We started our eighth day, February 10th, very early. We departed the hotel at 4:30 am, which meant waking up even earlier. It's easier to walk the Via Dolorosa (Way of Suffering, the path Jesus followed to His death) before the shops open in the Old City of Jerusalem. The streets are narrow, so you want to be there before everyone else. Although Jesus was arrested in the dark of night and paraded around in darkness, this path was done in the daylight. But we will walk it in darkness, which is more reminiscent of the way he began his Passion.
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| Archway Near the End of the Via Dolorosa |
With this path being walked in the dark of the early morning, I knew some of the photos might not be lit very well. I really wanted to capture the path as it was with the local lighting.
We entered the Old City of Jerusalem via Herod's Gate.
We worked our way to Lion's Gate Street, which is where the path begins.
There is an arch ahead that makes it a bit easier to find the starting point, since it's near there. The arch from this perspective arcs up and to the left. Very early on, I started to hold some light to help the priest read the passages he read at each station. I tried to get the most out of each spot, but I think the next time I do this, I may want to focus on the prayers more and less on the lighting.
The brightest part of this photo is the underside of that same arch on the left side. We just passed underneath it. This is the starting point. In terms of the Stations of the Cross, this is the vicinity of station 1. If you either don't know what the Stations of the Cross are or just want more info and video of some of the sites, there is another site with some information about: Stations of the Cross (not my site). If you can't visit Jerusalem, it's a prayerful way to honor the Passion of Jesus. There are circular markers of each station with the Roman numeral of the station engraved into the circle. I hadn't noticed at the time, but the marker for this location is above the large, white sign on the wall on the right. There is a dark circle about a foot in diameter above it that marks this site as Station 1. This is the vicinity of where Jesus was condemned to death. (Imagine judging God)
The marker for the second station marks the carrying of the cross. Although some markers are on the sides of religious buildings, some are on whatever building happens to be there. It could be a home or a business. I'm not sure what's in the building behind this marker. The carrying of the cross reminds me of the many years the people of Israel wandered in the desert in the form of the cross.
I took photos of other places along the route that were of interest to me. When I saw a sign that said, "Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem Prison of Christ", I thought I'd take a photo.
I also took a photo of the Armenian Catholic Patriarchate. It seems that most religions and subgroups of religions tend to have a Patriarchate site. The Armenians maintain a rather nice part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Greeks maintain some of the most important sites there. And the Latin Catholics maintain much of the rest, which includes some other significant sites within the church. But we aren't there yet. That's where this all comes to a climax--the events and sites that had been pointed to throughout history.
The marker for Station 3 is on a corner, and the statues that go with it hide just around the corner from it. This is where Jesus falls the first time. I captured this marker from a few angles. First to capture the statue and marker.
Then to show the name of the site and the artwork above its door.
Then again to look up toward the sky and to see the Muslim site nearby.
Jesus met his mother at station 4.
Station 5 is where Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus carry his cross. With how close Jesus was to death, carrying his own cross may have been too much of a burden on his body, and he may have died too early. Roman soldiers would have faced punishment if they allowed Jesus to die in any way other than the manner in which he was condemned to die. But this also allowed Jesus to fulfill numerous prophecies. Imagine being recruited...forced...by Roman soldiers to help a condemned man carry his cross. What if someone would think you were the condemned person?
In the last photo above, the man with the red flag on the right half of the photo is standing near an inner corner. On the wall that's hidden behind the person visually nearest him, you'll see a bit of a frame in the wall. The next photo shows that spot up close. It's a stone that is believed to be touched by Jesus along his route. I believe it was a stone that formed the road, but now is on a wall.
I didn't want to just capture the stations. I wanted to include a bit of a view of the path itself. In these early hours, the shops are all closed up with metal doors, gates, or similar. The roads are just a few feet wide, looking more like hallways of a large building than streets in a large city. The streets have steps occasionally.
Station 6 marks the location where Veronica wiped the face of Jesus.
