St. Mary of the Resurrection Abbey in Abu Ghosh

1.    The site: its geographic location

The Abbey is situated in the Judean Hills at an altitude of 770 meters, in the hollow of an amphitheater formed by three hills, at the heart of the Muslim village of Abu Ghosh, through which passes one of the traditional roads linking Jerusalem with the coast.

2.    Its history

Archaeological excavations have shown that human presence goes back to the Neolithic period (6000 BCE). Nomads became sedentary, apparently because of the spring. Later, the site is mentioned in the Bible as Kyriat Baal (Josh 15:9-10), a town on the border between the tribes of Juda and Benjamin; and as Kyriat Yearim, a hill dominating the village where the Ark of Covenant was (1 Sam 6:21 ff.) until David brought it up to Jerusalem (2 Sam 6:2). A thousand years later, the Romans came and built cisterns to preserve the spring water. During the Arab period, the site was transformed into a caravanserai.The upper church of the Benedictine Moanstey in Abu Gosh

In 1143, the Crusaders (the Hospitaller Order of St. John, now the Order of Malta) identified the site with the village of Emmaus and built the crypt and the church, using as its foundation the Roman reservoir. At the end of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1187), the site was abandoned, but the church remained standing. Its history is not known, but it was without doubt used as a barn by the inhabitants of the region.

In 1873, the Sublime Porte gave it to the French Republic. In 1900, a monastery was built at the church's chevet by Benedictine monks from the French province of the Subiaco congregation. They were there until 1953, when the monks of Belloc left the site to the Lazarist Fathers; then in 1976, Benedictines again took it over when a group of monks from the Bec-Hellouin Abbey (in Normandy, France) of the Congregation of Saint Mary of Monte Oliveti (near Siena, Italy) came; a year later, they were joined by a group of oblate nuns who also came from Bec-Hellouin.

3.    Description of the site

The crypt, built on two levels: the upper level, where the chapter is now; and the lower level around the spring's overflow; the spring bursts forth just under the last step of the stairway connecting the crypt with the church.
The church in the style of a basilica with three almost equal naves that end in three apses. They are Romanesque and are characterized by their sobriety. However, to be noted are the bent capitals, which support the double arches in the upper part of the central nave. The eastern half of the church was adorned with an ensemble of frescoes.Crusader frescoes in the Benedictine Monastery in Abu Gosh

The apses' cul-de-four:
1: Deesis
2: Christ's descent to hell
3: The bosom of Abraham

The apses
4: Presentation in the temple and remnants of the Nativity
5: Full-length personalities: apostles and prophets?
6: Geometrical motif with lions

The pillars in the choir
A: St. John the Baptist
B: A high priest, Zechariah?

The lateral walls:
7: Triptych: St. George with two local saints
8: Dormition of the Blessed Virgin
9: Triptych: St. Demitrius and two local saints
10: Crucifixion
11: Annunciation to Zechariah

The frescoes
The frescoes were damaged by the humidity and by deliberate defacement (removal of almost all the faces); they were restored, and their exceptional pictorial quality can now be perceived. They were painted by a Byzantine artist between 1150 and 1175.

The caravanserai (private area)
- three-dimensional reproduction of the view by Fr. De Vaux.

The modern buildings (private area)
Over the course of the last years, various buildings necessary to the life of the community were added to the construction of the monastery at the church's chevet.

4.    Emmaus

In his Gospel, St. Luke (Lk 24:13-32) situates the village of Emmaus at 60 stadia from Jerusalem (about 12 km). There, in the breaking of the bread, the risen Jesus made himself known to two disciples with whom ha had walked from Jerusalem. However, this village is also localized at Amwas, the Emmaus of the Maccabean uprising (1 Macc 4:1-25, at 160 stadia from Jerusalem).The garden of the Benedictine Monastery

5.    The monastic community – Monasticism

Monasticism is a Christian movement in which people withdraw to the desert, wanting to consecrate themselves entirely to seeking God in prayer and solitude. It began with St. Anthony in Egypt and expanded greatly in the Judean desert and the Negev. It includes three ways of life: the eremitical, the semi-eremitical, and the cenobitic (in community). St. Benedict was the father of Western monasticism (5th cent. in Italy), and he wrote a rule for monastic life in community.

This rule hinges on three activities: prayer (community and personal), work (the monks must live by the work of their hands), and study (lectio divina), and on three points of reference: the rule, the abbot, and the community.

Over the centuries, the Benedictines have experienced times of decadence and of reform. One of the latter gave birth in 1319 to the Olivetans, founded by Bernard Tolomei around the Abbey of Monte Oliveti (near Siena, Italy). The Bec-Hellouin abbey (founded in the 11th cent.) belongs to that Benedictine family. Benedictine life as it is lived in that abbey has two specific characteristics. Firstly, the community consists of a double monastery, one for men and the other for women. Each monastery lives its daily life independently, but the brothers and sisters meet in the church to sing part of the daily Office together. Secondly, its particular vocation is to work for the unity of the Church.

The Community
In this spirit, three brothers were sent to Israel in 1976 – and three sisters one year later – in order to establish a cordial monastic presence: listening to the historical and contemporary Israel, the root of our faith; attentive to the typical realities of this region: the Oriental Churches, the unity of Christians; open to the Muslim world at the heart of this village of Abu Ghosh. Such a presence is typical of religious life and of that of the local Church with its various languages.

6.    Practical Information

The abbey can be visited every day except on Sundays and feast days, from 8:30 to 11 a.m. and from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Prayer Schedule:

Sundays and Feast Days:
Lauds at 7 a.m.
Mass at 10:30 a.m.
Vespers at 5 p.m.

Weekdays
Lauds at 7 a.m.
Mass at 11:30 a.m. (except Fridays: 7 a.m.)
Vespers 6 p.m.

How to reach us:

Tel. 00 972 (0) 2 534 27 98,  Fax. 00 972 (0) 2 534 02 47