Church of the Holy Sepulchre

There is a link in this to our last overseas trip to the UK. In York we discovered that Constantine the Great, the founder of Roman Christianity, had served in the legion commanded by his father there.

The first British Christian, St Alban, was martyred a few years earlier and Constantine would certainly have known of it as his mother was a Christian.  When later he became Emperor he resolved to stop the infighting and schism within the Christian Church at the Council of Nicaea.  It was he who then institutionalised Christianity as a new Roman religion and thus ensured its perpetuation.   As a side benefit, a lot of competing 'pagan' temples lost patronage and their revenues flowed into Constantine's coffers. 

It was Helena, Constantine’s mother, who upon hearing of the finding of three crucifixions (presumably three crosses and two bodies) during modifications to a temple to Aphrodite on the hill just above here, decreed that this was Golgotha  (Calvary) and ordered the construction of the first basilica here.

One of the first chapels was here

Since then, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims have climbed this hill. There are a couple of half size crosses to carry if you would like. 

A moment's consideration is all that it takes to realise that you are not actually walking in the footsteps of Christ, no matter what your imagination and  Jerusalem Syndrome might suggest. 

In Roman times the streets were ten to fifteen feet lower as several excavation sites around here demonstrate. 

Remnants of the Roman Cardo, or Main Commercial Avenue, of Jerusalem in the time if Christ

And how has it escaped those who see this as other than an entirely symbolic and imaginative observance, that they are now walking through a Muslim market? 

This route was first defined some 300 years after the crucifixion is said to have occurred and it is very likely that it was quite arbitrarily chosen.  

There is also the problem of the probable mislocation of Golgotha.  Many religious scholars have doubted Helena's choice of location, in part because it is unlikely that Jesus was crucified at a temple to Aphrodite, that is very likely to have predated the event, and no one thought to mention it.  Instead, the Gospels mention the place of a skull. Scholars have identified other locations in particular Skull Hill and the Garden Tomb outside the walls and thus more in keeping with the story.  Yet, this city has been besieged so often, and so many have been massacred here, that I imagine that you'll find a skull or crucifixion or two almost anywhere you dig, so take your pick.

In due course, Christianity, based on Constantinople, Constantine's new capital (Byzantium now Istanbul) became known as Byzantine Christianity.  With the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire became the most powerful Empire in the world and remained so for over a thousand years until conquered by the Ottoman Turks (Muslims) in 1453. 

Actually the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is very interesting.  Remnants may go back to around 260 but most is high Byzantine a hundred years later.  Writing is in byzantine Greek.

Byzantine elements in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Services are mainly in Latin and Greek but we heard one in English.  They may be in numerous other languages too.   This shrine has been expanded several times from it's consecration in 335. It has been damaged by fires, earthquakes and conflicts on numerous occasions.  Its virtual destruction in 1009 became a motivation for Crusades. 

Its dome was replaced as recently as 1870

For almost a thousand years there has been tension between Roman, Latin speaking, Western Christianity and Greek speaking Eastern Christianity, heightened by an attack on Christian Constantinople by Western Christian Crusaders in 1204, and this schism became even more complex after the Protestant Reformation in Europe in the 16th Century.  Eastern Christianity is still the predominant Christian faith everywhere from Egypt (Coptic) through the Middle East to Greece and Russia (Orthodox).

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Thus Christians have been fighting each other for supremacy in this basilica almost since it was built.  As a result the keys have traditionally been held by a local Muslim family who are charged with keeping the peace.  

A friend in Germany told us that during his visit to the Basilica violence erupted between Greek Orthodox and another group of Christians, presumably Roman, resulting in a running fist-fight that he likened to a bar-room brawl in a wild west movie.

The faithful praying in the Basilica, mostly women, are certainly intensely engaged and are matched only by the Jewish women in the tunnels along the western wall.  More of that later.

A number of Protestant Christians have been more inclined to the view that the Basilica is misplaced.  There is a large Lutheran church a few hundred metres away that is quiet and pleasant inside, if a little too sterile to be interesting, and makes no special claims about its location.

The third Abrahamic religion is in the majority in this sector and the call to prayer is heard at intervals during the day and men disappear from their shops.