Templar Globe

“When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”, Alexander Graham Bell

An Italian archeologist says the Holy Grail — a cup used by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper — is buried beneath a church in Rome.

Alfredo Barbagallo said ancient records show the cup is buried in a chamber beneath the Basilica of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, one of the seven churches Christian pilgrims used to visit when they came to Rome, The (London) Telegraph said Thursday.

The archeologist said he spent two years studying medieval iconography inside the basilica, and a description of the chamber in a guide to the catacombs written in 1938 by a Capuchin friar named Giuseppe Da Bra.

He said the cup, given the name the Holy Grail in the Middle Ages, disappeared in A.D. 258 after a deacon named Lorenzo — with whom Pope Sixtus V reportedly entrusted treasures of the early Church — was martyred.

A Vatican spokesman said no decision has been made on the possibility of opening the catacombs, the newspaper said.

by UPI

Los templarios acamparon en Cambre de la mano de los condes de Traba. Como vestigio de esta orden de caballeros queda la iglesia de Santiago de Sigrás, que perteneció a la congregación, y el templo de Santa María, que alberga una hidra realizada en Jerusalén, similar a las que existen en las catedrales de Oviedo y en una inglesa. Sobre esta hidra (en griero, vaso para contener líquidos) pesa la leyenda de ser una de las ánforas que empleó Jesucristo en las bodas de Canaán para convertir el agua en vino. Dentro del apartado religioso, también destaca la casa rectoral de Bribes, antiguo monasterio en el que convivían hombres y mujeres.

Cambre también posee un bosque animado , situado en Cecebre y recreado literariamente por Wenceslao Fernández Flórez en una de sus obras. Además, comparte con Culleredo una de las imágenes típicas de la ría de O Burgo, el puente de piedra, que hace unos años se restringió al tráfico rodado y se dejó para uso peatonal. Destaca un importante museo arqueológico, inaugurado hace dos años, que guarda pinturas murales de la época romana.

in www.lavozdegalicia.es

SANTA MARIA DE CAMBRE

Iglesia de tres naves con crucero y cabecera con cinco capillas radiales, constituyendo esta última su rasgo más distintivo.

En el interior, las naves se dividen en cuatro tramos mediante pilares compuestos por semicolumnas adosadas con capiteles vegetales.

En cuanto a la disposición de la compleja cabecera de esta iglesia, debemos decir que las soluciones arquitectónicas que allí se utilizaron fueron de lo más acertadas, puesto que el deambulatorio fue resuelto mediante arcos fajones que apeaban en columnas adosadas.

En las cinco capillas radiales los arcos de medio punto son sustituidos por apuntados, descansando sus bóvedas sobre seis nervios.

Entre los absidiolos se abren ventanas, lo mismo que en las capillas, para dar luz al deambulatorio.

Se construyeron pocas iglesias con girola pues su existencia indica que por ella desfilaban peregrinos en número elevado.

La fachada principal, bien proporcionada, está compuesta por dos contrafuertes centrales que enmarcan el conjunto: una espadaña de doble arco, rosetón, tejaroz con modilllones sobre la portada y a sus lados sendas ventanas. Este modelo de fachada se repite frecuentemente en Galicia.

in 1Romanico.com

Dans l’Histoire, le Temple n’est pas le seul ordre de chevalerie, et les Templiers ne sont pas les seuls pour qui on a allumé des bûchers. Et pourtant, le romantisme confortant la redécouverte du Moyen Age, le nom même du Temple a pris place depuis bientôt deux siècles parmi les mythes que nourrit l’Histoire. Le manteau blanc prend les allures d’un symbole d’héroïsme, et l’on s’émerveille de cette ambiguïté qui mêle en une image d’épopée deux figures qui sembleraient inconciliables, celle du soldat et celle du moine.

Et puis, il y a le drame. Au fil des siècles, on a incendié des monastères et brûlé des hérétiques, et on a égorgé des banquiers. Seuls les Templiers, déjà décimés sur les remparts d’Acre, ont été anéantis en corps. Et les centaines de templiers qui ont fini leurs jours chez eux ne comptent guère dans la mémoire des hommes à côté de ceux qui furent victimes de la raison d’Etat et d’une pratique judiciaire qui les faisait relaps. Il est vrai que l’on comprend plus facilement la montée au bûcher que le long déroulement de ce « procès des Templiers » qui n’est qu’une suite incohérente d’enquêtes et de procédures amorcées et jamais achevées.

