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You are here: Home Leisure Travel & Tourism Holy Land pilgrims take wrong Way of the Cross

04/07/2009Holy Land pilgrims take wrong Way of the Cross

Like numerous sites revered by the faithful in the Holy Land, the Via Dolorosa -- also known as the Way of the Cross -- has more to do with faith than historical accuracy.

Their heads bowed, Franciscan monks lead a procession meant to retrace the steps of Jesus as he bore his cross to the site of his crucifixion.

"It is very emotional to be walking in the exact spot where Jesus walked and to reflect on his suffering," says Luigi Morana, a Christian pilgrim from Italy.

But Morana and the tens of thousands of other pilgrims from around the world who every year take part in the weekly processions along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem's Old City are on the wrong track, according to experts.

Like numerous sites revered by the faithful in the Holy Land, the Via Dolorosa -- also known as the Way of the Cross -- has more to do with faith than historical accuracy.

Every Friday, the robed monks lead pilgrims along the 14 Stations of the Cross meant to mark the route Jesus followed, carrying his cross, from the Roman palace where he was condemned to death to the Hill of Golgotha where he was crucified and where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre now stands.

Pilgrims pray and sing hymns, trying their best to ignore the call for Muslim prayer coming from a nearby minaret's loudspeakers.

AFP PHOTO/DAVID FURST
A Christian pilgrim writes in her journal as she sits in a section of the Via Dolorosa, believed to be the path that Jesus walked as he bore his cross to the site of his crucifixtion, in Jerusalem on 1 May 2009

Walking the line

The procession through the Old City's narrow and bustling streets sets off from a courtyard near the Monastery of the Flagellation, the site where Jesus is believed to have been questioned by Roman Governor Pontius Pilate and then condemned, according to tradition.

"That couldn't have been the spot," says Shimon Gibson, author of the recently published The Final Days of Jesus -- The Archaeological Evidence.

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