This one is confusing. The marker says VII, which is Station 7. But next to it, we see VIIIST. It can almost make you think this is the marker for the 8th station, but it's Station 7, where Jesus fell a second time. The city walls at the time of Jesus would have been just before this point in the route. In fact, the modern route has buildings between here and the next station, so this is a rather odd stop in the route. You walk to this point, and then have to turn back on your course as if this was a dead end, even though the road continues along. After you turn back, you make a turn to the right and follow the street to the next station.
I tried to capture the turns I might otherwise miss. I don't know if this photo ended up a little out of order or if I just took a photo facing back toward it. I think it's the latter. Many other photos on this trip were grouped in ways I felt worked better, rather than always going in exact time sequence. But since this is a path with a clear start and end, I'm trying to keep these in sequence.
So when I had this photo after the last one, that's what makes me think I just took a photo back toward the turn.
Station 8 is where Jesus met the women of Jerusalem. The next station after this one is just outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
This part of the path came across as much darker in this photo. It was rather dark.
Let there be light.
I think this might have been a turning point again, but it seems like I focused on the sign. Not quite sure...
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre has its dome in view.
Many people take photos of this arch with a dome from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre behind it. Usually, photos are taken during the day, with a blue sky or a few clouds. Then you can see the color of the building. But then this arch has daylight on it or is poorly lit. I rather love my photo of it with the foreground lit by the city lights, the shadows on the church itself, the backlit cross on top of the dome, and the dark sky with city-lit, low-lying fluffy clouds.
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That arch is on the final path to Station 9, which is on the outside wall of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is an approach from the east. If anyone carries a large cross, this is supposed to be the place where they stop carrying it. The path from here would have been inside of the building. But for the sake of groups praying the stations, the final stations are outside the church's entrance on the south side. Station 9 is where Jesus fell a third time.
After once again turning back on our course, we followed the road to the turn needed to access the entry to the church. The turn zig-zags a bit. But you know after the zag that you went the correct direction when you see some green lights up in the sky. I'm not quite sure what is up there, but in my path to the church each morning for most of the days there, I saw this green glow and knew I was almost there.
Along this stretch, we pass by a property held by the Lutheran Church. In so many of my photos, I tend to see the same guy who was part of our group. I don't mean to have him in so many photos, but he just tended to be near the interesting stuff.
The doorway/archway in the middle of this photo, where everyone is headed, has a sign above it. It's the entryway to the church's courtyard.
I have a few photos similar to this one. The church that is built upon the sites where history reached its turning point is seen just beyond this spot.
Here is the entry to the church. This is where the Via Dolorosa ends. We pray the final stations from 10 through 14 ends here. Stations 10-13 would take place just inside the door, up and to the right.
Station 10: Jesus is stripped of his clothing. We see crucifixes with a light garment around his waist. But that's out of modesty. Our Lord was naked, experiencing total humiliation, for us. He would be that way for each of the remaining stations.
Station 11: Jesus is placed upon the cross and nailed to it. About a month and a half after the trip, this took one more meaning, as did many other parts of the Passion in the months that followed.
Station 12: Jesus dies on the cross. I used to think about this part much more than the other stations.
Station 13: Jesus is taken down from the cross. He would be anointed for burial on a stone that was located straight in from this door.
Station 14: Jesus is laid in the tomb. This occurs inside, going a bit forward and then to the left.
I have a separate post about what was found inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I will link to that near the end of this post, since I don't want to break up the last bit here by having it in some other post.
We remained inside until it was daylight. We still needed breakfast at the hotel, so we would head back. The metal doors to close off the shops are all sorts of colors. That's less obvious from earlier photos.
Some streets are nice enough to have some overhangs that protect you from the rain and sun. Some leave a gap in between. Some have other stuff in those areas. Some have overlapping overhangs.
If you missed my prior post about the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the link I just posted should open up a new window/tab. The photos appear smaller in those posts, since the last few posts I made were composed when a different photo size was the default. I prefer these larger photos.
At some point, I will either write a book, booklet, podcast, and/or a much more significant post regarding a combination of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and other things that I figured out something rather fascinating about, and yet haven't seen it documented anywhere else. I am trying to finish off these posts quickly so I can focus more time on developing that content sooner.
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