Javier Ormazabal Echeverría Historical Geography I

Saint Mary of the Valley of Jehoshaphat (Tomb of Mary): evolution of the building and the traditions
associated to it.

There are several Christian traditions that speak of the death or dormition of the Virgin Mary, but they all agree that
she was taken, body and soul, to Heaven: the Assumption. This church of the Tomb of Mary dates back to the 12th
century, the time of the First Crusade. It is shared by the Eastern Orthodox Churches and contains the place where
Mary's body is said to have been laid before being taken to Heaven. There are two places in Jerusalem that tradition
connects with this last episode of Mary's earthly life, of which there is no record in the Gospels. The Church of the
Dormition, near the Upper Room, commemorates the Virgin's falling asleep or death. The Tomb of Mary is where
the Apostles laid her body before she was assumed into Heaven.

The apocryphal works of the 2nd to 4th centuries are all favourable to the Jerusalem tradition, this is, that Mary
died or slept and was going to be buried in Jerusalem. The Ephesus tradition, on the other hand, tells that Ephesus
is the place of Mary’s death or sleep, and is this which constitutes the Turkish connection, based on the assumption
that Mary spent the last years of her earthly pilgrimage in the company of St. John – to whom she was entrusted by
Jesus – in Ephesus. The Ephesus tradition is of recent date and does not have a historical and/or archeological
foundation. We owe this tradition to the visions of Katharina Emmerich. However, according to the "Acts of St.
John by Prochurus", written (160-70) by Lencius, the evangelist went to Ephesus accompanied only by Prochurus
and at a very advanced age, i.e. after the death of Mary. The two letters "B. Inatii missa S. Joanni", written around
370, show that the Blessed Virgin spent the rest of her days in Jerusalem. The letter of Dionysius the Areopagite to
Bishop Titus (363), the "Joannis liber de Dormitione Mariae" (3rd-4th century) and the treatise "De transitu B.M.
Virginis" (4th century) place her tomb in Gethsemane. At the beginning of the 5th century, a pilgrim from Armenia
visited "the tomb of the Virgin in the valley of Jehoshaphat", and around 431 the "Breviarius of Hierusalem"
mentions in that valley "the basilica of Saint Mary, which contains her tomb" 1. From then on, pilgrims of various
rites went there to venerate Mary's empty tomb.

Many others teach this same fact and bear witness that this tradition was accepted by all the Churches of East and
West (St. Gregory of Tours, St. Modestus, St. Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, St. Germanus, Patriarch of
Constantinople, St. Andrew, Bishop of Crete, John of Thessalonica, Hippolytus of Thebes…). Among them,
Venerable Bede, for instance, writes: “In the same valley (of Jehoshaphat) is the round church of Saint Mary,
divided by slabs of stone; in the upper part are four altars; on the eastern side below there is another, and to the
right of it an empty tomb, in which Saint Mary is said to have reposed for a time: but who removed her, or when
this took place, no one can say” 2. This is also confirmed even by Medieval Arab geographers, like Idrisi, who in
1154 wrote: “when you have passed out by the Gate of the Tribes, you reach the limits of the archery-ground ,and
find there a large and very beautiful church, dedicated to the Lady Mary, and the place is known as Al Jismaniyyah.
At this place also is her tomb, on the skirt of the Mount of Olives (Jabalaz Zaitun)” 3.

The existence of the church is attested by writers from the late 6th century. If the Persians destroyed it in 614, it
was rebuilt, for Arculf (670) describes what he saw as follows: "It is a church built on two levels, and the lower
part, which is under a stone vault, is of a remarkable round shape. At the eastern end is an altar, to the right of
which is the empty rock tomb in which Mary was buried for a time [...]. The upper church of St. Mary is also

1 Meistermann, B. (1912). “Tomb of the Blessed Virgin Mary”. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton
Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14774a.htm
2 Venerable Bede (1845). The Historical Works of Venerable Bede: Volume II, Biographical Writings, Letters, and
Chronology. (J. A. Giles, Trans.). London: James Bohn. (ch. VI). In: https://www.ecatholic2000.com/bede3/untitled-103.shtml
3 Le Strange, G. (1890). Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500.
Alexander P. Watt. (p. 210).

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 Javier Ormazabal Echeverría Historical Geography I

round"4. The Crusaders found only the ruins left by the destructive passage of Caliph Hakim in 1009, but by 1130
the Benedictines had rebuilt the double church; in 1178 Theodoric noted that there were as many steps down into
the crypt as up into the church. In 1187, Saladin destroyed the superstructure and used the stones to repair the city
wall, but only removed the decoration of the crypt.

Used Bibliography:

Le Strange, G. (1890). Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to
1500. Alexander P. Watt.

Meistermann, B. (1912). “Tomb of the Blessed Virgin Mary”. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert
Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14774a.htm

Murphy-O'Connor, J. (2008). The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700.
Oxford University Press.

University of Dayton (2021). All About Mary encyclopaedia. “Tomb of Mary: Location and Significance”. In:
https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/t/tomb-of-mary-location-and-significance.php

Venerable Bede (1845). The Historical Works of Venerable Bede: Volume II, Biographical Writings, Letters, and
Chronology. (J. A. Giles, Trans.). London: James Bohn. In: https://www.ecatholic2000.com/bede3/untitled-
103.shtml

4 Murphy-O'Connor, J. (2008). The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700. Oxford
University Press. (p. 148-9).