Abroad in the Orient: Nazareth, Cats, and Doors

Before I Begin...

It occurred to me today, as I was walking to class and a pigeon landed in front of me, that there were a few things about Israel I'd forgotten to mention, which I have already gotten used to. The reason that it occurred to me is that the pigeon landed on the floor in front of me in the second story hallway of one of the main academic buildings on campus.

Kitty lounging in the 9th
floor common room of the main
dorm building (it does have
a door open to the street...)

Anyone who has visited a university, much less lived on campus, knows that campus animals are fearless. No discarded morsel of food is safe--whether it be given to them willingly, dropped and abandoned, or (in the case of one of my Snickers bars) has just fallen out of your pocket. Campus animals, as a result, do quite well for themselves. (In the case of one Beloit squirrel I witnessed, so well that he could no longer scale a tree.) Once you get past the University of Haifa's armed guards and perimeter fence, all the buildings accessible to the public are open. Not just open in that the doors are unlocked, they're all propped. Rain or shine, hot or cold, the doors are wide open. Which means, if the second story hallway is a balcony built around an atrium which serves as the main entrance to the building, pigeons may sometimes fly through the hall while you're changing classes.

Friendly, lives by the Student Union,
nicknamed "Guy" because he
has a Guy Fawkes goatee

This brings me to the next topic which is cats. Not only are the class buildings unlocked with doors propped while classes are in session, so are the doors to the main dorm buildings. Only these are unlocked and propped 24/7 since students have access to the dorms all the time. Aside from the primary campus animal, the pigeon, the campus (like most Israeli cities) has a high population of feral cats. As everyone knows, cats are awesome, and unlike pigeons, are quite smart and many make friends with humans very easily. Having seen neither nose nor tail of any rodents, it is not difficult to imagine why many of the cats are a little under fed due to their lack of natural prey. Thus they make friends with students who feed them, and have learned not only to enter the dorms but to climb the stairs and navigate the corridors to find their friends' rooms. Thus, it is not uncommon for me to see several of them on the stairs, in the common rooms, computer labs, and the like on my way home from my friends' rooms.

***

Nazareth, for those unfamiliar, is a very important city in Christianity for three reasons. Primarily it's because the city was the site of the Miracle of the Annunciation, when it is believed that Marry was visited by the Angel Gabriel who told her she would bear the Messiah. It's also where Jesus is said to have preformed his First Miracle, turning water into wine. And lastly, it's the place where Jesus is said to have lived most of his life. The Hebrew name for Christians is נוצרי (Nu'tzrey) which comes from the Hebrew name for Nazareth נצרת (Na'tzreth).

Posters outside bus station

Nowadays, it's one of Israel's few predominantly Arab communities, but it's also unique in that the Arab community is mostly Christian. The first thing that you notice, upon entering the city is that signs change from primarily Hebrew with Arabic to primarily Arabic with Hebrew. Because I'm continuing to study Hebrew this semester, I'm not studying Arabic. However, I took this opportunity to read all the Arabic words I could and exercise my painfully limited vocabulary. I used, when I could, Arabic courtesies when interacting with storekeepers which elicited many smiles.

A brief side note about politics: the vast majority of political expression in Nazareth seemed to be concerned with one of the three Arab parties in the Israeli Knesset whose symbol is the Ḍād(ض). Those are the orange posters you see above.(Also note: Arabic is Israel's second official language and is spoken in the Knesset. Each party has a 1-2 letter symbol, hence the choice of this party.)

While Christians agree that Nazareth was the location of the Annunciation there is a disagreement about where the Annunciation took place. The Eastern Orthodox Churches believe that it happened while Mary was fetching water from a spring in Nazareth. The Catholic Church contends that it took place in her house.

This picture of the interior is courtesy of WikiComons

The first church we visited was the Orthodox Church of the Annunciation The building itself seemed to capture the character of the Orthodox Church. Ancient, it's an Ottoman Era building built over a Crusader era crypt which houses the shrine. Unassuming, the sandstone exterior doesn't yield much and it's quite small even compared to some of the smaller mosques in the city. Yet inside; it's rich, intimate, and radiant with devotion.

Floor mosaic in the crypt, age uncertain

The three pictures above are from the Church's interior. What the it lacked in size, it more than made up for with the ornate decorations in which it had been so lovingly ornamented. My tour group wasn't alone in the Church, we joined a mass of Russian pilgrims who had come to visit. Their prayer service had just finished as we entered, and the pilgrims were quickly exiting the tiny sanctuary on their way way to the spring. These three pictures are all I had time to take as I was swept along by the the throng; my group behind me and the pilgrims ahead.

