Easter in Jerusalem in 1860

For Easter we have a description of religious ceremonies that took place in Jerusalem in 1860 which is extracted from: EGYPTIAN SEPULCHRES AND SYRIAN SHRINES, INCLUDING A VISIT TO PALMYRA. By: EMILY A. (BEAUFORT) VISCOUNTESS STRANGFORD, AUTHOR OF 'THE EASTERN SHORES OF THE ADRIATIC.' NEW EDITION. London: MACMILLAN AND CO. 1874. All Rights Reserved.

The services on Good Friday were really impressive; we were at the door of the Holy Sepulchre before 6 A.M. and found it closed, as the service had commenced some time earlier; but the French Consul had left two kawasses to conduct us into the chapel of Calvary, where chairs had been provided for us beside his own. The chapel was almost entirely dark, and densely crowded; the vestments used by the priests were all of black velvet embroidered in silver. The Patriarch had given up his place to Monseigneur Spaccapietra, an old Archbishop, who had lately arrived on a special mission of inquiry from the Pope: a fine-hearted and enlightened old man. The service, which was most solemnly and reverentially conducted, consisted of the Gospel narrative of the Passion of our Lord, and the words of the Saviour, of the people and of Pilate, recited by different voices. The old Archbishop chanted the Scripture with much earnestness and simplicity — but he was in Jerusalem for the first time in his life, he was worn out with a severe attack of the fever and with fasting, he was standing on the very spot where, the tradition of his church told him, the Redeemer had suffered, and when he came to the portion describing the consummation of that awful Sacrifice, the gentle-hearted old man was so completely overcome, that he laid his head on the altar and sobbed aloud; and a thousand times more impressive than all the splendour of the services on the previous days was it to see the aged, silver-haired Archbishop realizing the sacred and sorrowful story with such an intensity of earnestness as made the solemn words themselves come doubly home to the heart.

In the evening the church was so densely crowded that it required all the efforts of the six kawasses of the French Consul to get us to our places and to preserve us from utter suffocation : the people of Bethlehem come over in great numbers to attend the Franciscan service, which is given entirely for them; the Patriarch and all the superior clergy disapprove greatly of the sacred farce into which it has degenerated. Unfortunately the Franciscans and the Patriarch are often at issue concerning the services, and it was on this account that the Pope had sent Monseigneur Spaccapietra to decide between them; both, however, agreed in denying the power of the Pope over either of them on the subjects in dispute.

The service is performed by the Franiscan monks, and consists in the taking of a figure of the Saviour down from the Cross, and removing each nail and the crown of thorns, with many kisses. After this six or seven short sermons were preached in various parts of the church, each in a different language, by monks appointed to the task, who are at least supposed to have studied the language they preach in; when we had heard the French sermon we did not regret that the crowd prevented our getting near enough to hear the others. The last was preached in Spanish, before the Sepulchre, which was dimly illuminated only with the torches and candles carried in the procession, the whole of the Rotunda remaining in darkness: it had a very fine effect. This service was not over till near midnight.

On the Saturday, Easter Eve, some curious ceremonies are observed. After the customary benediction of the baptismal water for the year and the lighting of a new lamp, the priests assembled before the entrance of the Sepulchre; twelve or thirteen chapters of the Gospels were read recounting the events of the week, and when that part of the narrative was reached describing the placing of our Lord in the Tomb, the Patriarch, dressed in a plain white robe with a priest on each side of him in a white surplice, laid themselves flat on the ground on their faces, before the door of the Sepulchre. Psalms and hymns were chanted for about half an hour before they rose, and throughout the mass that followed the two priests knelt on one knee at each side of the door of the tomb, exactly as the angels are always represented in old pictures of the Entombment.

The services of these days were dreadfully long, and the poor little children of the French school fell asleep with their heads on each other's shoulders, like rows of little scarlet ninepins, but else, every person joining in them had the appearance of thoroughly reverential devotion. The good Patriarch is rigidly strict in his own fasts, and by the afternoon of this Saturday he was so weak that his voice was nearly inaudible and his face flushed with fever.

