HOLY WEEK IN JERUSALEM.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5081, 6 July 1877, Page 3

HOLY WEEK IN JERUSALEM.

(From the Boston Advertiser.)

I In the open square before the doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre a vast, eager throng had assembled at an early hour to witness the ceremony of the “ Washing of the Feet.” On a high platform in the midst sat the Greek patriarch and the fathers of the church, who were to represent the twelve apostles. All were dressed in rich robes' embroidered with gold. The patriarch who personated our Saviour arose, followed by St. John ; his stole was removed, a towel placed over his arm, and his heavy mitre lifted from his forehead from time to time. Slowly he advanced to kneel before each apostle, and bathe Ids feet in water carried in a golden vessel. Peter sat at the end of the line, and standing, as his turn came round, refused the honor, a dialogue ensued, and then he submitted. Returning to his seat, the patriarch read what we presumed were portions of Scripture, while the disciples responded. Judas sat apart from the others and looked the traitor. While the ceremony was going on, a priest read the Bible, St. John, chapter XIII, from a pulpit fastened to the stone wall. Above him hung a branch of the sacred olive, whether taken from those noble trees in Gethaemane or not I did not learn. The preacher descended at the close of the services, and then the crowd swayed towards the wall, where men began to tear off sprigs from the branch, flinging them down ‘to the excited multitude, who almost tore each other to pieces in their haste to grasp the leaves, which are said to possess miraculous power to heal the sick. Solemn procession, during which short sermons are delivered at seven different stations in Italian, Greek, English, German, French, Arabic, and Spanish. This is the announcement for the ceremony of the Crucifixion, which took place at 7 p.m. on Good Friday. The holy sepulchre, which stands almost in the centre of the church, flashed upon our sight like a huge casket set with jewels, as we entered from the dark streets. It seemed ablaze - with silver lamps and colored lanterns, giving an almost painful clearness to , the intense action of the motley throng beneath. Passing up the crowded staircase, we reached the, Golgotha Chapel; this, too, was brilliantly lighted with colored lamps, the wall hung with pictures of Christ’s sufferings. A procession of priests and monks carrying tapers solemnly parted the eager crowd as they bore aloft a small cross, on which was fastened a waxen figure of our Saviour wearing the crown of thorns. The Greek patriarch seated himself in a gilded chair at the head of the cross, which was placed before an altar over the spot where Christ is thought to have been crucified, and here a short sermon was preached in German. After this the procession trailed on to the chapel of the Elevation of the Cross, which belongs to the Greeks. Here, before the hole under the altar, the cross was raised, near the rent in the rook said to be that caused by the earthquake, and the two holes in which stood the crosses of the thieves. After another sermon in French, a priest approached the cross, removed the crown of thorns, unfastened several nails to let the the arras fall, and the figure draped in white was carried from the cross down the staircase, amid a surging crowd, and laid on the “ stone of unction.” A marble slab was before the door of the church, which merely covers “ the true stone” upon which Christ is said to have been anointed.