During the Crusader period there was a significant nunnery dedicated to St
Anne, mother of the BVM in Jerusalem, near the Golden Gate.
It was believed that the original home of Joachim, Anne and Mary was in the
crypt of this church.
The Kiss at the Golden Gate is the occasion of the Immaculate Conception.
It appears that the original - pre Christian ? - building was known as A
BAIT HANNA which can be translated either as "The House of Grace" or as "The
House of Anna".
Among the crusader's women who were nuns there were ARDA, the ex-wife of
King Baldwin I, ERMENGARDE, widow of Duke Alan IV of Brittany and JOVETA,
sister of Queen Melesande of Jerusalem.
After Jerusalem was recaptured in 1185 it became an Islamic Theological
College but it had the reputation of being haunted. For a long time the
Franciscans were allowed in to celebrate Mass on the feasts of the Nativity
& the Immaculate Conception. In 1856 is was given to Napoleon III as a
"thank you" for France's contribution to the Crimean War. He gave it to the
White Fathers who excavated it, restored it and still (1980s) owned it. I
believe there is a museum.
Source: Blue Guide to Jerusalem (1989).
This house also features on the MEDEBA MAP - a mosaic representation of the
Holy City of the 6th century.
Source: Jerusalem in Early Christian Times: an Internet Exhibition.
Downloaded December 1998.
More info. on this place to be found in:
The HOLY LAND: an Oxford archaeological guide from earliest times to 1700.
OUP (1998).
Brenda M. Cook
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