Ein Karem:

Church of St. John the Baptist

“… There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, which all men might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light” (John, I 6-8).
This picturesque hillside village, part of Jerusalem since 1961, is, in spite of its small size, quite important in the events narrated in the Gospels. Identified as the biblical Ein Hakarem, mentioned in the Old Testament, its name means “the spring in the vineyard”.
Until 1948 it was an Arab village, and was then abandoned by the original population, to be resettled by Israeli immigrants over the following years. The village is famous in the Gospels for the episode of the Visitation of Mary to Elisabeth, her cousin: “And it came to pass that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: And she spoke out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb… And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my savior” (Luke, I 41-42 and 46-47); and for the birth of John the Baptist: “Now Elisabeth’s full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son… and it came to pass that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zechariahs, after the name of his father. And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he shall be called John” (Luke, I 57 and 59-60). The Church of St. John the Baptist belongs to the Franciscan monastery of the same name. The first church rose here in the fifth century, over the place traditionally held to be the home of Zechariahs and Elisabeth. Enlarged by the Crusaders and later used by Arabs as a caravanserai and stable, the church was

rebuilt and transformed several times. The latest additions, carried out by the Franciscans, date from the second half of last century and from the thirties of this century. The most striking part of the pleasantly adorned interior is the Crypt, which houses the so-called Grotto of the Benedictus, considered to be the place where John the Baptist was born. A marble star beneath the altar bears a Latin inscription: “Hic precursor Domini natus est” (Here was born the precursor of the Lord).

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