Silent response

GIL ZOHAR
The Jerusalem Post

A monastery closes its gates following an assault on its father superior. Not least of the disrespectful behavior was simply talking loudly, and preventing the monks from carrying out their daily routine of prayer. Box at end of text.

One of the most serene holy places in the vicinity of Jerusalem was recently compelled to restrict visits as a result of vandalism, bigotry and theft.

The Franciscan-run St. John in the Desert Monastery, which includes a convent, now only permits Christian pilgrims and secular groups led by a licensed tour guide. Reservations are required to visit the six-hectare Judean Hills shrine, which enjoys a spectacular location amid heavily forested ancient agricultural terraces. The change in policy follows an altercation there last month involving a group of some 30 Jews described as "settlers" who assaulted the monastery's Father Superior Sergio Olmedo and then trashed the pilgrimage destination.

The monastery, located near Moshav Even Sapir on Road 386, is dedicated to the life of John the Baptist. The shrine is built around the grotto where Christian tradition holds John and his mother lived, and the still-bubbling spring from which they drank. The Arabic name, Ein al- Habis, (Spring of the Hermit) preserves the ancient tradition tying the place to John.

Elisabeth is buried on the grounds in a tomb that shows Byzantine, Crusader and 20th century construction. A group of nuns led by Sister Maatje, originally from Neuchatel, Switzerland, live beside the tomb.

St. John in the Desert has long been a favorite hiking destination for Jerusalemites, some of whom combine a visit there with a swim at the nearby Sataf Nature Preserve. Some of those Israeli visitors also came to use the Ein al-Habis spring - which serves as a baptismal pool - as a mikve. In the spirit of ecumenism, Father Sergio permitted the parallel usage.

Unfortunately, he said, over his five years living there "the quality of the visitors has changed." Many of today's Israeli hikers are disrespectful of the site's holiness. "It's a place for meditation and prayer," said the Santiago, Chile-born monk, who has resided in Israel for 14 years.

Some visitors would hop the fence and trespass, armed with guns, he said, reciting a litany of abuse, boorishness and desecration. Women would immodestly wear bikinis at the baptismal pool while men would parade naked. Some would swim in the carp pond, notwithstanding the brackish water, and then wash off in the baptismal pool. Visitors would litter, and not clean up after their pet dogs defecated. Money would be pilfered from the alms collections box.

Not least of the disrespectful behavior was simply talking loudly, and preventing the monks from carrying out their daily routine of prayer.

St. John in the Desert is not just a monastery, explained Father Sergio, but a "hermitage, a place of silence and spiritual rejuvenation." The straw that broke the proverbial camel's back came in the afternoon of Friday, August 17. A group of about 30 men, some carrying machine guns, forced their way past the gate, demanded to use the pool as a mikve and refused to leave, Father Sergio recounted. "They started to say 'Eretz Israel is our land, and you have to go.' They were very aggressive. They spat at me. They said 'You killed my family.'"

In the ensuing scuffle Father Sergio managed to photograph some of his assailants with his cell phone camera. They were wearing kippot and tzitzit, he noted. Some were dressed in orange in the fashion of activists protesting last summer's withdrawal from Gush Katif. Some were speaking English, and others Hebrew.

Father Sergio, still badly shaken, characterized the group as "fanatics."

"I've seen these [kind of] people in Hebron," he said.

Before finally leaving, the enraged crowd went on a mini- pogrom, breaking water pipes, smashing potted plants, and destroying property. Father Sergio and the other monks subsequently found direction signs leading to the property had been vandalized so that the word "Franciscan" read "racist."

Father Sergio lodged a complaint with Israel Police and provided them with his digital photos. No arrests have been made at the time of this writing. The pool remains padlocked.

(BOX) Where was he buried?

John the Baptist was born in 5 BCE in Ein Kerem three kilometers to the east of the monastery that bears his name. Known in Hebrew as Yohanan and in Arabic as Yahya, he was the son of Zacharias - a priest at the Temple in Jerusalem - and Elizabeth, a relative of Jesus' mother Mary. John spent most of his life in the Judean Desert, either as a hermit or as part of a Jewish monastic community such as the Essenes.

He is revered as a prophet by Christianity - and also Islam, Mandaeanism and the Baha'i faith - for his role as harbinger to Jesus, whom he recognized as messiah, and baptized on the banks of the Jordan River.

Around 33 CE, some half a year after performing that baptism, John was imprisoned, perhaps at the fortress of Machaerus east of the Dead Sea, for reproaching as adulterous Herod Antipas's marriage to Herodias, the former wife of his brother Herod Philip (Luke 3:19). John was decapitated after Herod Antipas's stepdaughter, Salome, demanded his head on a platter as a reward for performing her Dance of the Seven Veils for the king's guests at his birthday feast.

Those events have inspired artistic expression as diverse as a Titian painting, Oscar Wilde's play Salome and Tom Robbins's 1990 bestseller Skinny Legs and All.

Traditionally John's remains were carried to Sebaste near Nablus. That shrine was desecrated under Julian the Apostate (c.362 CE), and the bones were partially burned.

Another possible site is Mount Nebo - where Moses gazed out over the Promised Land, and the Franciscans maintain a shrine. If John was executed at Machaerus - a point mentioned by Josephus but not the Gospels - the burial in today's Jordan would seem more sensible than interment in distant Samaria.

More controversial was the discovery in 2002 of a highly unusual grave just outside the perimeter of Qumran's ancient cemetery, called "T (Tomb) 1,000." An archeological survey using Ground Penetrating Radar revealed that the seemingly ordinary clump of dirt marked the final resting place of an important first-century figure. But that just raises the question of whether John the Baptist was as Essene.

[Illustration]

Photo; Caption: PUBLIC PROPERTY? Israeli hikers have become disrespectful of the site's holiness.

Credit: GIL ZOHAR

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.

Abstract (Document Summary)

The monastery, located near Moshav Even Sapir on Road 386, is dedicated to the life of John the Baptist. The shrine is built around the grotto where Christian tradition holds John and his mother lived, and the still-bubbling spring from which they drank. The Arabic name, Ein al- Habis, (Spring of the Hermit) preserves the ancient tradition tying the place to John.

St. John in the Desert is not just a monastery, explained Father [Sergio Olmedo], but a "hermitage, a place of silence and spiritual rejuvenation." The straw that broke the proverbial camel's back came in the afternoon of Friday, August 17. A group of about 30 men, some carrying machine guns, forced their way past the gate, demanded to use the pool as a mikve and refused to leave, Father Sergio recounted. "They started to say 'Eretz Israel is our land, and you have to go.' They were very aggressive. They spat at me. They said 'You killed my family.'"

Around 33 CE, some half a year after performing that baptism, John was imprisoned, perhaps at the fortress of Machaerus east of the Dead Sea, for reproaching as adulterous Herod Antipas's marriage to Herodias, the former wife of his brother Herod Philip (Luke 3:19). John was decapitated after Herod Antipas's stepdaughter, Salome, demanded his head on a platter as a reward for performing her Dance of the Seven Veils for the king's guests at his birthday feast.

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(Copyright 2006 The Jerusalem Post)