A Trip to the Orient: The Story of a Mediterranean Cruise

by Robert Urie Jacob

Reascending to the main floor, we halted at the Chapel of the Mocking. There the guide showed us the stone upon which the Jews made Jesus sit while they crowned Him with thorns. The guide then led the way up a flight of steps to the Chapel of Golgotha, which is within the great structure of the church but upon the summit of a rock fifteen feet higher than the main floor. At one side of this chapel, where the rock itself projects slightly above the floor, a figure of the Christ in dying agony is suspended upon the cross, and at the foot of the cross stand the figures of Mary, His mother, and St. John, both dejected and sorrowful. These figures appear to be made of gold and silver. The crowns on their heads are covered with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and other precious stones. A hole in the rock surrounded by a gold plate marks the place where the original cross stood. On the right and left are the holes where stood the crosses of the thieves. A movable gold plate covers the crevice in the rock caused by the earthquake. In this chapel the pictures on the walls are encircled with diamonds and other precious stones. Adjoining this room is the Chapel of the Crucifixion, where, as the guide informed us, Christ was nailed to the cross, and close by is the place where the Virgin Mary stood during the Crucifixion.

Descending a flight of steps to the main floor, we entered a small cavern-like chamber.

"This," said the guide, "is the Tomb of Adam, and the little chapel beyond is the Tomb of Melchizedek."

When one of the ladies, doubting the truth of these traditions, excitedly began to remonstrate with the guide, a clergyman in the party said to her: "It is not worth while to enter into a dispute with the guide. You cannot convince him that his assertions are incorrect. Let us leave the topic for discussion in the evening when we cannot go out sight-seeing."

We departed from the Church of the Sepulchre with the intention of returning without a guide to inspect portions of the building more leisurely. Preceded by the guide, we walked through the narrow Via Dolorosa, pausing a moment at each of the fourteen stations, which mark the location of the historical and traditional events that occurred in the street of sorrow. After the guide had explained the route, one of the tourists devoutly said: "Little did I think a year ago that I should walk along the very path that has been stained by the blood drops of the Savior on His way to the Cross, and tread perhaps on the very stones that His sacred feet have pressed."

AT THE ENTRANCE TO SOLOMON'S QUARRIES.

A few minutes later we were admitted to a convent on the Via Dolorosa. One of the gray-gowned nuns, after exhibiting and offering for sale laces and embroideries made by the sisters, led us to an excavation in the rear of the convent. There a courteous Abbess met us, and said: "The excavation made here uncovered a part of the original Via Dolorosa. The old way lies buried twenty feet below the level of the modern street known by that name, and at this place is one hundred feet to the right of the one on which you were walking."

"You must bear in mind the history of Jerusalem," continued the Abbess in reply to our questions. "Forty years after the Crucifixion Titus captured the city, demolished the buildings, and slaughtered the inhabitants. Jerusalem became 'heaps' and a 'desolation' as predicted by the holy prophets. For a century thereafter a village of huts built upon the ruins occupied the site of the city; then the idolatrous Emperor Hadrian rebuilt the city, laying out the streets to suit his pagan ideas, and for two centuries it was a pagan city whose people were devoted to the worship of strange gods and regarded not the sacred places. Three hundred years after the Ascension of our Savior, the blessed St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, made a pilgrimage from Constantinople to Jerusalem. Inspired with holy zeal, she gave orders for the erection of churches on the sites of the Nativity at Bethlehem and the Ascension at Olivet. She prayerfully sought for the sacred tomb in which the Lord had been laid, and her efforts were rewarded by the finding of the true cross. She cleared away the accumulated rubbish and built the chapel on the holy ground, and that chapel has grown into the great Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Afterwards the locations of the events on the way to the cross were marked on the modern street to correspond as nearly as possible to the places on the ancient street which lay buried many feet below. The finding of a part of the true Via Dolorosa in the excavation within our enclosure has been a blessing to the convent."