Mar Elias Monastery (, ) is a Greek Orthodox monastery in south Jerusalem, on a hill overlooking

Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...

and

Herodium Herodion (; ; ), Herodium (Latin), or Jabal al-Fureidis () is a fortified desert palace built by Herod the Great, king of Herodian kingdom, Judaea, in the first century BCE. The complex stands atop a hill in the Judaean Desert, approximately s ...

, near .

History

Origin of the name, other traditions

According to Christian tradition,

Elijah Elijah ( ) or Elias was a prophet and miracle worker who lived in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Ahab (9th century BC), according to the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah defended the worsh ...

rested here after fleeing the vengeance of

Jezebel Jezebel ()"Jezebel"
(US) and

. The monastery was rebuilt in the 1160s by Byzantine Emperor

Manuel I Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos (; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Latinized as Comnenus, also called Porphyrogenitus (; " born in the purple"), was a Byzantine emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history o ...

after being destroyed by an earthquake. It is also said to be the burial place of the Greek Bishop Elias of Bethlehem who died in 1345, and St. Elias, an Egyptian monk who became Patriarch of Jerusalem in 494. Another Christian tradition is that Mary rested under the large hackberry tree growing north of the monastery when she was fleeing Herod, who had ordered the execution of all the children of Bethlehem. MarEliasMonasteryFeb162022 03

1956 shooting attack

From the hill east of the monastery, in 1956 one or rather several Jordanian soldiers opened fire on a group of Israeli archaeologists visiting the excavation sites across the valley at Ramat Rachel, killing Jacob Pinkerfield and another three, and injuring 16.''Israel Rejects Jordan's Claim Madman Killed 3'', Meriden Journal, 24 September 1956

/ref>Raphael Israeli, ''Jerusalem Divided: The Armistice Regime, 1947-1967'', p. 82. Routledge 2002, Series: Israeli History, Politics and Society (Book 23),

/ref>

After 1967

During the 1967

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

, the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

quickly overran

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

ian defences around the monastery on the way to Bethlehem and

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

. After 1967, the height, known as Elijah Hill, was renamed in Hebrew as Givat ha'Arba'a (), meaning "Hill of the Four," in honour of the four victims killed in the 1956 incident.

Description

Church

Hunt's bench; orchards

Facing the monastery is a stone bench erected by the wife of the painter

William Holman Hunt William Holman Hunt (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolism ...

(1827–1910), who painted some of his major works at this spot. The bench is inscribed with biblical verses in Hebrew, Greek, Arabic and English. Since the 4th century, the monks of Mar Elias have cultivated olives and grapes.Where to Go: Mar Elias
/ref>

Gallery

The Mar-Elias monastery. Elijah being assumed into heaven in a chariot of fire.jpg, The Mar-Elias monastery. The iconostasis.jpg, The Mar-Elias monastery. The painting of the dome - Jesus Christ the Pantocrator.jpg, The Mar-Elias monastery. The painting of the western wall.jpg, MarEliasMonasteryFeb162022 01.jpg MarEliasMonasteryFeb162022 02.jpg MarEliasMonasteryFeb162022 04.jpg MarEliasMonasteryFeb162022 05.jpg MarEliasMonasteryFeb162022 06.jpg GivatHaArbaaFeb162022 01.jpg GivatHaArbaaFeb162022 02.jpg

References

Bibliography

* (pp
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External links

Bible walks
Jonathan Lipnick, ''The First Church Dedicated Entirely To Mary'', in Biblical Hebrew & Greek, 20 July 2016
about the Church of the Seat of Mary on the Jerusalem-Bethlehem road * Survey of Western Palestine, Map 17
IAA

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{{Authority control Christian monasteries in Jerusalem Greek Orthodox monasteries in Palestine Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Israel Elijah