Très tôt, la légende a broché sur l’Histoire. Il y a la malédiction tombée du bûcher de Jacques de Molay, comme il y a le trésor subtilisé à la convoitise royale, sans oublier les secrets de construction hérités par le Temple d’on ne sait quels Egyptiens et l’architecture dite templière d’églises circulaires pourtant construites avant la fondation de l’Ordre.

Le renversement climatique, la mort subite du nourrisson Jean Ier, l’exil des papes à Avignon, la peste noire et la folie de Charles VI, tous ces malheurs qui teintent un siècle aux couleurs morbides de la Danse macabre ne sont-ils pas la réplique divine à un déni de justice dû à l’acharnement d’un roi et à la pusillanimité d’un pape ? L’historien a perdu la partie s’il veut raisonner contre l’imaginaire qui unit et souvent confond, en enjambant les siècles, les héros du combat pour la foi et les banquiers de la chrétienté, et qui inscrit l’histoire du Temple parmi les mystères

Parmi l’oeuvre considérable de Jean Favier, sa biographie de «Philippe le Bel» (Fayard, 1978, et Livre de poche) consacre d’importants développements à l’affaire des Templiers.

in Le Point

EL TESTAMENTO de Urraca Fernández (hija del Conde Fernando Pérez de Trava), redactado en 1199 en el monasterio cistercense de Santa María de Sobrado, es un importante documento muy utilizado por historiadores, biógrafos y periodistas debido a la gran información que contiene. La trascripción que he estudiado es la que hizo Antonio López Ferreiro en la revista Galicia Histórica.

Los principales beneficiarios de dicho texto fueron los monjes de la orden del Císter, como se desprende de los nombres de una docena de sus monasterios.

Y, a la par que los monjes, sus fieles escuderos templarios, cuyo juramento decía: «…no negaré a las personas religiosas, principalmente a los religiosos del Císter y a sus abades -que son nuestros hermanos y compañeros- ningún socorro, ya sea de palabra, ya sea con obras pías y mismo con las armas…». En efecto, allí donde iban los cistercenses los protegían los caballeros y por esto también ya habían recibido beneficios de Fernando Pérez de Trava para establecer su encomienda en Burgo de Faro y más tarde recibirían por medio de su hija, como dispone en el testamento, «quanta hereditate habeo in Aravegio» y donaciones para las obras de iglesias (ad opus ecclesie) como ocurre con las de Cambre y Ste. Marie de Finibus Terre.

Hago mención a estas iglesias a modo de ejemplo de la comunión entre ambas órdenes. Alfonso IX confirma el 28 de junio de 1228 la donación hecha por su abuelo Alfonso VII de las parroquias vecinas a Fisterra, San Salvador y San Martiño, con sus propiedades en el valle de Duio, al monasterio de Toxosoutos el 5 de diciembre de 1135, cuyo puerto de Fisterra quedaría en manos del Temple para defensa de la piratería que asolaba desde hacía tiempo los monasterios costeros. Y del mismo modo pasaba en Cambre, pues los Templarios controlaban la ría del Burgo y el tráfico de peregrinos que hacían el Camino Inglés o de Faro.

Incluso se pueden apreciar las mismas huellas en un templo y en otro, como es el caso de un símbolo solar que a su vez representa diferentes períodos o fases en que se divide un ciclo; como pueden ser los cuatro momentos del día, las cuatro fases de la luna, las cuatro estaciones del año o las cuatro edades de la humanidad. Este signo es una cruz inscrita en un círculo que está en la puerta principal de la iglesia de Fisterra y en una pila bautismal de Santa María de Cambre. Esta última ubicación echa por tierra las teorías de neófitos en simbolismo que relacionan dicho signo con «consagraciones de templos y/o capillas», explicación difícil de aplicar a una pila bautismal…

Por desgracia, de ambos monasterios no quedó piedra sobre piedra y, según contó el Padre Gaite, el claustro de Toxosoutos fue vendido por 4.000 pesetas al Vizconde de San Alberto.

