Near to the Chapel of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, there is a singular tomb that the three local religions curiously attribute to three different women. For the Jews, it is the prophetess Huldah, mentioned in the Old Testament in the time of King Josiah. For the Muslims, it is the tomb of Rabi'a al Adawiyya, one of the earliest Sufi mystics of the 7th century who was the first to set forth the doctrine of divine love. According to Christian tradition, however, which is the oldest of the traditions and the only one directly connecting the person to the Mount of Olives, here is buried Pelagia, a former prostitute and actress and dancer from Antioch, who converted to Christianity by the Bishop of Edessa, then secretly went to Jerusalem dressed in men's clothing, to live as an ascetic monk on the Mount of Olives until her death, when her true identity was discovered. It has been said that the tension of polemical dispute regarding the identity of the holy woman made it possible for three religions to share the site. In addition, a shared ritual of repentance and belief in the holiness of the tomb appealed to people of all religious identities.
Steep steps lead to a spacious, almost square cave, the walls and ceiling of which the Muslims laid out of stone. On ordinary days, the servants of the mosque charge each pilgrim a fee for visiting the cave - one dollar. But once a year - on October 8/21, the day of commemoration of the Venerable Pelagia of Antioch, the Muslims of the Arab village of Attur, located at the very top of the Mount of Olives, allow Orthodox Christians to descend for free into the ancient cave - the place of monastic exploits and the eternal rest of the Saint. The cave belongs to the Muslims and is located on the territory of the mosque, under the arches of one of the one-story buildings adjacent to the mosque. The Muslims covered the tomb, located in a semi-oval niche near the southern wall, with a long green cover and a rug of the same color.
The Russian pilgrim Abbot Daniel testifies to this location in the early 12th century, when he writes: "On the Mount of Olives there is a deep cave, near the Ascension, to the south of it. In this cave stands the tomb of Saint Pelagia the Harlot; nearby there is a stylite, a very spiritual man.” And the Greek John Phokas, who visited the holy places in 1185, wrote in his “Brief Tale of the Cities and Countries from Antioch to Jerusalem, Also Syria, Phoenicia and the Holy Places of Palestine” that not far from the place of the Savior’s ascension “there is a cave in which Saint Pelagia performed her ascetic feats, where her holy body rests in a stone reliquary.” Many centuries later, in 1830, the Russian monk Serapion in his “Journey to the Holy City of Jerusalem” will tell about the “Turkish mosque” and near it “the cave in which Saint Pelagia was saved,” noting, however, that “the Turks do not let anyone into this latter one.”
From one modern guidebook to another, there is false information about the alleged existence of “an entrance to another, smaller cave in the eastern wall of the cave,” where Saint Pelagia lived in seclusion.
The Chapel of the Ascension has been around since about 370 or 387. Sources report that Saint Helen, Equal to the Apostles, erected a basilica of wondrous beauty, the luminous cross of which was visible to all of Jerusalem. Pelagia probably once prayed here. The chapel stood until 614, when it was destroyed by the Persians. In 628, Patriarch Modestus restored it. During the Crusaders' reign in 1152, the chapel was under the jurisdiction of the Monastery of Saint Augustine, and after 1187 it was rebuilt and turned into a mosque. The current building dates back to the 13th century. It is an Arab building, although its lower part dates back to the time of the Crusaders. Both the chapel and the courtyard in which it is located have an octagonal shape. According to legend, this place is surrounded by a two-meter wall made of stones taken from the ruins of the original Church of the Ascension. The chapel contains a relic - a stone with the imprint of the foot of the ascended Savior. And one time inside the building were kept two stones with His footprints imprinted on them. Now only one remains, and the second was moved by the Mamluk Muslims to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and is considered by them to be the footprint of the Prophet Muhammad.
Steep steps lead to a spacious, almost square cave, the walls and ceiling of which the Muslims laid out of stone. On ordinary days, the servants of the mosque charge each pilgrim a fee for visiting the cave - one dollar. But once a year - on October 8/21, the day of commemoration of the Venerable Pelagia of Antioch, the Muslims of the Arab village of Attur, located at the very top of the Mount of Olives, allow Orthodox Christians to descend for free into the ancient cave - the place of monastic exploits and the eternal rest of the Saint. The cave belongs to the Muslims and is located on the territory of the mosque, under the arches of one of the one-story buildings adjacent to the mosque. The Muslims covered the tomb, located in a semi-oval niche near the southern wall, with a long green cover and a rug of the same color.
The Russian pilgrim Abbot Daniel testifies to this location in the early 12th century, when he writes: "On the Mount of Olives there is a deep cave, near the Ascension, to the south of it. In this cave stands the tomb of Saint Pelagia the Harlot; nearby there is a stylite, a very spiritual man.” And the Greek John Phokas, who visited the holy places in 1185, wrote in his “Brief Tale of the Cities and Countries from Antioch to Jerusalem, Also Syria, Phoenicia and the Holy Places of Palestine” that not far from the place of the Savior’s ascension “there is a cave in which Saint Pelagia performed her ascetic feats, where her holy body rests in a stone reliquary.” Many centuries later, in 1830, the Russian monk Serapion in his “Journey to the Holy City of Jerusalem” will tell about the “Turkish mosque” and near it “the cave in which Saint Pelagia was saved,” noting, however, that “the Turks do not let anyone into this latter one.”
From one modern guidebook to another, there is false information about the alleged existence of “an entrance to another, smaller cave in the eastern wall of the cave,” where Saint Pelagia lived in seclusion.
The Chapel of the Ascension has been around since about 370 or 387. Sources report that Saint Helen, Equal to the Apostles, erected a basilica of wondrous beauty, the luminous cross of which was visible to all of Jerusalem. Pelagia probably once prayed here. The chapel stood until 614, when it was destroyed by the Persians. In 628, Patriarch Modestus restored it. During the Crusaders' reign in 1152, the chapel was under the jurisdiction of the Monastery of Saint Augustine, and after 1187 it was rebuilt and turned into a mosque. The current building dates back to the 13th century. It is an Arab building, although its lower part dates back to the time of the Crusaders. Both the chapel and the courtyard in which it is located have an octagonal shape. According to legend, this place is surrounded by a two-meter wall made of stones taken from the ruins of the original Church of the Ascension. The chapel contains a relic - a stone with the imprint of the foot of the ascended Savior. And one time inside the building were kept two stones with His footprints imprinted on them. Now only one remains, and the second was moved by the Mamluk Muslims to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and is considered by them to be the footprint of the Prophet Muhammad.