On the following Friday evening we went again to the Holy Sepulchre to see the Good Friday ceremonies of the Greeks and Armenians; the Greeks of course take the precedence, but the Armenians join themselves on at the latter end without much confusion. As the French Consul did not wish to parade himself and his kawasses in the church this night, we were placed under the care of Signor Pierotti, who is so great a favourite with the Turkish authorities and with many of the Greeks, that everything was thus made easy for us. The church belongs to ten Turks, one or more of whom must be present on all the greater days of ceremony: there is also a guard of a few soldiers appointed by the Pasha, who are always to be seen sitting in a recess at the entrance; it is by their permission that any one enters. The officers and the Bimbashi (the chief of the battalion) were most polite and pressing in their attentions to us the moment they saw we were friends of Signor Picrotti's, and insisted on our taking their chairs to stand upon when the crowd became too dense for us to stem or to see through.

The ceremony began in the square before the door of the church, with a very long procession, from the convent, of the Greek Bishops and clergy joined by a number of Copts, chanting all the while they perambulated the little square lighted by the lanterns and torches they carried in their hands; then the Copts entered the little chapel which belongs to them on the north side of the square, in the south wall of the church, and the Greeks entering at the great door went into their own large chapel in the centre, under the second dome, which was most brilliantly illuminated with a circle of lamps round the lowest edge of the dome and a double cross across it, which showed well against the dark height above it. After a long service here the procession ascended to Calvary (which the Greeks share with the Latins). Both chapels were at once crowded to that degree of denseness that neither hand nor foot could move save those of the celebrants, and as every one held a lighted candle in his hand, the heat was suffocating, as indeed it had been almost to fainting, on the Good Friday night of the Latins. All the clergy wore splendid copes of black velvet richly embroidered with silver. After some prayers the Russian Bishop Kyrillos, mounted one step of the altar, and, facing the people, addressed them in what appeared to us an unimpassioned almost monotonous manner, but it must have been effective, for, one after another, most of the Greeks around us were moved to tears. After this they descended to the 'Stone of unction," where an old and much respected Bishop again addressed the people— this time with much energy and warmth—to which they listened with earnest attention.

We then mounted into the gallery of the Latins which the French Consul had kindly engaged for us, and waited there till the procession came round: it was really very grand indeed: the Rotunda was brilliantly illuminated, and several rows of silver lamps and flowers were hung round the sepulchre itself in festoons; the Bishops appeared innumerable: among them the venerable Bishop of Petra and the Archbishop of Tabor with his long dark beard were striking objects. All were most splendidly attired in robes and copes of every hue covered with gold and silver embroidery, and all bore crosses or pictures of saints in their folded hands, which the pilgrims pressed forward to kiss: some of the Bishops had kawasses on each side of them, and as they went they chanted the Te Deum and some psalms with an earnest heartiness that seemed as if the procession was not all for show— there was no irreverence this day—each one looked grave and serious. Several ancient banners, said to be some of those used in the armies of the Crusaders, were carried round at the head of the procession; they represented scenes of the Passion, some of which were very well done in painting and embroidery; after them came a really interesting relic of olden times, the alleged history of which is believed to be correct: this was the banner of the Emperor Heraclins, which was borne before him when he entered Jerusalem bringing back the "true Cross;" this relic is considered too precious to be seen by any one except on this day, for all the rest of the year it is most carefully locked up; it was now borne by four Bishops, whose pious hands each held a corner, and had been placed on the altar of Calvary during the service; we could see that it was a most singular piece of embroidered work, representing the Saviour in his Tomb, with an inscription surrounding it as a border. The procession went round the Rotunda three times, and then a very short service was performed within the Sepulchre itself; it finished about 1 A.M. We walked round the church before going home to see the curious sight of the Greek pilgrims covering every available morsel of ground to secure places for the "Holy Fire" on the morrow; they had been in the church the whole of this day for the purpose, and now one and all, men and women, boys and girls, lay in heaps, like mere bundles of clothing, fast asleep, with here and there a foot or a leg sticking out from the heap. Great numbers of the Latin pilgrims also consider it a meritorious act to spend one night in the church: some few employ it in prayer and devotional exercises, but the greater part retire to the Latin gallery, where quantities of cushions are provided, and sleep away as comfortably as possible. The church is never left unguarded; a few Priests or monks of both communions are invariably there by night and by day.