Doña Urraca, en su escrito, también deja donaciones a monasterios benedictinos: (Mouraime, Zebrario, Samaos, etc…) y a otras órdenes de caballería: ad frayres de Hospitale (Hospitalarios o de San Juan), ad frayres Spatis (Santiago) y ad frayres de (Santo) Sepulcro. El testamento no sólo es importante por la cantidad de datos que ofrece, sino también porque refleja cómo estaba distribuido el poder político-económico, religioso y militar en todo el territorio de Galicia durante la segunda mitad del siglo XII y el primer cuarto del XIII.

by JUAN GABRIEL SATTI BOUZAS in www.lavozdegalicia.es

The principal sources of information concerning the life and ministry of St. John the Baptist are the canonical Gospels. Of these St. Luke is the most complete, giving as he does the wonderful circumstances accompanying the birth of the Precursor and items on his ministry and death. St. Matthew’s Gospel stands in close relation with that of St. Luke, as far as John’s public ministry is concerned, but contains nothing in reference to his early life. From St. Mark, whose account of the Precursor’s life is very meagre, no new detail can be gathered. Finally, the fourth Gospel has this special feature, that it gives the testimony of St. John after the Saviour’s baptism. Besides the indications supplied by these writings, passing allusions occur in such passages as Acts 13:24; 19:1-6; but these are few and bear on the subject only indirectly. To the above should be added that Josephus relates in his Jewish Antiquities (XVIII, v, 2), but it should be remembered that he is woefully erratic in his dates, mistaken in proper names, and seems to arrange facts according to his own political views; however, his judgment of John, also what he tells us regarding the Precursor’s popularity, together with a few details of minor importance, are worthy of the historian’s attention. The same cannot be said of the apocryphal gospels, because the scant information they give of the Precursor is either copied from the canonical Gospels (and to these they can add no authority), or else is a mass of idle vagaries.

Zachary, the father of John the Baptist, was a priest of the course of Abia, the eighth of the twenty-four courses into which the priests were divided (1 Chronicles 24:7-19); Elizabeth, the Precursor’s mother, “was of the daughters of Aaron”, according to St. Luke (1:5); the same Evangelist, a few verses farther on (1:36), calls her the “cousin” (syggenis) of Mary. These two statements appear to be conflicting, for how, it will be asked, could a cousin of the Blessed Virgin be “of the daughters of Aaron”? The problem might be solved by adopting the reading given in an old Persian version, where we find “mother’s sister” (metradelphe) instead of “cousin”.

A somewhat analogous explanation, probably borrowed from some apocryphal writing, and perhaps correct, is given by St. Hippolytus (in Nicephor., II, iii). According to him, Mathan had three daughters: Mary, Soba, and Ann. Mary, the oldest, married a man of Bethlehem and was the mother of Salome; Soba married at Bethlehem also, but a “son of Levi”, by whom she had Elizabeth; Ann wedded a Galilean (Joachim) and bore Mary, the Mother of God. Thus Salome, Elizabeth, and the Blessed Virgin were first cousins, and Elizabeth, “of the daughters of Aaron” on her father’s side, was, on her mother’s side, the cousin of Mary. Zachary’s home is designated only in a vague manner by St. Luke: it was “a city of Juda”, “in the hill-country” (I, 39). Reland, advocating the unwarranted assumption that Juda might be a misspelling of the name, proposed to read in its stead Jutta (Joshua 15:55; 21:16; D.V.; Jota, Jeta), a priestly town south of Hebron. But priests did not always live in priestly towns (Mathathias’s home was at Modin; Simon Machabeus’s at Gaza). A tradition, which can be traced back to the time before the Crusades, points to the little town of Ain-Karim, five miles south-west of Jerusalem.

The birth of the Precursor was announced in a most striking manner. Zachary and Elizabeth, as we learn from St. Luke, “were both just before God, walking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord without blame; and they had no son, for that Elizabeth was barren” (i, 6-7). Long they had prayed that their union might be blessed with offspring; but, now that “they were both advanced in years”, the reproach of barrenness bore heavily upon them. “And it came to pass, when he executed the priestly function in the order of his course before God, according to the custom of the priestly office, it was his lot to offer incense, going into the temple of the Lord. And all the multitude of the people was praying without, at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zachary seeing him, was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him: Fear not, Zachary, for thy prayer is heard; and they wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John: and thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice in his nativity. For he shall be great before the Lord; and shall drink no wine nor strong drink: and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. And he shall convert many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias; that he may turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children, and the incredulous to the wisdom of the just, to prepare unto the Lord a perfect people” (i, 8-17). As Zachary was slow in believing this startling prediction, the angel, making himself known to him, announced that, in punishment of his incredulity, he should be stricken with dumbness until the promise was fulfilled. “And it came to pass, after the days of his office were accomplished, he departed to his own house. And after those days, Elizabeth his wife conceived, and hid herself five months” (i, 23-24).

