“Canan and Calvary: Archaeology and Truth”

CanáLet us now consider Cana, also linked to the memory of Jesus’ first miracle, to which the Mother was present. Three locations competed for the honor of being identified with the evangelical site described in John 2:1-12: Khirbet Qana, Khirbet Kenna, and Kefr Kenna. Recent criticism has identified Cana with Kefr Kenna. Studies of the still-visible architectural elements, occasional excavations, regular archaeological campaigns, ceramics, numismatics, mosaics found, and Byzantine literature contribute to this identification.The evangelical Cana dates back to the Bronze Age and continues to the present day, still inhabited and located on the road between Nazareth and Tiberias. The period of Jesus is attested at the site by a coin of Herod I and another of Titus from the years 80-81. There is also a jar with a spherical body and well-fired walls. The best-attested period is the 3rd-4th centuries. In fact, there are two large buildings, separated by a corridor leading to a courtyard paved with stones of various sizes. The walls are constructed with beautiful stones with a smooth, protruding bossage, possibly reused Herodian stones. These buildings were probably visible until the 18th century.Bellarmino Bagatti dated the main building to the 3rd century, comparing it to the reused elements in the Franciscan church or other occasional discoveries. For the scholar, this is a parallel Jewish-Christian synagogue to that of Nazareth. Obviously, there were three types of columns – large, medium, and small – used for the matroneum and decoration. There were two types of moldings and three doors on the facade. Finally, there were floral motifs in the form of a cross on mosaics, common in Jewish-Christian sites, and a fragment of marble from an altar table with its small supporting column, indicating its Christian nature. On it, the Lord’s Table was probably preserved, as in Nazareth and, as we will see, in Tabgha. Near it, Christ participated in the Wedding at Cana.She refers to the famous Aramaic inscription that speaks of a tablet. The Anonymous of Piacenza celebrated there both the pure supper and the ‘azkarat. Occasional discoveries have allowed to reconstruct the history of Mount Karm er Ras, inhabited since the Hellenistic period onwards, where elements of a second synagogue and a cave where Jews prayed and danced were found. Presumably, there were therefore two neighborhoods and two synagogues in Cana, one Jewish and the other Judeo-Christian, as in other places.CalvaryLet us now focus on the places of Christ’s death, where Mary was also present, namely Golgotha with the Holy Sepulcher. N. Avgad identified the door through which Jesus passed to reach the place of his suffering, called the Garden Gate. It was located where the Second Wall separated from the First and introduced into a space between them, in the corner, where a quarry protected the Second Wall from the west. Here, Herod the Great planted a garden, but the workers left intact a very soft, unlevelable block of stone, which was precisely Golgotha, upon which various debris accumulated, transforming it into a hill in the shape of a skull, from which it gets its Hebrew and Latin name (Calvary). To the north of Calvary there was a private garden with some aristocratic tombs carved into the rock, among which that of Joseph of Arimathea became the occasional tomb of Christ. This was carved into living rock. Consisting of a vestibule and a sepulcher chamber with a long shelf in the funeral niche, the tomb was sealed by a circular, rollable stone. The surrounding tombs attest to the veracity of the location: a Jewish cemetery with tombs and sarcophagi. A tomb today under the Coptic monastery. A sepulral area under the Syrian chapel, today cut in half by the Constantinian basilica. Such tombs existed before 42 AD, when Herod Agrippa I (37-44), by incorporating them into the city with the Third Wall, de facto prevented the emergence of new tombs. Therefore, in Jesus’ time, Golgotha was outside the city. For a certain period, scholars spread the theory that this was not possible, so Charles Gordon identified the Holy Sepulcher at the site of es-Sahra hill, with the so-called “Garden Tomb”, which is no longer considered by anyone. The area was extensively excavated. The excavations of Mallios and Katsimbinis in 1958 and 1973-77, carried out by Florentino Diéz, revealed in the eastern part a rock with a height of fifty-five meters, partly cut and partly shaped to receive a nearly hexagonal cladding wall. At a distance of twenty-seven meters from the ground, a natural cave two meters high and wide, lined with simply carved stones, was found. At two meters from the cladding wall, another parallel wall rises.Among them, at a height of five meters from the bottom and about two meters below the level of the cave, there is a furnace. This is the environment referred to in the texts as “post crucem” and the famous Treasure Cave, in the cracked rock of Golgotha, linked to the cycle of Adam with the tomb of our patriarch and the setting for Christ’s descent into hell, where the entrance to Sheol is found. Among the treasures were the Sacred Lance that pierced Christ’s heart, the sponge that satisfied Him, and the image of Our Lady of Sorrows. This is remembered in the Passion of Lucian of Antioch. The environment was also linked to the Paschal Triduum, with the tears of the New Eve awaiting the Resurrection, as attested by the Dormition of Mary of the Jerusalemite current. The furnace served as an incensary where aromatic woods were burned during funeral rites. The excavation also returned us the foundations of the Temple of Venus, to remember the goddess’s tears for the resurrection of Adonis. In