The morrow—Saturday—was of course the day for the Greeks; and at a very early hour travellers are obliged to take their places in the church before the crowd becomes too dense or too uproarious for Franks to penetrate. But the full glory of that strange, wild scene of tumult, called the "Greek Holy Fire," has passed away; the ceremony is conducted with as much splendour and superstition as ever: but in the previous year, 1859, Sooraya Pasha, having witnessed the whole affair with his own eyes, was so much shocked and disgusted with the make-believe miracle, and with the disgraceful scenes which took place under the excitement of religious frenzy, that on this occasion he concerted plans with the French Consul, and lined the whole church with his soldiers, separating the pilgrims into such small bodies, and keeping such strict order among them, that neither enthusiasm nor confusion could break out into anything very frantic.

The Superior of the Greek convent had had the extreme politeness to place the whole of the upper gallery round the dome of the Holy Sepulchre at the service of the French Consul: the key was sent to him the day before, and a guard of soldiers waited to conduct us through the crowd in the large convent up to the rickety, dilapidated, half-ruined place it was, so that we were not obliged to go there more than an hour before the service commenced; chairs were already placed for us, and lemonade and coffee followed; the gallery was the most delightful place to see from, as we could thus walk round the whole building and see the crowd on every side.

Very amusing indeed it was to watch the pilgrims being packed more and more densely into their places, after having struggled and fought to secure the nearest spot possible to the hole in the marble wall of the Sepulchre whence the Fire was to issue; the soldiers allowed them to struggle to a certain point, beyond that, when mischief seemed brewing, the combatants were separated and stopped. Every few minutes some man or group of men amongst them seemed trying to excite himself and his neighbours up to howl and yell and dance: sometimes they made short runs, in the wild manner described by former travellers, sometimes one man running with two others, or even three, standing on his shoulders: but their frenzy and excitement seemed put on, as if acted, and soon came to an end, the warmth of their religious feelings was damped or blighted by the presence of the Mooslims, and the flames of its fire in a manner quenched. Not the least amusing part to me was the crowd of spectators in the lower gallery: such a motley company as they were: the venerable Roman Archbishop Monseigneur Spaccapietra and his Maronite secretary, beside a number of noisy irreverent Americans, and two or three grave Presbyterians. Then came the French caravan, a score of gentlemen organised into a travelling party under the special protection of their Government, and therefore of course occupying the best places in the Latin gallery: next to them a young Austrian baron, keeping somewhat hidden behind a column lest some fanatic in the multitude might recognise him as one of the Jews who are forbidden to enter the building: he was safe enough where he was, but if a Jew were seen in the crowd he would most probably be torn in pieces. Close to him were the fair, quiet faces of the Comte de Paris and Duc du Chartres; and beyond them a number of young English gentlemen, one of whom, before long, got into a squabble with an unfortunate monk who had remonstrated against the overbearing insolence with which the Englishman, according to the custom of John Bull, had endeavoured to take the best place from one of the French caravan, and who so far forgot himself and the place he was in as to strike the Franciscan. The French Consul had much ado to soothe, scold, and appease the wounded feelings of the poor monk into forgiveness and forgetfulness of the insult, while we blushed for shame at the unseemly conduct of a countryman: but alas! such occurrences are but too common among those who would be the first to revenge any disturbance or irreverence shown by a foreigner in our churches at home, but who have the stupid folly of thinking they assert the dignity of their own religion by deliberately insulting those with whom they do not agree. Whatever they may believe or disbelieve
themselves, it is simply disgusting to see an Englishman walking about the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with his hat on, or to hear loud voices profaning the sanctity of the place; and one grieves to think, however wanting they may be in sentiments of piety or religion, that they should not have learned either good taste or good feeling enough to keep away from places sanctified to others, unless they can refrain from such conduct as is not only unchristian and ungentlemanly, but indecent.

The crowd had now become quite dense, and were so well packed that there could be no more striving to get near the wall of the Sepulchre, or to displace the three happy men—wild, insane-looking creatures they were—who had had their hands clenched in the sacred hole for several hours : cries were continually being raised, and the same words constantly repeated with a sort of scream ; of course we supposed these to be, as they have frequently been reported by travellers, expostulations with, and reproaches to the Almighty for delaying to send down the Fire, but previous experience of Latin misrepresentation of all Greek doings made us inquire from a Greek gentleman on whom we could depend the meaning of each cry as it arose; it turned out that the exclamations were "This is the house of God—this is the tomb of the Saviour—this is the day on which He rose from the dead—let us raise up our hearts unto new life;" and then they all beat their breasts; then another cry came still more frequently, "Life was dead—was buried in the grave—now is new life come to us from the tomb—let us live unto God—life and light are come to us;" again and again repeated.