Now during the sixth month, the Annunciation had taken place, and, as Mary had heard from the angel the fact of her cousin’s conceiving, she went “with haste” to congratulate her. “And it came to pass, that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant” — filled, like the mother, with the Holy Ghost — “leaped for joy in her womb”, as if to acknowledge the presence of his Lord. Then was accomplished the prophetic utterance of the angel that the child should “be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother’s womb”. Now as the presence of any sin whatever is incompatible with the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the soul, it follows that at this moment John was cleansed from the stain of original sin. When “Elizabeth’s full time of being delivered was come. . .she brought forth a son” (i, 57); and “on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they called him by his father’s name Zachary. And his mother answering, said: Not so, but he shall be called John. And they said to her: There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. And they made sign to his father, how he would have him called. And demanding a writing table, he wrote, saying: John is his name. And they all wondered” (i, 59-63). They were not aware that no better name could be applied (John, Hebrew; Jehohanan, i.e. “Jahweh hath mercy”) to him who, as his father prophesied, was to “go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; to give knowledge of salvation to his people, unto remission of their sins: through the bowels of the mercy of our God” (i, 76- 78). Moreover, all these events, to wit, a child born to an aged couple, Zachary’s sudden dumbness, his equally sudden recovery of speech, his astounding utterance, might justly strike with wonderment the assembled neighbours; these could hardly help asking: “What an one, think ye, shall this child be?” (i, 66).

As to the date of the birth of John the Baptist, nothing can be said with certainty. The Gospel suggests that the Precursor was born about six months before Christ; but the year of Christ’s nativity has not so far been ascertained. Nor is there anything certain about the season of Christ’s birth, for it is well known that the assignment of the feast of Christmas to the twenty-fifth of December is not grounded on historical evidence, but is possibly suggested by merely astronomical considerations, also, perhaps, inferred from astronomico-theological reasonings. Besides, no calculations can be based upon the time of the year when the course of Abia was serving in the Temple, since each one of the twenty-four courses of priests had two turns a year. Of John’s early life St. Luke tell us only that “the child grew, and was strengthened in spirit; and was in the deserts, until the day of his manifestation to Israel” (i, 80). Should we ask just when the Precursor went into the wilderness, an old tradition echoed by Paul Warnefried (Paul the Deacon), in the hymn, “Ut queant laxis”, composed in honour of the saint, gives an answer hardly more definite than the statement of the Gospel: “Antra deserti teneris sub annis. . .petiit . . .” Other writers, however, thought they knew better. For instance, St. Peter of Alexandria believed St. John was taken into the desert to escape the wrath of Herod, who, if we may believe report, was impelled by fear of losing his kingdom to seek the life of the Precursor, just as he was, later on, to seek that of the new-born Saviour. It was added also that Herod on this account had Zachary put to death between the temple and the altar, because he had prophesied the coming of the Messias (Baron., “Annal. Apparat.”, n. 53). These are worthless legends long since branded by St. Jerome as “apocryphorum somnia”.

Passing, then, with St. Luke, over a period of some thirty years, we reach what may be considered the beginning of the public ministry of St. John. Up to this he had led in the desert the life of an anchorite; now he comes forth to deliver his message to the world. “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. . .the word of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachary, in the desert. And he came into all the country about the Jordan, preaching” (Luke 3:1-3), clothed not in the soft garments of a courtier (Matthew 11:8; Luke 7:24), but in those “of camel’s hair, and a leather girdle about his loins”; and “his meat” — he looked as if he came neither eating nor drinking (Matthew 11:18; Luke 7:33) — “was locusts and wild honey” (Matthew 3:4; Mark 1:6); his whole countenance, far from suggesting the idea of a reed shaken by the wind (Matthew 11:7; Luke 7:24), manifested undaunted constancy. A few incredulous scoffers feigned to be scandalized: “He hath a devil” (Matthew 11:18). Nevertheless, “Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the country about Jordan” (Matthew 3:5), drawn by his strong and winning personality, went out to him; the austerity of his life added immensely to the weight of his words; for the simple folk, he was truly a prophet (Matthew 11:9; cf. Luke 1:76, 77). “Do penance: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2), such was the burden of his teaching. Men of all conditions flocked round him.

