Church of the Pater Noster

Coordinates: 31°46′41″N 35°14′42″E / 31.7780°N 35.2449°E / 31.7780; 35.2449
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Eleona Basilica
)
Church of the Pater Noster
Style
Romanesque Revival
Groundbreakingearly 4th century
Specifications
MaterialsStone

The Church of the Pater Noster (

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). The Church of the Pater Noster stands right next to the ruins of the 4th-century Byzantine Church of Eleona. The ruins of the Eleona were rediscovered in the 20th century and its walls were partially rebuilt. Today, France claims ownership of the land on which both churches and the entire monastery are standing, under the Ottoman capitulations and further it claims the land as a French Domaine national français which has been formalised by the Fischer-Chauvel Agreement of 1948,[citation needed] though the agreement has not been ratified by Israel’s Knesset
.

Biblical background

The 2nd-century Acts of John mentions the existence of a cave on the Mount of Olives associated with the teachings of Jesus, but not specifically the Lord's Prayer.

History

The Grotto, that is believed to be a place where Jesus taught the Lord's Prayer to His disciples.

Constantine and the Byzantine period

The modern Church of the Pater Noster is built right next to the site of a fourth-century

Eusebius of Caesarea recounts that Constantine constructed a church over a cave on the Mount of Olives that had been linked with the Ascension.[1]

The church survived intact until it was destroyed by

Persians
in 614.

Crusader church

The memory of Jesus' teaching remained associated with this site, and during the Crusades it became exclusively associated with the teaching of the Lord's Prayer. The Crusaders built a small oratory amid the ruins in 1106, and a full church was constructed in 1152, thanks to funds donated[citation needed] by the Danish Bishop Svend of Viborg, who is buried inside the church.[2] The Crusader-era church was heavily damaged during Sultan Saladin's siege of Jerusalem in 1187, eventually being abandoned and falling into ruin by 1345.

Modern church and ruins recovered

In 1851, the remaining stones of the 4th-century church were sold for tombstones in the

Valley of Jehoshaphat
.

The site was acquired by

Carmelite
convent in 1872. A convent church was erected in the 1870s.

In 1910, the foundations of the ancient church that once stood over the venerated cave were finally found, partly stretching beneath the modern cloister. The convent was moved nearby and reconstruction of the

Byzantine church began in 1915. The reconstruction was stopped in 1927 when funds ran out, and the renewed Church of Eleona remains unfinished.[citation needed] The French architect Marcel Favier [fr], who was put in charge of rebuilding the ancient church, arrived in Jerusalem in September 1926.[3]

The tomb which Princess Aurelia Bossi prepared for herself during her lifetime stands at the entrance of the modern church. She died in Florence in 1889, and her remains were brought to the church in 1957, according to her last wish.

Design and layout

Altar of the modern Church of the Pater Noster

4th-century Byzantine church

The 4th-century Byzantine church has been partially reconstructed and provides a good sense of what the original was like. The church's dimensions are the same as the original's and the garden outside the three doors outlines the atrium area. The church is unroofed and has steps that lead into a grotto where some Christians believe that Jesus revealed to his

second coming
. Unfortunately, the cave containing the grotto partially collapsed when it was discovered in 1910. It also cuts partly into a 1st-century tomb.

As one enters the south door of the Byzantine church, on the left there are fragments of the mosaic floor of the baptistery.

19th-century church

The 19th-century cloister is modelled on the Campo Santo at Pisa, Italy.[citation needed] It separates the partly reconstructed Byzantine church, which stands west of it, from the small 19th-century convent church, which stands east of it.

Princess Aurelia Bossi's tomb stands in the western lateral chamber of the narthex, on the right-hand side as one enters the church.

Lord's Prayer plaques

The walls of the cloister, of the convent church and the partially reconstructed Eleona church are all used to display plaques that bear the Lord's Prayer in a total of well over 100 different languages and dialects.[4]

Location

The church is located in the

Muslim
Arabs, with a small Christian minority.

Gallery

  • View from the cloister
    View from the cloister
  • The Lord's Prayer in many languages
    The Lord's Prayer in many languages
  • The Lord's Prayer in Biblical Greek
    The Lord's Prayer in Biblical Greek
  • The Lord's Prayer in Latin
    The Lord's Prayer in Latin
  • Pater Noster

References

  1. ^ Thomson, William McClure (1880). The Land and the Book, Or, Biblical Illustrations Drawn from the Manners and Customs, the Scenes and Scenery, of the Holy Land. Harper.
  2. ^ Suhm, Peter Frederik (1793): Historie af Danmark, vol. VI, fra Aar 1147 til 1152, Copenhagen: Brødrende Berlings Trykkeri, page 102.
  3. ^ "Architecture. Le Consulat de France à Jérusalem jouit d'une vue exceptionnelle". israelvalley.com (in French). 2 November 2020. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
  4. ^ "The Convent of the Pater Noster". Archived from the original on 2013-05-11. Retrieved 2009-01-11.
  • Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, Oxford Archaeological Guides: The Holy Land (Oxford, 1998), 125–26.
  • Kay Prag, Blue Guide to Israel and the Palestinian Territories (Black and Norton, 2002), 230–31.
  • Daniel Jacobs, Mini Rough Guide to Jerusalem (Rough Guides, 1999), 105–06.

External links