![]() She had a sister named Mary sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. In fact, various evangelical events are set in Bethany.Īs they continued their journey he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. The mosaic crescents of the four arms of the church summarize the events of Bethany, with Gospel messages. The structure is a Greek cross and gets light from above it indicates the resurrection and the life offered by Christ, as we read in the Latin inscription under the dome “Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live” (John 11:25). The sanctuary, which was consecrated in April of 1954, is superimposed on the remains of the three previous churches, which tried to protect as much as possible in fact, both inside the building and in the front courtyard you can see fragments of the floor mosaics of the two Byzantine churches, while parts of the apse of the first church are visible at the entrance, underneath the floor. The present church was built by the Franciscans, who entrusted the building to the architect Antonio Barluzzi. The minaret of the mosque now occupies the area where the apse of the church stood. The few items that remain are kept by the Franciscan Fathers. ![]() In 1187, with the advent of Saladin’s rule, the complex suffered considerable damage and gradually fell into disrepair. The crusaders also built a monastery for the Benedictine nuns and a church right on Lazarus’ tomb, which likely served as a chapel for the nuns. The third Crusader-era church: during the Crusader period, at the behest of King Fulk of Anjou and his wife, Queen Melisenda, renovation work was begun on the second Byzantine church this completely transformed the original structure giving it a completely new look, and that is why scholars speak of a third church. Destroyed by an earthquake, it was rebuilt in the fifth century this second Byzantine church was built further east and therefore was farther from Lazarus’ tomb. The first church followed the style of the basilicas from the age of Constantine: it had three naves, with mosaics in the floor that were very similar to those of the Basilica in Bethlehem. The place is mentioned in the notes of the first pilgrims, including Eusebio di Cesarea (330), the Anonymous from Bordeaux (333) and the pilgrim Egeria (380), who speaks of the liturgical celebrations that took place there. The first and second Byzantine churches: the first church was built in Bethany in the fourth century and was part of a real complex, the Lazarium, built near Lazarus’ tomb in memory of the events related to Jesus’ presence in Bethany. The archaeologists also discovered a necropolis and a little farther up, to the west of the tomb, the remains of the ancient village, as well as a variety of materials that cover a period of time from the sixth and fifth centuries BC to the sixteenth century AD. In the center of the village, a Franciscan church remembers the house of Martha and Mary and the miracle of Lazarus’ resurrection it is superimposed on three previous churches, the remains of which have come to light following the excavations carried out at the beginning of the 1950s by Fr. It was during the Byzantine period that the original name of the town was replaced with that of the village of Lazarus, resulting in the current Arabic name al-Azariya. The ancient name Bethany can be interpreted as a simplification of Bet Hananya, or the home of an unspecified Ananias. In Biblical times, Bethany was among the villages rebuilt by members of the tribe of Benjamin after returning from exile in Babylon (Nehemiah 11:32).
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