In this one hour tour we walk the alleys of Ein Kerem, and while visiting two very unique churches, we will try to, and I beleive we can, trully understand John at the village of his birth and childhood
We start our tour at the Church of the Visitation which honors the visit paid by the Virgin Mary shortly after the annunciation, to Elizabeth who is carrying John in her womb. We are told about this visit in the gospel of Luke 1: 39-56 which according to tradition is where Mary recited her song of praise of the Lord, the Magnificat, known as the Canticle or Song of Mary.
As we decend the mountain to the village of Ein Kerem, we stop at the house of Saint Marie Alphonsine, a Palestinian Christian nun who founded the Order of the Rosary Sisters, which has since focused on education of girls in their mother tongue, Arabic. In 2015 she was canonized (officailly diclared a saint). We then pass by the huge Mulberry tree planed by Major General Charles Gordon in 1873. These two adjacent houses provide us with two exceptional stories about two exceptional individuals, of which one of them came to live in Ein Kerem following John the Baptist. On our way to John Ba Harim Church, the birthplace of John, we will stop at Mary’s Spring, which is the source of life of this village that has been there for more than 3500 years.
The church was built at the site where John the Baptist is beleved to have been born and raised. Like the event at the Church of the VIsitation that gave rise to the Magnificat, here too an important event took place. As told in the Godpel of Luke 1: 68-79 Zachriah, John’s father, regains his ability to talk once he writes the name of John at his Brith (when he was 8 days old and to be circumsised). Zachariah praises the Lord in what has become to be known as the Song of Zachriah or Benedictus.
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