Latest news with #ChurchoftheHolySepulchre
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
From Fishermen to Kings: A Family's Royal Discovering Unearthed Through Genealogy
An American couple uncovers a bloodline of Kings, Crusaders, and a Roman Senator PHOENIX, May 14, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Author John and Myra Nichols always believed their roots ran deep in the Scottish Lowlands where their family history was tied to the life of seafaring fishermen. However, when they set out to confirm their ancestry, they uncovered a truth far richer: their family wasn't just catching fish but claimed by many historians as shaping the course of Western civilization. Ready to share their story, they published, "The Rebirth of the Knights Templar, from Jerusalem to America: One Family's History." In the book, the couple chronicles their genealogical journey starting with Nichols's Y-DNA strand and his connection to royal linage back to 10 monarchs, including a Roman Senator, an Episcopal Bishop of Metz, a Roman Emperor, and Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland who sheltered the persecuted Knights Templar. As their research deepened, they uncovered connections to Templar artifacts, including a Cross Charlemagne etched in stone near their home in the Ironwood Forest National Monument in Ariz. and a large stone cross on Oak Island, near Nova Scotia, C.A. "What amazed us most was realizing that our ancestors helped shape history." Nichols said, "The Knights Templar stood against tyranny, bringing Christianity to Jerusalem and laying the foundation for the values that would eventually define America: free, justice, and faith." Humbled to discover their legacy, the couple was inspired to tell America's real history and aims to protect Jerusalem during a time of uncertainty. "There's so much about our history we believe will make Americans feel proud," Nichols said. "By sharing our family's story, we hope to inspire others to protect sacred places like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, now under threat in the Middle East. Our ancestors' courage and conviction remind us to live purposely, stand for truth, and work toward a hopeful world." "The Rebirth of the Knights Templar, from Jerusalem to America: One Family's History" By Author John and Myra Nichols ISBN: 9781665750646 (softcover); 9781665750660 (hardcover); 9781665750653 (electronic) Available at Archway Publishing, Amazon and Barnes & Noble About the author John Nichols, a veteran of the United States Army, worked 43 years for Southern Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads. His hobby is Archeology, and he specializes in interpreting petroglyphs or rock carvings. Myra Nichols learned research by participating in a successful Congressional Investigation in the 1988 Yellowstone wildfires. Her master's in education helped her students achieve the highest reading scores for first and second graders in the district. They both wrote a highly successful book in 2016 called "Calalus Revisited.". To learn more, please visit General Inquiries: LAVIDGE – Phoenix Taylor Moralez Tmoralez@ Media Contact Taylor Moralez, LAVIDGE, 4803066597, tmoralez@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE LAVIDGE Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Archaeologists Found a 2,000-Year-Old Garden Beneath a Church. It May Be the Site of Jesus' Tomb
This story is a collaboration with Popular Mechanics 'At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.'—John 19:41 As a literary device, this description of the burial place of Jesus Christ is effective. It offers a contrast between the site of Jesus' death at the crucifixion site of Calvary (also called Golgotha, both derived from the Latin for 'place of the skull') and a fertile garden, brimming with life. It also provides a cyclical shape to the final chapter of the Christ narrative, which begins with his arrest in the garden of Gethsemane. So, as storytelling, this single sentence from the Gospel of John—the most recently written of the four canonical gospels, most scholars agree—has a substantial power to its brevity. But, as a historical record of where, exactly, one of the most famous men who ever lived was laid to rest, you'd be forgiven for finding it sorely lacking in detail. Yet, thanks to a new discovery reported in the Times of Israel, that sentence might be key to confirming where the real man at the center of the Christian faith was placed after his famous crucifixion. As the Times notes, the site that now hosts the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is held in the Christian tradition to encompass both the crucifixion site and the tomb in which Christ was buried. As such, it's beset upon at all times by Christ-following pilgrims from across the planet who are determined to worship at the site where they believe the Messiah lay dead for three days before his resurrection on Easter Sunday. But this popularity is only part of the problem for archaeologists hoping to examine the purportedly holy site. According to the Times, there were 'decades of in-fighting' between the three religious communities charged with managing the church: the Orthodox Patriarchate, the Custody of the Holy Land, and the Armenian Patriarchate. When these groups finally came to a consensus in 2019 that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre required renovations to replace the site's 19th century floor, a team of Italian architects with La Sapienza University saw their opportunity. 'With the renovation works, the religious communities decided to also allow archaeological excavations under the floor,' Francesca Romana Stasolla from the Sapienza University of Rome told the Times of Israel. The excavations have been under Stasolla's direction since they commenced in 2022. 'We take turns, but our team in Jerusalem always includes 10 or 12 people,' said Stasolla, while noting that the bulk of their group remains in Rome, receiving their data for the post-production process. But this core team would occasionally be joined by specialists, including 'geologists, archaeobotanists, or archaeozoologists.' Their contributions would prove important, as beneath the 19th century floor, there lies a quarry which dates back to the Iron Age (1200–586 BCE). During the time of Jesus, this quarry was a burial site 'with several tombs hewn in the rock.' It wasn't the only such site in Jerusalem, but when Constantine—the first emperor of Rome to convert to Christianity—was in power, this quarry was the one exalted by early Christians as the site of the burial, so the emperor ordered the construction of the first iteration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre there. The church would suffer numerous attacks over the centuries, before its current form was constructed by Crusaders in the 12th century. What Stasolla's team found was that, in the time between when the quarry was originally mined during the Iron Age and the construction of the church atop it, the area to which the burial site is attributed had (at one time) been used for agriculture, based on the discovery of 2,000 year-old olive trees and grapevines. 