“My soul magnifies the Lord … for he who is mighty has done great things for me,” reads the inscription on tiles in dozens of languages across the courtyard of the Church of the Visitation in Ein Karem, capturing the deep biblical resonance of a municipality area in Jerusalem steeped in scripture, history, and tradition.
According to Christian tradition, John the Baptist was born and raised in the intimate and well-preserved Ein Karem basin. Jesus described him as “the greatest among those born of women,” according to Matthew 11:11 and Luke 7:28. Throughout the local region, three unique shrines commemorate key episodes of John’s early life found in Luke’s Gospel: the meeting between Mary and Elizabeth, the birth and naming of the Precursor, and his wilderness upbringing and spiritual preparation prior to launching his ministry close to the River Jordan.
Historical Identification of Elizabeth’s House
While Luke’s Gospel identifies Nazareth, Bethlehem, and the Jerusalem temple with precision, it leaves the exact geography of Zechariah and Elizabeth’s home unstated, noting only that Mary traveled in haste to a Judean town in the hill country. Around 530, the pilgrim Theodosius identified Elizabeth’s house approximately five miles from Jerusalem. A monastery list compiled for Charlemagne in 808 officially corroborated this site for the first time.
Detailed written descriptions emerged centuries later. In 1330, Brother Giovanni di Fedanzola da Perugia, then Custos of the Holy Land, recorded in Descriptio Terrae Sanctae that Zechariah’s house sat in Section 59 of the Judean hills. His account noted two churches in the vicinity: one on a hillside where Elizabeth greeted Mary and where John was reportedly hidden during the Massacre of the Innocents, and another on a plateau about a stone’s throw away, separated by an abundant stream. On 28 February of the same year, Franciscan Antonio de Reboldi da Cremona described a nearby woodland where Elizabeth concealed the infant John in a cliff at the foot of the hill-mountain under divine permission.
Did You Know? Up until April 1621, the church associated with the home of Zechariah was used as a stable for village animals before the qadi of Jerusalem granted the Franciscans full rights to the property.
Excavations and Artwork at the Church of the Visitation
For centuries, the visitation site remained under Armenian custody until Armenian monks abandoned the area around 1480. Franciscans acquired the property in 1679, and by 1862 they secured permission to reconsecrate the ancient crypt. Between 8 March and July 1938, Father Bellarmino Bagatti led excavations authorized by R. W. Hamilton, Director of Antiquities for the British Mandate for Palestine. The dig uncovered a Byzantine-era chapel and water cistern, which architect Antonio Barluzzi incorporated into the two-level basilica built between 1939 and 1940.
Decorative paintings in the upper church, known as the “Church of the Magnificat,” were assigned to Cesare Vagarini and Ferdinando Manetti in July 1939. The apse fresco depicts the Virgin Mary singing the Magnificat, flanked by Elizabeth and another woman. Manetti resigned in 1946, and Vagarini completed the work between 1951 and 1952, also painting lunettes depicting the Council of Ephesus, the Wedding at Cana, and the Battle of Lepanto. Meanwhile, Roman painter Angelo Della Torre executed crypt frescoes in 1940 depicting the Massacre of the Innocents, the Visitation, and Zechariah offering incense in the temple. Each year on 31 May, a Eucharistic procession winds down to the crypt to sing the Magnificat and incense the grotto.
Traditions and Artworks at the Church of Saint John
A small uphill path leads to the church traditionally believed to be the home of Zechariah, where John was born and named. The building officially became permanent property of the Custody of the Holy Land in 1666. Inside the sanctuary, visitors can view an array of 17th-century Spanish masterpieces, comprising Juan de Valdés Leal’s The Young John the Baptist in the Wilderness, a Zechariah and the Angel piece originating from Zurbarán’s school, a Visitation composition crafted in El Greco’s workshop, Francisco Ribalta’s The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, Alonso Cano’s carved alabaster Christ, and decorative Valencia majolica tiles that were put in place in 1861.
Excavations in 1895 in front of the church entrance revealed two mid-Byzantine mosaic-paved chapels dating between the fourth and seventh centuries. One presbytery mosaic bears the Greek inscription “Hail martyrs of God,” a phrase unique to this site in ancient Palestine. Between 1941 and 1942, Franciscan archaeologist Sylvester J. Saller also discovered fragments of a second-to-third-century Roman Venus statue copied from Praxiteles, alongside fragments of a statue likely representing Adonis, dating to the era of widespread pagan worship before the region became entirely Christian in the fourth century AD.
Expert Insight: The presence of Byzantine ruins, Crusader structures, and 20th-century Franciscan restoration projects at Ein Karem illustrates how archaeological investigations reveal the historical features of the region.
The Hermitage at Saint John in the Desert
The final sanctuary, Saint John in the Desert, takes its name from Luke 1:80, which notes that the child grew strong in spirit and stayed in the wilderness until his public appearance to Israel. Initially, believers in 1330 associated John’s hiding place with Zechariah’s house, but by the late 1400s, the location was identified further down the valley near Ain al-Habis, meaning “the spring of the hermit” in Arabic. The site preserves a Crusader hermitage structure and a grotto chapel redesigned by architect Antonio Barluzzi in 1922.
On the feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, the Custody, local faithful, and pilgrims hold first vespers before processing down to the desert chapel, singing litanies and the eighth-century hymn “Ut queant laxis” by Paolo Diacono. Nearby stands a first-century Roman sepulchre enclosed within a Crusader structure that has functioned as a place of worship since the Middle Ages. The attached convent serves as a formation house for young Franciscans of the Custody. Until 18 July 1948, when the village fell to Israeli army units during the “Truce of Jerusalem,” the area supported an Arabic-speaking Latin Catholic parish, leaving the Franciscans and a small group of religious communities as the remaining Christian presence after villagers fled to the Old City.
Learn the History of the Franciscan Site
When did the Franciscans acquire permanent ownership of the Church of Zechariah?
After being used as an animal stable, the church was granted to the Franciscans by the qadi of Jerusalem in April 1621, and the building became the permanent property of the Custody in 1666.
Who authorized and led the 1938 archaeological excavations at the Visitation site?
R. W. Hamilton, Director of Antiquities for the British Mandate for Palestine, granted permission for the dig, which was led by Father Bellarmino Bagatti between 8 March and July 1938.
What artifacts were discovered by archaeologist Sylvester J. Saller at Saint John’s church?
Between 1941 and 1942, Saller discovered fragments of a Roman Venus statue copied from Praxiteles and fragments of another statue likely depicting Adonis, dating back to the second and third centuries AD.
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