Viri Galilaei Church

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Viri Galilaei Church (2012)
Bell tower of the Viri Galilaei Church (2009)

The Viri Galilaei Church is a church building in Jerusalem on the northern slope of the Mount of Olives and the seat of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem . Pope Paul VI met here in 1964 . and Patriarch Athinagoras of Constantinople .

Surname

The name of the church is derived from the Latin translation of the Bible passage Acts 1,11  EU . In the Greek original it says: ἄνδρες Γαλιλαῖοι , in the Latin translation accordingly: Viri Galilaei . With this biblical reference, the place should be identified as the place where the ascension of Jesus is said to have taken place.

Church building

The church stands on the 810 m high northern crest of the Mount of Olives, southwest of the Auguste Victoria Hospital. To the right and left of the entrance gate, on two pillars, which symbolize the two angels from Acts 1,11  EU , the Greek inscription can be read: ΟΙ ΕΝΔΕΚΑ ΜΑΘΗΤΑΙ ΕΠΟΡΕΥΘΗΣΑΝ ΕΙΣ ΤΗΝ ΓΑΛΙΛΑΙΑΝ ( Matt 28,16  EU : “The eleven disciples went out to Galilee ").

history

A tradition according to which the northern tip of the Mount of Olives was the place of the ascension of Jesus Christ has only been found since the 17th century. In the 16th century, Bonifatius de Stephanis (1551–1564), Guardian of the Franciscans in the St. Stephen's Monastery, reported:

“... a place called Viri Galilaei because the Galileans were admitted to its hospice; not, as some assert incessantly, that this is the place from which Jesus predicted that he would precede them (the disciples) there ( Mk 14.28  EU ), because this place is in the province of Galilee ... There is neither a church here , another place of prayer, but ... a hospice of the Galileans. "

- Boniface de Stephanis

However, this geographical point was already a place of worship in Byzantine and early Islamic times. For example, a Georgian lectionary , which was written between 450 and 800, mentions a memory of the patriarchs Lot and Abraham for the Jerusalem community at this point . Christian von Stablo noted in his Matthew commentary that he had read in some book that that part of Jerusalem was called Galilee, which the Galileans had built. Even Anastas Vardapet one in the 10th or 11th century to less than 70 Armenian monasteries in Jerusalem four, which would be within the territory of Mount Galilee. The area of ​​the Greek patriarchate is also called kalilaja in Arabic .

literature

  • Othmar Keel, Max Küchler : Places and landscapes of the Bible. A handbook and study guide to the Holy Land. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, p. 904 ff.
  • Johann Nepomuk Sepp: Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Pilgrims book to Palestine, Syria and Egypt . Volume 1, Fr. Hurter'sche Buchhandlung, 1863, p. 577.
  • Rudolf Hofmann: About Mount Galilaea (Matth. 28, 16.). A contribution to the harmony of the evangelical accounts of the apparitions of the risen Christ . Friedr. Voigt, 1856, p. 24ff.

Web links

Commons : Viri Galilaei  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kurt Aland et al .: Nestle-Aland. Novum Testamentum Graece . 4th, revised print of the 26th edition, Deutsche Bibelstiftung, Stuttgart 1981, p. 321
  2. ^ Kurt Aland et al .: Nestle-Aland. Novum Testamentum Latine . 2nd print of the 1st edition, Deutsche Bibelstiftung, Stuttgart 1985, p. 321
  3. ↑ cf. Rudolf Hofmann: About Mount Galilaea (Matth. 28, 16.). A contribution to the harmony of the evangelical accounts of the apparitions of the risen Christ . Friedr. Voigt, 1856, p. 24ff.
  4. ↑ cit. n. Othmar Keel, Max Küchler: Places and landscapes of the Bible. A handbook and study guide to the Holy Land . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, p. 905.
  5. ↑ cf. Lexicon for Theology and the Church , Volume 2, 1958, p. 24.
  6. ↑ a b c Othmar Keel, Max Küchler: Places and landscapes of the Bible. A handbook and study guide to the Holy Land . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, p. 905.

Coordinates: 31 ° 46 ′ 56.3 "  N , 35 ° 14 ′ 41.8"  E