fact, Hadrian profaned the Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre, levelling the original quarry of ten to twelve meters, to build on it the Forum that bore his name in Elia Capitolina. There, the Temple of Venus was erected precisely over Christ’s Tomb and dominated the Market Square. A marble statue of the goddess stood on the rock of Golgotha. This temple is spoken of by Eusebius and Sozomenus. It was also reproduced on the coins of Elia Capitolina. However, near these places, the Jewish-Christians maintained the cultic tradition linked to Jesus’ Death, Burial, and Resurrection. After 325, Bishop Modestus of Jerusalem asked to free the sacred site from sacrilegious constructions, and Constantine brought to light the Tomb Cave. The ancient Jewish-Christian traditions and their relics were preserved in the new imperial constructions. Eucherius contemplated the living rock, whose location we will discuss today. The Anonymous of the Breviary of Jerusalem revered the Lance. The Anonymous of Piacenza revered the image of the Most Holy Mary, who implored St. Mary of Egypt for conversion. Arculf found a Marian chapel linked to the Pietà and the Mater Dolorosa. The first church was built by Constantine around the Holy Sepulchre in 366. It had the form of a circular mausoleum called the Anastasis, meaning “Resurrection” in Greek. The Rotunda over the Sepulchre, called the Great Apsis, is flanked by two transepts to the north and south. Along the southern transept stand the columns of the restoration made by Constantine IX Monomachus. On the eastern side, in front of the Anastasis, is the stylobate of the eastern gallery. In front of the columns, at the angle with the stylobate, are the remains of the Calvary. Constantine I had removed the living rock from the Sepulchre, which is now completely hidden by a Russian-Orthodox superstructure of the 19th century, overloaded with ornaments. Through the atrium, called the Chapel of the Angel, access is gained to the Sepulchral Chamber, a square room of about two meters on each side.The stone on which the body of Christ was placed is covered by a marble slab. On the ceiling hang forty-three precious lamps, distributed among the various churches in proportion to their share of the building. Behind the western arches of the Rotunda, the rock-cut tombs mentioned above can be seen. Inside, two steep staircases of fifteen steps lead to Mount Golgotha, which Constantine carved from a single block of five-meter-high and six-meter-wide rock. The surface was covered with mosaics and divided into two chapels by columns. In the area currently owned by the Franciscans, to the right, are the X and XI stations of the Via Crucis, that is, the Disrobing and the Crucifixion. In the chapel to the left, the XII station, that is, the Death of Jesus, is commemorated. At the foot of the Cross is the Stone of Unction, commemorating the XIII station, that is, the Deposition. Under the altars of the Cross is precisely the Cave of the Adamic Chapel. Here the rock split during the earthquake that accompanied the death of Jesus, which I mentioned. On the eastern wall of the Adamic Chapel was the Cave of the Judeo-Christians. In the Byzantine period, the Rotunda of the Tomb had an attached courtyard where the Cross was visible outdoors. The five-nave basilica was built later. On the eastern side, it was preceded by an atrium accessible through the old forum by three doors, some parts of which are still preserved in the Russian Monastery of Muristan, which was once a hostel for pilgrims. In addition to the proto-Byzantine apse, there was the crypt of the Constantinian basilica, which rested on the cistern where Helena, the mother of the Emperor, found the Cross. The Constantinian complex survived almost all the destructions, until the fatal one inflicted by El-Hakim in 1009. Since then, the basilica has never regained its original grandeur and completeness. The current plan is a cross, corresponding to the church erected and consecrated in 1149. It connected the Rotunda to a Romanesque church that also included the Cross. The center of this building is now occupied by the Greek-Orthodox choir, the katholikon. A ambulatory with several chapels closes the church on the eastern side, from which, through a ramp of stairs, one reaches the Church of Saint Helena (the former Constantinian crypt), located at a lower level next to the Chapel of the Invention of the Cross, also carved in living rock. Near this Chapel, there is a wall with a famous graffiti depictingA ship. Around it, the foundations of the Byzantine martyrion are found. Next to it, Armenian excavations have been carried out. Above it, adjacent to the Basilica, stood, during the Crusades, the convent of the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre. On the roof, near the small dome of the Church of Saint Helena, a few remains of arches from that period can be seen, and an Ethiopian convent with small cells is located. Since the times of the Crusader reforms, the main entrance is on the south side, accessible through a courtyard surrounded by ancient chapels. The facade is Romanesque, the most complete form of Romanesque architecture in the Basilica. The double arches of the portal, of which one was closed during the times of Saladin, remind the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. These are the historic sites where Christ died, was buried, and rose again.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Mariana Theology, Marian Apparitions, and the Postgraduate Program in Mariology.Regarding the presence of Mary at the Wedding of Cana and on the Cross, and its theological significance, refer to the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater by Pope John Paul II.