Israel: Virtual visit to the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher

The Franciscan missionaries who serve in the Holy Land are planning a website devoted to the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher, with new graphics and a wealth of documentation;  it will be available in four languages (Italian, Spanish, English, French) starting on March 12, 2012.  A panoramic view allows the Internet to visit the smallest details of the basilica, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem announced on his website www.saintsepulcre.custodia.org :  the visitor can enter the Holy Sepulcher thanks to a virtual “photographic tour” and follow Our Lord’s Way of the Cross by means of the explanations given about the places where he goes.

The upper level of the Basilica, built by the Crusaders, is divided into two naves:  on the right is the chapel of the Crucifixion, belonging to the Latins, in which the tenth and eleventh Stations of the Cross are situated.  This chapel commemorates the passage where Jesus was stripped of His garments before being crucified.  On the left is the chapel of Calvary which belongs to the Greek Orthodox, where the faithful can kneel at the foot of the altar to touch, through a silver disk, the point of the rock on which the Cross of the Passion was set up.  Here the twelfth station is commemorated, in which Jesus, dying, commends His soul to His Father.

This website provides historical documentation that the visitor can consult, allowing him to discover the basilica from the period when it was built by Constantine in 326, to the joint ownership of it by the various faith communities today.  This documentation presents the excavations carried out by the Franciscans.  One webpage, “Testimonies”, allows the reader to access texts by ancient authors—Saint Eusebius of Caesarea, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Saint Jerome—as well as medieval and modern writers.  Under “Spirituality” the visitor can read the account of the death of Our Lord by the four evangelists.  The website is the first in a series of renovations of the Internet portals for the different shrines in Jerusalem.  (Sources : apic/lpj/saintsepulcre – DICI no.252 dated March 30, 2012)

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