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“There are two ways of passing from this world - one in light and one in darkness. When one passes in light, he does not come back; but when one passes in darkness, he returns.”, Bhagavad Gita

“There’s music in the sighing of a reed; There’s music in the gushing of a rill; There’s music in all things, if men had ears: Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.”, Lord Byron

YOU don’t have to be a lawyer to appreciate the Inns of Court, the four ancient societies of English barristers that lie at the center of London. Little known to tourists, the inns offer easy access to the best of England — beautiful vistas, superb architecture, colorful and vibrant traditions, fascinating literary and historical associations and, most remarkably, absolute serenity.

As John Stow wrote of them four centuries ago in his Survey of London, ”There is in and about this city a whole university, as it were, of students, practicers or pleaders, and judges of the laws of this realm.” And so there remains to this day.

The Inns of Court — the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple (whose intertwined buildings are collectively known as the Temple), Lincoln’s Inn and Gray’s Inn — occupy a compact district just west of the City (London’s financial district) and extending northward from the Thames to Theobald’s Road. They came into being during the Middle Ages as places to learn the law, as well as to live and worship, much as did the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge around the same time. Like the Oxbridge colleges, each of the inns consists of a succession of quadrangles containing living and working space (today predominantly the latter, since few barristers live there now), a hall for communal dining and teaching, a library and a chapel.

A visit to Legal London can also take in, as did my trip late last winter, Staple Inn and Barnard’s Inn (the two surviving Inns of Chancery), the courts in which lawyers plead their cases, and medieval Westminster Hall. But the Inns of Court are the place to begin. For many centuries they have been central to the training and professional lives of England’s barristers, the bewigged lawyers who present most cases in court and from whose ranks similarly bewigged judges are drawn. (Solicitors, who go wigless, are the lawyers who provide legal advice to clients and serve as intermediaries between client and barrister when cases go to court.)

While the four Inns of Court are similar in their history and fundamentals, they are delightfully different in physical character. The Temple is a maze of lanes, passageways and courtyards, with beautiful lawns sweeping down to the Thames. Lincoln’s Inn is first among equals for beauty, its buildings an eclectic but harmonious collection of periods and styles. Gray’s Inn is remote and almost pastoral, thanks to its spacious gardens.

Weekdays are the only time, and strolling the only way, to visit the inns (always remembering that they are working legal institutions, and that many buildings can be viewed only from the outside).

I set out in the Temple, eager to see its two most famous landmarks, Temple Church and Middle Temple Hall. Temple Church, amazingly peaceful though just a few steps down Inner Temple Lane from noisy Fleet Street, is one of the most interesting medieval churches in Britain. It long predates the establishment of the Temple, having been built in the 12th and 13th centuries by the Knights Templar (the Crusaders with red crosses on their tunics). But since 1608 it has been the shared chapel of the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple.

The extraordinary round nave was inspired by the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and consecrated in 1185. Noteworthy are its nine recumbent effigies of knights (not Templars, but their patrons), and its transitional style of architecture — Norman hovering on the verge of Gothic. The church’s other half is the pure Gothic choir, built 50 years after the nave and, according to Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, ”one of the most perfectly and classically proportioned buildings of the 13th century in England.”

I encountered a wealth of literary associations while wandering through the Temple. Here Charles Lamb was born, Henry Fielding and Samuel Johnson lived, Thackeray studied law but embraced literature, and Oliver Goldsmith died and is buried (near a coffin-shaped gravestone on the north side of Temple Church). In Fountain Court, Tom Pinch furtively met his sister Ruth, at least in the pages of Dickens’s ”Martin Chuzzle wit.” And today John Mortimer, progenitor of Rumpole of the Bailey, has chambers in Dr. Johnson’s Buildings.

My stroll through the Temple ultimately brought me to Middle Temple Hall, one of London’s outstanding Elizabethan structures (literally, as Queen Elizabeth opened it in 1576). Shakespeare’s ”Twelfth Night” had its premiere here in 1601 and was performed before the queen, probably by Shakespeare’s own company.

Middle Temple Hall is a spectacularly beautiful room, its double hammerbeam roof one of the finest of its kind in the country. Equally striking are the magnificent oak screen, the profusion of brilliantly colored heraldic glass, and the collection of royal portraits. The ”cupboard,” a small table in front of the dais, was made from the hatch cover of Sir Francis Drake’s Golden Hind (in which he completed a circumnavigation of the globe in 1580), given by him to the inn after the ship was wrecked in a storm. The hall’s balcony offers a fine exhibition on the Middle Temple’s history and a close-up view of the roof.

