Jeruselem has about 850,000 citizens.
Climb to the Church of the Visitation
We ascended a long stone stairway up to the Church of the Visitation, which is a Franciscan church in Ein Kerem, on the west side of Jerusalem, named after Mary's visit to the summer house of the parents of John the Baptist. Ein Kerem is according to tradition the birthplace of John the Baptist but it is not considered authentic like some of the places that we've visited - it's fair to assume it happened to in close to proximity to this location. The village was a summer house for Zacharias and Elizabeth, parents of John the Baptist. The village was called "city of Juda" in the description of the visit by Luke.
Elizabeth was the cousin of Mary, mother of Jesus. As per Luke, Mary visited Elizabeth when both were pregnant (hence the name - Church of visitation). During the visit, the baby leapt with joy in Elizabeth's womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, knowing Mary that she is about to give birth to the son of God. Mary then stayed with her cousin for 3 months until John was born. The rock found in the lower chapel represents the rock Elizabeth used to hide John the Baptist from Herod's soldiers. The panorama below are various inscriptions of the Magnificat (canticle of Mary) in a number of languages.
We celebrated Mass at the beautiful Franciscan church over the chapel pictured below. The church was rebuilt in 1955 and includes remnants of the crusader church of the Visitation.
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