Crusader crypt packed with Russian pilgrims

The spring itself and the shrine are in the Crusader era Crypt which was built in 12th or 13th Century. (The sandstone Church was built 18th.) Descending into the Crypt, you can immediately tell that it and the Church are of two different eras. The ornate paints and gold leaf of the Church are replaced by simple masonry and tile mosaic. Our group waited at the rear for the pilgrims; who in a silent, orderly fashion, collected holy water. They collected it in whatever they'd brought--from decorated jars, to tea cups and water bottles. Each then recited a prayer at the spring, and exited the Church to sing hymns with their fellows in the courtyard outside. When at last they were clear, we advanced to see the shrine.

Russian pilgrims collecting holy water

Tile mosaic in the Crusader crypt

The Holy Spring at the Orthodox Church of the Annunciation

There's something about holy places which makes them feel distinct. It doesn't mater if you're a believer or not. I'm not a Christian, and yet knowing that this little spring represented so much to pious believers...I felt as though the Crypt was possessed by an imminent tranquility.

Steeple of the Catholic Church

As the Orthodox Church of the Annunciation reflected the character of the Orthodox church itself, the Catholic Basilica of the Annunciation was the embodiment of Roman Christendom. The building itself cannot simply be called a church, it's a stately cathedral which is a prominent feature of Nazareth's skyline. The cathedral, like the Catholic Church, combines the very old with the very new--the new cathedral is built literally upon the foundations of a Crusader era cathedral which was demolished when the city was recaptured following the fall of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. A second cathedral was built in the late 19th Century, but this was demolished by the Franciscans to build the present Basilica and the new cathedral.

Main facade, view from gates

Approaching it, you instantly feel dwarfed, and struggle to look upward constantly in order to gain a full view of the structure. The exterior is decorated with alternating bands of marble and sandstone, built in the shape of a triangle to symbolize the trinity. Four of the sandstone bands are marked with the four classical elements: fire, earth, water, and heaven to symbolize the Greco-Roman philosophy and heritage of the Church. (The five classical elements are actually: earth, fire, water, air, and aether which was a mystical element that symbolizes the sacred. The Franciscans seem to have combined the last two.) The facade also has the four apostles engraved in relief.

Main facade

The main entrance to the Cathedral's first floor is through a large set of bronze double doors engraved in relief with images of important scenes from the New Testament. There are two other doorways you can also enter through. These doors are engraved with images from the Old Testament. (Some of the scenes are stories also found in the Qur'an.) The side doors reflect the Catholic Church's doctrine of pluralism: though in their opinion the most direct way to salvation is through the teachings of the New Testament; the other Abrahamic faiths also hold the same teachings and can be used to reach salvation as well.

Main double bronze doors

We entered the Church's first floor quietly, since the Franciscan monks who are the Church's caretakers were praying. It was awkward, walking through and gawking, while at the center of the room the Franciscans chanted as beautifully as they did heedlessly. I didn't take any pictures of the room as a whole, it seemed as though I would be intruding on the monks' prayer.

Top: Adam and Eve's punishments
Middle: Noah's Ark
Bottom: Binding of Isaac
Borrowed

The shrine is built over a cave said to have been Mary's house. The first floor is meant to mirror the cave in the shrine. It's fairly dark, with most of the light comes from a round opening in the ceiling which looks up into the steeple and its' many windows. The only ornamentation is around the shrine itself and an area designate for worship. All that remains of the original Crusader church is the lower half of the walls, and the shrine itself.

As the monks' chants filled the room, it was hard not to feel that same imminent tranquility as I had at the spring. I took careful steps across the stone floor and even held my breath slightly as I passed the monks. I didn't want to disrupt them, though in retrospect if I had made any noise, I don't think it would have mattered.

First floor and shrine, Basilica of the
Annunciation. Note the older stone,
the remains of the Crusader era
church and shrine.
Borrowed

Exiting first floor we made our way up a flight of stairs to the second. This a much larger and grander space intended for regular community worship. It's walls, however, were designed to reflect the international character of the Catholic Church each of the different national communities within the Church had donated a mosaic done in the artistic style of that nation.

Catholic
Shrine of the Annunciation

When we left the cathedral, it's bells tolled five, the monks' chanting still at our backs coming through the Cathedral's doorway. And over speakers from a nearby minaret came the call to prayer. The three sounds mingled with one another seamlessly and a cool calm settled over the night as the deep blue sky faded to black.