From the Temple I walked up Chancery Lane to Lincoln’s Inn, entering through the great Tudor gatehouse. On the far side of Gatehouse Court is the late-15th-century Old Hall, frequented by Sir Thomas More as a student, lector (reader of law) and finally a bencher (senior member). It was open to the public last year as part of the city’s millennium celebrations but has since been closed again.

Next door to the Old Hall is the early 17th-century chapel, probably designed by Inigo Jones. It has indelible associations with the poet John Donne, a barrister of Lincoln’s Inn as a young man in the 1590’s, who became the inn’s preacher following his ordination in late middle age. The chapel’s bell, captured by the Earl of Essex at the siege of Cadiz in 1596, still tolls after the death of a bencher, a custom that inspired Donne’s words: ”Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” At the northern end of Lincoln’s Inn are its gardens, with lovely vistas of this most heavenly of the inns.

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Islam considers itself to be rooted in Judaism and Christianity. ”We believe in God and in what has been revealed to us,” the Koran says. ”We believe in what has been revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes; we believe in what has been delivered unto Moses and Jesus, and in what has been delivered unto the prophets from their God.” To be a Moslem is not to believe simply that Mohammed is God’s prophet. Rather, it is to believe in the revelations of God to all his prophets, of whom Mohammed is the last. Islam venerates Isaac as it venerates Ishmael, and Jesus as it venerates Mohammed.

It is in this sense that the Koran speaks of ”the sanctified land,” referring to the arrival of Moses and his people to the borders of the Land of Canaan. It is probably this, too, that explains why Jerusalem, before Mecca, was chosen by Mohammed as the qiblah, or the place to which Moslems turn in order to pray. The Jewish and Christian love for Jerusalem runs in the religious blood of Islam. From its very roots, Islam venerates Jerusalem for the same reasons it is venerated in Judaism and Christianity. The pilgrim who wishes to visit Moslem holy places will pause in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher as well as wonder at such specifically Moslem shrines as the Dome of the Rock, a masterpiece of early Islamic architecture, and the Al Aksa Mosque.

Just as Dante’s ”Divine Comedy,” reflecting the classical Christian medieval tradition, portrays Jerusalem as the mystical meeting place of the earthly and the divine, so, too, did the earlier Moslem mystics and philosophers view it. This probably explains why Islam never accorded Jerusalem a political status or made it a political capital. This abstraction of Jerusalem from wordly affairs by Islam, and its veneration as a divine city, is reflected in the Islamic tradition that relates how Moslems first came to Jerusalem: Rather than overpowering the city by military might, Islam’s second caliph, Omar, traveled by camel with his servant until they reached Jerusalem and entered it peacefully, receiving it into the custody of Islam. On the journey, the tradition relates, Omar and his servant took turns riding the caliph’s camel, thus symbolizing Omar’s human humility before the city. The story symbolizes Islam’s veneration of Jerusalem as a city above men, rather than an earthly city that can be conquered by man.

The Islamic view of Jerusalem as a mystic city is not simply a view inherited from Jews and Christians, since Islam itself sanctifies Jerusalem. The major Islamic event with which the city is associated is the miraculous ascension of the prophet Mohammed to the heavens. The miracle is memorialized in two magnificent mosques on the Temple Mount.

The Dome of the Rock, built about A.D. 690 and the oldest existing Moslem monument, dominates the area. It stands on a plateau within an enclosed rectangular holy space, called the Haram esh-Sharif - the ”Noble Sanctuary” - that, flanked by slender minarets, covers about a sixth of the Old City. The Dome of the Rock is octagonal in shape, covered with marble and glass mosaics in interlocking floral patterns on the inside and with blue and green ceramic tiles on the outside. The tiles, which range in color from turquoise to indigo, bear exquisite examples of the calligraphic art at which the Moslems excelled. Various verses of the Koran are set out; just beneath the dome is a verse specifically celebrating Mohammed’s miraculous ascension. The dome itself, set on a high drum, gleams above the horizon; it is covered with a gilded copper sheath that reflects the rays of the rising and setting sun.

Farther to the south stands the second of the mosques, Al Aksa, which commemorates Mohammed’s journey from Mecca to Jerusalem in preparation for his ascent to the heavens. Here the prophet is said to have left his legendary winged horse. The mosque is surmounted by a silver dome; in front of the main door is the fountain for ritual ablutions before prayers.

