The Monastery of Saint John in the Wilderness is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

built next to a spring on a wooded slope just north of

Even Sapir Even Sapir ( he, אֶבֶן סַפִּיר, lit. ''Sapphire'') is a moshav in central Israel. Located on the outskirts of Jerusalem, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In it had a population of . History Even Sa ...

. It is located a short distance from

Ein Karem ar, عين كارم , settlement_type = Neighborhood of Jerusalem , image_skyline = Ein Karem IMG 0624.JPG , imagesize = 300px , image_caption = View of Ein Karem , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_ ...

, the traditional birthplace of Saint

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

, and south of

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. It is also known as Saint John in the Desert or the Desert of Saint John. The convent is the property of the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

Custody of the Holy Land The Custody of the Holy Land (Latin: ''Custodia Terræ Sanctæ'') is a Custos (Franciscans), custodian priory of the Order of Friars Minor in Jerusalem, founded as the ''Province of the Holy Land'' in 1217 by Saint Francis of Assisi, who had also ...

Significance

The monastery commemorates the "wilderness" in which St. John the Baptist lived as an orphaned child and throughout the years which prepared him for public ministry. According to tradition, John was born some 3 km away in Ein Karem, and

Luke People *Luke (given name), a masculine given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Luke (surname) (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luke. Also known as ...

tells us that John "grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to

Description

The monastery has a church and is built next to the grotto in which St John is said to have lived, which now functions as a chapel. The monastery also contains the spring known in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

as ‘Ain el-Habis, “spring of the hermit", and the tomb of Elizabeth, St John's mother.

History

The Crusaders built here a church and convent. http://www.custodia.org/default.asp?id=1883 Custody of the Holy Landwebsite, accessed 30 October 2018 In the

Mamluk Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...

period the church was in the hands of the

Georgians The Georgians, or Kartvelians (; ka, ქართველები, tr, ), are a nation and indigenous Caucasian ethnic group native to Georgia and the South Caucasus. Georgian diaspora communities are also present throughout Russia, Turkey, G ...

. Franciscans paid the Georgians rent for the building and adjacent garden. The

made a final attempt to regain the monastery by legal means in 1596.Hussein, Sclad and Gosselin, 1934, 123-5. 88. The current monastery and its church were designed by Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi and were inaugurated in 1922.

References

External links

At the website of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land
With history, opening times and contact details. Franciscan monasteries in Jerusalem {{Christian-monastery-stub