Poimenia.
A church is later attributed to
Saint Helena
Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...
and holds that during Saint Helena's
pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
to the Holy Land between 326 and 328, she identified two spots on the Mount of Olives as being associated with Jesus' life - the place of his Ascension, and a grotto associated with his teaching of the
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...
- and on her return to Rome, she ordered the construction of two sanctuaries at these locations.
[Kirk, Martha Ann (2004). ''Women of Bible Lands: A Pilgrimage to Compassion and Wisdom''. Liturgical Press. ]
4th-century church
The first complex constructed on the site of the present chapel was known as ''Imbomon'' (Greek for "on the hill"). It was a rotunda, open to the sky, surrounded by circular porticoes and arches. Sometime between AD 384–390, Poimenia, a wealthy and pious Roman aristocratic woman of the imperial family, financed the building of the
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
-style church "around Christ's last footprints."
The ''Imbomon'', as well as the nearby
Eleona Basilica
The Church of the Pater Noster (french: Église du Pater Noster) is a Roman Catholic church located on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. It is part of a Carmelite monastery, also known as the Sanctuary of the Eleona (french: Domaine de l'Eleon ...
and other monasteries and churches on the Mount of Olives, were destroyed by the armies of the Persian
Shah
Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...
Khosrow II
Khosrow II (spelled Chosroes II in classical sources; pal, 𐭧𐭥𐭮𐭫𐭥𐭣𐭩, Husrō), also known as Khosrow Parviz (New Persian: , "Khosrow the Victorious"), is considered to be the last great Sasanian king (shah) of Iran, ruling fr ...
during the final phase of the
Byzantine-Sassanid Wars in 614.
7th-century church
The church was rebuilt in the late 7th century. The
Frankish
Frankish may refer to:
* Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture
** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages
* Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany
* East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...
bishop and pilgrim
Arculf
Arculf (later 7th century) was a Frankish bishop who toured the Levant in around 680. Bede claimed he was a bishop (). According to Bede's history of the Church in England (V, 15), Arculf was shipwrecked on the shore of Iona, Scotland on his return ...
, in relating his pilgrimage to Jerusalem in about the year 680, described this church as "a round building open to the sky, with three porticoes entered from the south. Eight lamps shone brightly at night through windows facing Jerusalem. Inside was a central
edicule
In ancient Roman religion, an ''aedicula'' (plural ''aediculae'') is a small shrine, and in classical architecture refers to a niche covered by a pediment or entablature supported by a pair of columns and typically framing a statue,"aedicula, n." ...
containing the footprints of Christ, plainly and clearly impressed in the dust, inside a railing."
12th-century church
The reconstructed church was eventually destroyed, and rebuilt a second time by the
Crusaders
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...
in the 12th century. The armies of
Saladin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سهلاحهدین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...
later decimated the church, leaving only a partially intact outer 12x12 meter octagonal wall surrounding an inner 3x3 octagonal meter shrine, called a
martyrium or edicule. This structure still stands today, although partially altered in the time after Saladin's 1187
conquest of Jerusalem.
Description of the chapel
Edicule (chapel)
The main structure of the chapel is from the Crusader era; the stone dome and the octagonal drum it stands on are
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
additions. The exterior walls are decorated with arches and marble columns. The entrance faces the west, and the south wall of the chapel consists of a
mihrab
Mihrab ( ar, محراب, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "qibla w ...
indicating the direction of
Mecca
Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...
.
[Pringle, Denys (1993). ''The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: Volume 3, The City of Jerusalem: A Corpus''. Cambridge University Press. pp. 79–82. .]
Ascension rock
The edicule surrounds a stone slab called the "Ascension Rock". It is said to contain the right footprint of Christ, while the section bearing the left footprint was taken to the
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Al-Aqsa Mosque (, ), also known as Jami' Al-Aqsa () or as the Qibli Mosque ( ar, المصلى القبلي, translit=al-Muṣallā al-Qiblī, label=none), and also is a congregational mosque located in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is situate ...
in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
. The faithful believe that the impression was made as Jesus ascended into Heaven and is venerated as the last point on earth touched by the
incarnate
Incarnation literally means ''embodied in flesh'' or ''taking on flesh''. It refers to the conception and the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form or the appearance of a god as a human. If capitalized, it is the union of divinit ...