'Low stone walls were erected, and the space between them was filled with dirt,' noted Stasolla, who added: 'The archaeobotanical findings have been especially interesting for us, in light of what is mentioned in the Gospel of John, whose information is considered written or collected by someone familiar with Jerusalem at the time. The Gospel mentions a green area between the Calvary and the tomb, and we identified these cultivated fields.' Stasolla acknowledged that a full analysis of all the artifacts uncovered during the excavation, which also included coins and pottery dating roughly to the 4th century, would take years to complete. As for whether this discovery definitively proved the burial site of Christ, Stasolla chose to look at it from a different angle. 'The real treasure we are revealing is the history of the people who made this site what it is by expressing their faith here,' she told the Times. 'Whether someone believes or not in the historicity of the Holy Sepulchre, the fact that generations of people did is objective. The history of this place is the history of Jerusalem, and at least from a certain moment, it is the history of the worship of Jesus Christ.' You Might Also Like Nicole Richie's Surprising Adoption Story The Story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Her Mother Queen Camilla's Life in Photos
Al Jazeera
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Photos: Gaza's Christians mourn death of Pope Francis
Gaza's small Christian community is mourning the death of Pope Francis, who had maintained close and consistent video contact with the Palestinian devotees throughout the war that continues to devastate the enclave. Since the outbreak of fighting between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, Francis had regularly called Gaza's Christians, often several times a week, offering prayers, encouragement and solidarity. 'I always waited to hear the words of the Holy Father. I would watch him on television, and through the screens. He gave us hope with his messages and prayers,' said Elias al-Sayegh, 49, from Zeitoun. 'We felt we were alive because of his prayers and blessings. Every day, he renewed our hope for an end to the war and the bloodshed. His prayers will remain with us for peace in the land of peace, Palestine.' 'I wish I could take part in the prayers at the Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,' he added, referring to ancient churches in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. 'With the pope's passing, we in Gaza feel as though a light of love and peace has been extinguished,' said 67-year-old George Ayad from al-Sahaba. 'Though the Vatican is far away, his voice always reached our hearts – he never ceased calling for peace and justice. 'Amid the pain and suffocating blockade we endured, we clung to his words as a beacon of hope. The pope never forgot Gaza in his prayers – and today, we offer ours for his soul.'
Jordan News
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Jordan News
Foreign Ministry Condemns Israeli Occupation Police Assault on Christians - Jordan News
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates strongly condemned the assault by Israeli occupation police on Christians and the restrictions placed on their access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on the occasion of 'Holy Saturday.' اضافة اعلان The official spokesperson for the ministry, Ambassador Dr. Sufyan Qudah, reaffirmed the Kingdom's condemnation and absolute rejection of Israel's illegitimate restrictive measures against Christians and the prevention of their free access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to perform their religious rites. He emphasized that these actions coincide with repeated incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif in an attempt to impose new realities in the city of Jerusalem, including temporal and spatial division. Ambassador Qudah called on the international community to shoulder its legal and moral responsibilities, to compel Israel to cease its violations against Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, to respect the historical and legal status quo, to immediately end the Israeli aggression on Gaza and the dangerous escalation in the West Bank, and to uphold the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to establish their independent, sovereign state on their national soil based on the two-state solution.
Ammon
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Ammon
Jordan condemns Israeli police assault on Christians
Ammon News - Jordan has strongly condemned the actions of Israeli police against Christian worshippers in Jerusalem, denouncing the restrictions imposed on their access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during Holy Saturday an official statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates expressed the Kingdom's firm rejection of what it described as illegal Israeli measures targeting Christian communities. The ministry said such actions represent a serious violation of religious freedoms and international humanitarian Ministry spokesperson Ambassador Sufian Qudah reiterated Jordan's condemnation of the ongoing limitations placed on Christian worshippers seeking to perform their religious rites. He stressed that these developments occur in parallel with repeated incursions by Israeli forces into Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif, describing them as part of broader efforts to alter the historic and legal status quo in Jerusalem, including attempts to enforce a temporal and spatial division of the city's holy urged the international community to shoulder its legal and moral responsibilities by pressuring Israel to end its violations against both Islamic and Christian holy sites in also called for immediate action to halt the Israeli military escalation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and emphasized the need to uphold the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, particularly their right to establish an independent and sovereign state on the basis of the two-state maintains a custodial role over Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and has consistently voiced opposition to any Israeli actions that threaten the city's religious and historical integrity.