The Haram esh-Sharif and its holy places are no strangers to the violence that has marked Jerusalem. In 1969, an arsonist set fire to Al Aksa, destroying a wooden pulpit placed there by Saladin after he recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187. (Saladin also restored and embellished other parts of the Haram esh-Sharif; during Crusader times, Al Aksa Mosque had been the headquarters and stables of the Knights Templars.)

The importance to Islam of the miracle the mosques commemorate cannot be overstated; it is, in fact, the only miracle associated with Mohammed. In Mecca and its environs, Mohammed was the recipient of revelation, when divine knowledge was indirectly transmitted to him through the Angel Gabriel. The Jerusalem miracle turns the tables, however, by providing Mohammed with a direct vision of the divine foundations of the universe. In Mecca, Gabriel descended to Mohammed, but from Jerusalem, Mohammed himself ascended to the heavens. Jerusalem is thus the gateway to the heavens and to divine knowledge, the medium through which to reach the divine - in short, the spiritual threshold of the divine paradise.

The Jerusalem miracle has broad implications. Mohammed, according to his own words, was only a human being like other human beings, and his ascension reflects the ability of all men to attain transcendental and divine knowledge. The miraculous achievement of Mohammed could be regarded as an achievement attainable by the rest of mankind: If men apply themselves to a devout life and to religious learning, they, too, may be able to achieve knowledge of the divine mysteries of the universe.

Jerusalem thus developed into Islam’s center of sacred learning. The area around the mosques, from which Mohammed ascended to heaven, became the focal point of contemplative and religious education. Other schools and study centers proliferated around this central area.

Today, the whole area is filled with domes and pulpits, ornamental fountains and arcades, pilgrims’ stations and square minarets celebrating various Islamic holy events. If a visitor stands in the center of the Haram esh-Sharif and looks west and north, most of the buildings he sees rising above the arcades will be those of religious schools, some of which are now private houses sheltering very old Moslem families. Due north, two still functioning schools occupy the greater length of the area; due west are vaults housing the tombs of Moslem religious teachers. One of these buildings contains the Aksa Library, with some very old and rare Moslem manuscripts; to the south is the Moslem Museum, with a collection of Islamic relics. The gate of the Haram esh-Sharif, with its archstones of alternate light- and dark-colored stones and its half dome set above a stalactitedecorated niche, is a good example of the eclectic Islamic architecture of the 14th century. (The entryway is often the most important element in buildings of this period.)

Outside the precincts of the mosques, throughout the Old City, lie no fewer than 49 religious schools and 19 other establishments that doubled as schools and shrines or mosques. Most are now private homes, and the visitor can glimpse only their embellished entrances as he strolls around the city.

Other evidences of Islamic Jerusalem are visible wherever one looks: the present city walls are Ottoman, built by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century. Six of the present city gates, among them the Damascus Gate, the principal entrance to the Old City, were also built during this period. Throughout the city there are pilgrim caravanserais and schools, minarets and fountains dating from the Islamic Middle Ages. In Jerusalem, the paths of pilgrims, Christian, Jewish or Moslem, often cross.

By SARI NUSEIBEH, who lives in the Old City of Jerusalem, and is a professor of philosophy at Bir Zeit University on the West Bank.

in The New York Times

O xogo da oca é menos inocente de que cabería pensar. Iso de «de oca a oca e tiro porque me toca», a mágoa de caer coa ficha no pozo e agardar alí tres xogadas, dúas se che cae na cadea ou, non lembro xa cantas se a mala racha te leva á pousada, non naceu para divertir aos nenos nin para que as señoras pasen unha tarde entretida. Non. Ao parecer foi ideado na Idade Media, aló polo século XII, e moitos defenden que foron os Templarios na súa labor de gardiáns dos santos lugares. Outros sitúano noutros contextos, pero todos coinciden no simbolismo dun xogo iniciático, de itinerario cara ao coñecemento supremo, á perfección. Unha metáfora da vida, do home como peregrino na terra ao fin e ao cabo.

E se mesturamos Templarios, Camiño de Santiago e Idade Media resulta que o xogo da oca descrebe con símbolos a ruta cara a meta santa de Compostela e Fisterra. Luisa Rubines, unha nova artista lucence afincada en Londres dende 1994, recrea esta idea nunha exposición que se inaugura o día 22 no Museo das Peregrinacións. Ela está convencida de que o famoso xogo reproduce con metáforas o Camiño de Santiago, e tenta demostralo cunha montaxe na que mostrará as fotos que realizou ao longo da ruta, textos nos que, a modo de diario, foi recollendo as súas reflexións e vivencias como peregrina, e un gran taboleiro no chan dunha sala do museo no que os visitantes serán as fichas e as 63 cuadrículas as etapas do Camiño. A ese xogo se dedicaban, segundo as teorías a prol de que representa o Camiño, os iniciados que non podían facelo físicamente.

