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Ein Karem - Here John the Baptist was born (Jerusalem, Israel) - Church of John the Baptist

654 views · Published 12 July 2011 · 1:01 · Indexed 7 October 2026

Channel: The Holy Land, by Zahi Shaked · 2011 · Travel & Events

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סיור בעין כרם - כנסיית יוחנן בהרים  According to Christian tradition, John the Baptist was born in Ein Kerem, leading to the establishment of many churches and monasteries. According to the Bible, Mary went "into the hill country, to a city of Judah"[8] when she visited the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth. Theodosius (530) says that the distance from Jerusalem to the place where Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, lived is five miles. The Jerusalem Calendar (dated before 638) mentions the village by name as the place of a festival in memory of Elizabeth celebrated on the twenty-eighth of August.[9] The Anglo Saxon Saewulf on pilgrimage to Palestine in 1102-1103 wrote of a monastery in the area of Ein Karim dedicated to St. Sabas where 300 monks had been "slain by Saracens.[10] The site of the crusader church was purchased by Father Thomas of Novaria in 1621. In 1672 the Franciscan order received a Firman from the Ottoman Sultan and 'large sums of mon[ies]' were expended in an extensive rebuilding programme. There are two churches by this name in Ein Kerem. One is a Catholic church built in the second half of the 19th century on the remnants of earlier Byzantine and Crusader churches. Inside are the remains of an ancient mosaic floor and a cave where, according to Christian tradition, John the Baptist was born. Additionally some remnants below the infrastructure of the building suggests the presence of Mikve a Jewish baptism bath that is dated to the 2nd temple period. The church is mentioned in the Book of the Demonstration, attributed to Eutychius of Alexandria (940): "The church of Bayt Zakariya in the district of Aelia bears witness to the visit of Mary to her kinswoman Elizabeth."

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