Christ.
Muslim history, tradition, and architecture
History
After the
fall of Jerusalem in 1187, the ruined church and monastery were abandoned by the Christians, who resettled in
Acre
The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imp ...
. During this time, Saladin established the Mount of Olives as a ''waqf'' entrusted to two
sheikhs
Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...
, al-Salih Wali al-Din and Abu Hasan al-Hakari. This ''
waqf
A waqf ( ar, وَقْف; ), also known as hubous () or '' mortmain'' property is an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot of land or other assets for Muslim religious or charitabl ...
'' was registered in a document dated 20 October 1188. The chapel was converted to a
mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
, and a
mihrab
Mihrab ( ar, محراب, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "qibla w ...
installed in it. Because the vast majority of pilgrims to the site were Christian, as a gesture of compromise and goodwill, Saladin ordered the construction of a second mosque nearby for Muslim worship while Christians continued to visit the main chapel.
Despite this act of accommodation by Saladin, tensions between Muslims and Christians in Jerusalem rose throughout the next 300 years. The shrine and surrounding structures saw periods of non-use and disrepair. By the 15th century, the destroyed eastern section was separated by a dividing wall and was no longer used for religious purposes.
Currently, this building is under the authority of the
Islamic Waqf of Jerusalem and is open to visitors of all faiths, for a nominal fee.
Tradition
The mid-14th-century counter-crusade propaganda work ''Muthir al-gharam fi ziyarat al-Quds wa-sh-Sham'' ("Arousing love for visiting Jerusalem and Syria"; c. 1350-51) places the death year of
Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya
Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyya al-Qaysiyya ( ar, رابعة العدوية القيسية) (714/717/718 — 801 CE) was an Arab Muslim saint and Sufi mystic and carried her life out as an influential religious figure. She is known in some parts of t ...
around 781/82 and has her buried in this burial crypt.
[Seligman, Jon; Raya, Rafa Abu; זליגמן, יוחנן (ג'ון); אבו ריא, ראפע (2001). "מקדש לשלוש דתות בהר הזיתים: קבר חולדה הנביאה; קבר פלאגיה הקדושה; קבר רביע אל-עדוויה / A Shrine of Three Religions on the Mount of Olives: Tomb of Ḥulda the Prophetess; Grotto of Saint Pelagia; Tomb of Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya". '''Atiqot / עתיקות''. 42: 221–236. .] Other historians, such as
al-Harawi (d. 1215) and
Yaqut (1179–1229) locate Rabi'a's grave in her hometown of
Basra
Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is hand ...
, and attribute the Mount of Olives tomb to another Rabi'a, wife of a Sufi, Ahmad Ibn Abu el Huari, from the late Crusader and early Ayyubid period.
Yet another Muslim tradition attributes the grave to Rahiba bint Hasn, a woman of whom nothing is known.
Architecture
The mosque that stands southwest to the former Church of the Ascension, known as the zawiya of Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya, consists of two edifices: the upper one, or the mosque proper; and an underground chamber at the lower end of a staircase, which includes a 2 m deep, 1.2 m wide, and 1.8 m high cell on its east side.
[Pringle, Denys (1993). ''The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: Volume 3, The City of Jerusalem: A Corpus''. Cambridge University Press. p. 344. .] Archaeologists Jon Seligman and Rafa Abu Raya, who carried out a short salvage excavation outside the southern wall of the mosque in 1995, have dated the underground chamber to the Byzantine period, identifying it as the burial crypt of a chapel that was part of the Church of the Ascension.
The crypt is situated east of the mosque, and lies opposite of the entrance. To the right of the entrance, the
cenotaph
A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...
or sarcophagus stands within a niche.
