Holy Mother’s Last ✟
Dwelling in Ephesus
The Sanctuary of Ephesus 🇹🇷 Türkiye
The Mother of God was born as a human being, while giving birth to the Eternal Son of God. Through her consent and the work of the Holy Spirit, she gave a body to the eternal Son of God. For this reason, the Church glorifies her as more honorable than the Cherubim and more exalted without comparison than the Seraphim, because without corruption she bore God the Word. The honor given to her by the Church is above that given to the saints and angels, yet it is neither identical to nor greater than the worship offered to God. The Mother of God was born to Joachim and Anna, who were advanced in years, as the fruit of their prayer. Joachim came from the house of David, and Anna from that of Aaron, thus they were of both royal and priestly descent. But this heritage did not bring them joy, for in those times, those without children were considered deprived of divine blessing, and were scorned by others.
However, God heard their prayer and granted them the one who would become the dwelling place of Christ. If the Son of God chose as His mother the best among humankind, it is enough to understand the purity in which her parents lived, being found worthy of such a gift. It is remembered that Joachim and Anna had promised God that if they were to have a child, they would dedicate that child to Him. For this reason, the Mother of God was brought to the Temple in Jerusalem at the age of three. There she was prepared to become a living temple, the one from whom Christ would take human nature in order to divinize it.
The Last Dwelling of the Virgin Mary
A Brief History of the Sanctuary. This place is considered to be the last dwelling of the Virgin Mary, Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Facts from the Holy Scripture: St. John, in his Gospel, tells us that before His death, Jesus entrusted His Mother to the beloved disciple, saying: “Behold, your Mother”, and from that moment the disciple took her into his home. The Acts of the Apostles recount how, after the death of Jesus, persecutions followed in Jerusalem: St. Stephen was stoned in the year 37. St. James was beheaded in the year 42. At the same time, the Apostles divided the world in order to preach the Gospel. St. John was entrusted with Asia Minor and, most likely due to the persecutions in Jerusalem, he took the Virgin Mary with him.
Historical Confirmation
There are two main pieces of evidence: the presence of St. John’s tomb in Ephesus. The Ecumenical Council held in Ephesus in 431, in the first church in the world dedicated to the Virgin Mary, where the dogma of the Divine Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin was defined. The Holy Fathers write about Nestorius: “… after he arrived in Ephesus, where the Theologian John and the Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God, had lived…” Another confirmation is found in the oral tradition faithfully preserved by the Orthodox inhabitants of the village of Kirkince, descendants of the first Christians of Ephesus. Every year, they would come on pilgrimage to celebrate the Dormition of the Mother of God, thus perpetuating the faith received from their ancestors that the Virgin Mary lived and died in this place, which they called Panaghia Kapulu.
The Discovery
In the 19th century, a book entitled “The Life of the Virgin Mary” appeared, written after the revelations of a German visionary, Catherine Emmerich, who – without ever having visited these places – described with surprising accuracy the house on the hill of Ephesus where she saw the Virgin Mary spending her last years. Following her descriptions, two scientific expeditions (1891) discovered the site and the ruins, exactly as Catherine Emmerich had described them.
The chapel was built on the ruins of the House of the Virgin Mary.The foundations of the walls date from the 1st and 4th centuries. The rest of the building belongs to the 7th century. The last restoration took place in 1951.
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