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Jerusalem: Holy Week on foot · Stop 5 · Day 2

Pater Noster church

The western slope of the Mount of Olives above the Garden of Gethsemane, c. 1890–1900.
The western slope of the Mount of Olives above the Garden of Gethsemane, c. 1890–1900.Photochrom, Library of Congress · no known restrictions on publication

In the Bible

Sitting on the Mount of Olives, Jesus answered the disciples' questions about the end of the temple. Luke tells how He taught them to pray, without naming the place.

Matt 24:1–3As Jesus left the temple and was walking away, His disciples came up to Him to point out its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” He replied. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” While Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?”
Luke 11:1–2One day in a place where Jesus had just finished praying, one of His disciples requested, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” So Jesus told them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.

Tradition

Constantine's Eleona church stood here over a cave where, by tradition, Jesus taught His disciples; the Crusaders remembered here the teaching of the Lord's Prayer.

Here today

A Carmelite convent of the 19th century whose cloister walls carry the Lord's Prayer on tiles in well over a hundred languages, and the restored cave.

Through the eyes of old pilgrims

From thence you ascend to the Mount of Olives, where before the Passion, the Lord taught His disciples. There by the orders of Constantine a basilica of wondrous beauty has been built.The Bordeaux Pilgrim, 333
When they have come to this church, the bishop enters into the cave, where the Lord was wont to teach His disciples, and receives the book of the Gospel, and, standing, he reads the words of the Lord written in the Gospel according to Matthew, where it is said, 'See that no man deceive you.'Egeria, c. 381–384

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Land outlines: Natural Earth (public domain).