Seligman and Abu Raya date the upper building to the medieval period, and hold an Ayyubid date to be the most likely.
However, Denys Pringle suggests a Crusader date, based on features such as the western entrance which could indicate an east–west orientation of the structure, and the fact that the mihrab is set into an older window niche.
Christian and Jewish traditions
Christian tradition
The Christian tradition of Saint Pelagia is the oldest.
"The Life of Saint Pelagia the Harlot", the ''
vita
Vita or VITA (plural vitae) is Latin for "life", and may refer to:
* ''Vita'', the usual start to the title of a biography in Latin, by which (in a known context) the work is often referred to; frequently of a saint, then called hagiography
* Vit ...
'' of a legendary 4th or 5th-century Christian hermit and penitent,
Saint Pelagia of Antioch, states that she "built herself a cell on the Mount of Olives." There, she lived a holy life disguised as a monk and "wrought...many wonders." She died few years later due to her severe asceticism, "and the holy fathers bore her body to its burial." Christian tradition places her cell and tomb at the site of the ''zawiya'', adjacent to the southwest of the former Church of the Ascension.
However, most Western Christian pilgrims of the 14th century venerated the tomb as that of Saint
Mary the Egyptian, although the Pelagia tradition also lives on.
Jewish tradition
The Jewish tradition attributing the tomb to the prophetess Huldah is recorded from 1322 onwards,
starting with
Estori Ha-Parhi. Another tradition exists starting in the 2nd-century,
Tosefta
The Tosefta (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: תוספתא "supplement, addition") is a compilation of the Jewish oral law from the late 2nd century, the period of the Mishnah.
Overview
In many ways, the Tosefta acts as a supplement to the Mishnah ( ...
, which places the tomb of Huldah within Jerusalem's city walls.
Environs
Across the street from the chapel is the Greek Orthodox Monastery of the Ascension and a residential building erected at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as a small church built between 1987 and 1992.
The
Russian Orthodox
Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most ...
Convent of the Ascension, built in 1870, is located about 200 meters to the chapel's east. It now houses about 40 nuns.
["The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia - Official Website". ''www.synod.com''. Retrieved 2022-11-17.]
To the chapel's north is
Makassed Hospital
Al Makassed Hospital ( ar, مستشفى المقاصد) is a Islamic teaching hospital of the Palestinian Arab’s charitable founded by Makassed Islamic Charitable Society, one of six hospitals in the East Jerusalem Hospitals Network. It has 250 ...
, to its south is the
Church of the Pater Noster
The Church of the Pater Noster (french: Église du Pater Noster) is a Roman Catholic church located on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. It is part of a Carmelite monastery, also known as the Sanctuary of the Eleona (french: Domaine de l'Eleona ...
, and to the northeast of the chapel is the Ascension Church (in the
Augusta Victoria compound).
Gallery
File:Chapel of the Ascension 1 (735).jpg, Chapel (right) and octagonal wall of ruined Crusader church
File:5029-20080122-jerusalem-mt-olives-ascension-rock.jpg, The Rock of the Ascension
File:Church of the Ascension, Jerusalem3001.JPG, Close-up of the Rock of the Ascension
File:Chapelle ascension.JPG, Minaret and outer wall
File:Chapel of the Ascension 1 (740).jpg, Chapel, the dome from inside
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Photos of the Chapel of the Ascensionat the
Manar al-Athar
Manar al-Athar is a photo archive based at the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford which aims to provide high-quality open-access images of archaeological sites and buildings. The archive's collection focuses on areas of the Roman Em ...
photo archive
{{Coord, 31.7791, N, 35.2449, E, source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title
12th-century churches
Mount of Olives
Ancient churches in the Holy Land
Relics associated with Jesus
Christian pilgrimages
Articles containing video clips
Chapels in Jerusalem
Status quo holy places
Religious buildings and structures converted into mosques
Churches in the State of Palestine
Ascension of Jesus