Sometimes the words were in Russian, sometimes in Greek, but the sense was the same. They were repeated louder and louder, quicker and quicker, and the excitement became greater, those on the outside of the crowd almost beyond the Rotunda, struggling, jostling, and fighting with each other, when the procession appeared and slowly edged its way round the building, the soldiers, by main force, keeping room for it to pass. Arrived at the door of the Sepulchre the Bishop of Tabor took off all his rich vestments, and clad only in a white surplice, entered in alone and closed the door behind him. Now the multitude did indeed sway backwards and forwards in one intense frenzy of excitement, but, in three minutes, a deafening shout arose, and the sacred Torch was thrust through the hole! in less than four minutes the tapers of the whole (crowd were lighted from end to end of the Rotunda, and in another moment had run round the more distant parts and into the small Greek gallery with surprising swiftness, for not only were whole bundles of tapers lighted at one touch, distributed from one to another, but others were let down by cords from above, and were drawn up with many crossings and much rejoicing. The whole thing lasts literally but a few minutes, for not only are the tapers short and thin, but most of them are blown out directly after they have been lighted, to be carried home as precious relies, and burned beside the death pillow of the owner: hundreds of handkerchiefs and sheets are held in the flame to have a hole or two burned in them, after which they serve as shrouds, ensuring a welcome from the angels for the souls of their fortunate possessors. Of course, as is well known, none of the educated Greeks believe in this absurd "miracle," which the "Fire Bishop" does not hesitate to acknowledge proceeds from the application of a lucifer-match; but these miserably ignorant pilgrims still devoutly believe in it, and the delusion is encouraged for the sake of the fees, by which the convents are supported. It is curious indeed to sec the complete change that suddenly comes over the lately expectant multitude: the expression of every anxious, haggard, and eager face has given place to the look of triumph and rejoicing, the intense happiness of success: now their long, weary, and often painful pilgrimage is over, and every object is accomplished: all the sacred places have been seen and kissed with reverent eyes and lips: the sins of a life have boon washed away in the cleansing waters of the Jordan: the grave-clothes bathed in the sacred stream are secured, and now is added the holy taper lighted by the miraculous Flame which arises from the Tomb of their Saviour, which is to cheer them through the death struggle, and light them along the Valley of the Shadow of Death into Abraham's bosom.

Easter is entirely forgotten; for the "Fire" is the real object, so directly obtained from Heaven that the commemoration of the Resurrection is quite secondary. This afternoon many hundreds have left the city, and begun their homeward journey, unmindful of the Sunday that is to follow. Deluded, superstitious, and ignorant indeed they are; but perhaps the eyes of the Almighty Father may discern underneath all this, buried and hidden from the sight of men, some faithful and loving hearts more worthy of His blessing than many an enlightened, self-esteeming, and well-informed Pharisee, who looks upon them only with contempt. These poor pilgrims in truth we may regard with that love and "mercy which rejoiceth against judgment," though one would not willingly express one's opinion of those who keep up what they know too well to be a falsehood for their own "filthy lucre's sake:" indeed one might say, as Sooraya Pasha said after contemplating the frantic scene that so much shocked the grave Mooslim—"Vous croyez que c'est une maison du bon Dieu, et que cette ceremonie est une chose religieuse—je vous dis que le bon Dieu ne peut pas etre ici, et que, tout bonnement, c'est qu'une profanation horrible! " On this same day, April 30th, 1859, as the Pasha sat looking on at the tumultuous scene, and stroking his beard with astonishment, a fanatic Russian pilgrim thrust his flaming torch into the Mooslim's face, growling out, " Dog of a Turk!" Signor Pierotti, who was standing beside him, instantly knocked the Russian on the head, and the kawasses rushed up to seize hold of him; but the Pasha interfered to prevent them, and only said to his friend, "Monsieur, il faut avoir patience avec les fous!"—a piece of advice which the traveller will do well to keep in his mind in modern Jerusalem