My Pilgrimage: June 3

Our only full day in Nazareth began with Mass at the Church of St. Joseph, very near the Basilica of the Annunciation.  We then were able to tour the Basilica, beginning with the excavation of the 1^st Century town.  There were about 50 homes found, meaning there were between 300 and 500 inhabitants, hardly a bustling city.  Perhaps the closest find was a column on a particular house with 2^nd Century graffiti reading, in Greek, “Ave Maria,” the earliest ever found.  That is how they know her house.  The Basilica itself is quite new, finished in 1969, and it is the tallest church in Israel.  It was made to look like a cave, though really it comes off as a huge concrete blah.

There are many images of Mary around the Basilica, this was probably my favorite

Church of St. Joseph

Earliest known Ave Maria

Annunciation Grotto

In the afternoon we walked to Nazareth Village, a reenactment of what it would have looked like.  Along the way we stopped for “kabobs” at an Arabic restaurant, though they were actually pressed wraps.  They were still good, though.  The village was okay.  I guess it served it purpose of giving a living context for Jesus’ life, but it’s still kind of kitschy.  It was also dang hot, so on the way back to our rooms some of us stopped off for gelato (strawberry for me).

The olive tree on the right is over 400 years old

After a nice but not long enough nap, we were given the opportunity to tour the excavation below where we are staying.  My understanding is most tourists do not get to go there, though there was a recent paper and CNN special on the findings.  It boils down to this: in the Byzantine era, a pilgrim visited Nazareth and said there were two churches, that of the Annunciation, and one over the house of Jesus.  The latter had been lost.  Excavations below this site found a Byzantine building that seemed to have an altar.  It had later been built up by the Crusaders as well.  Looking more, they found a 1^st century cave, directly below the church.  They also found a tomb of a “just man,” which when they opened up smelled of incense (clearly it had been venerated by the Crusaders).  So, there is the possibility that the cave found here was the dwelling of the Holy Family.  Not much is known about the tomb, other than it is a good look at what Jesus’ tomb would have looked like (the rolled stone indicates it was a wealthy person).

We had dinner at our lodgings for the second night, and at 8:30 head over to the Basilica for a candle light procession and rosary.  Shortly after we got there, myself and another seminarian were asked if we could carry the torches for the procession.  Ok , fine.  When we got to where the torches were, they said, ok you carry Her.  We were roped into carrying the processional Mary statue.  It was an interesting experience, certainly not expected.

Tomorrow we have early Pentecost Mass with the local Arabic Catholics, and then we are off on the bus to other destinations.  Hopefully, the weather will be nicer to us.