A artista recorreu a ruta xacobea varias veces dende o 2001. E coas súas fotografías amosa o paralelismo de determinados puntos xeográficos do itinerario cara a tumba do Apóstolo co simbolismo do contido das casiñas. Así, para Luisa Rubines, as pontes da oca son as de Viscarrel e Puente la Reina; a pousada é Logroño; o pozo cae en Castrojeriz; a cadea está en Valcárcel e a morte en Santiago. A meta do xogo, no que aparece un cisne e unha doncela, é Fisterra, onde se acada a renovación, a transformación e o coñecemento.

A montaxe forma parte do programa expositivo do Museo das Peregrinacións, no que vén traballando dende hai tempo, de acoller propostas relacionadas co sentimento das peregrinacións e coa idea do Camiño de Santiago. Neste caso, a montaxe forma parte do proxecto para iniciativas de novos creadores. A filosofía que hai detrás do xogo da oca está fundamentada dun traballo da profesora da Universidade da Coruña Sagrario López, que aparecerá no catálogo da exposición.

O museo ten preparado un programa de actividades didácticas para alumnos de primaria e de secundaria, e tamén para xente da terceira idade. Disporán dun monitor que, ademais de guialos nun percorrido pola montaxe, proporalles xogar á oca no taboleiro xigante con determinados conceptos.

by Concha Pino in www.lavozdegalicia.es

The annual General Assembly and Investiture of the Priory of England and Wales has been called for the 30th of June in Llandudno, North Wales.

As always, the ceremonies will be directed by Fr+ Leslie Payne (on the left, with the Editor), Prior General of England and Wales, Seneschal of the Magisterial Council of the OSMTHU.

So, if you are a Templar and you are in England and wish to attend the meeting, do contact the Chancellor of the Priory of England and Wales, Fr. Mike Davies on dmwd@btinternet.com

Dear readers,

The very nature of a Blog makes some of the posts too ephemeral to notice by many of you. I am very proud of your reaction, your comments and emails with articles (they are here, don’t worry!), suggestions and links. I am convinced that the members of the Order who have been coming to these pages over and over again have found food for thought and many leads to further develop their personal research into Templar history and spirituality.

I’m also proud to find readers and authors who are not Templars that, looking at what we are interested in, at our discussions and views, enquire further about the Order today, clearly understanding that we are not locked in the past, a “fancy dinners” organisation or a “lapel pin order”, but a thriving force of people from many countries and cultures united in the admiration for those Knights who dared talk and create bonds of brotherly love with their supposed enemies, who dared invent ecumenism and pray alongside other faiths, who dared use religion as a thread to unite man instead of a line to divide “revelations” of the same One God, who have shown compassion for the weaker despite of race or belief.

But precisely because many of the posts became ephemeral, I would like to draw your attention to the Most Popular Posts in each language and also some of the gems you may have not read yet. Keep clicking!

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 TOP MOST POPULAR POSTS (last 30 days)

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English

1. Templar Chronicles II - Alcobaça 1

2. Putin’s Reunited Russian Church

3. At home with the Knights Templar

4. My Bedroom Window Over Jerusalem I - We Could Learn From Muslims

5. A Portrait of Faith

6. Church Militant

7. My Bedroom Window Over Jerusalem IV - Israel Split in Her Vision

8. My Bedroom Window Over Jerusalem III - A Pilgrimage to the Jordan

9. My Bedroom Window Over Jerusalem II - Jerusalem Day

10. Templar Cronicles I

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Español (Castellano)

1. El Templario en la Actualidad

2. El rastro de los templarios

3. Los Templarios en Tierra Santa

4. Midi-Pyrénées, trazas y trazos

5. Templarios, teutónicos y demás órdenes militartes de edad media

6. Ponferrada, ciudad de los Templarios

7. Hasta los nazis buscaron el Santo Grial

8. Notre Dame y los alquimistas - Cuatro claves para recorrer Paris

9. El Arca de la Alianza

10. Nobleza medieval de Fisterra

.

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Français

1. Sur le chemin des Templiers

2. Des croisades au roi de fer

3. La croisade, premier choc des civilisations

4. Un ordre bâtisseur qui créa le compagnonage

5. Le son des Templiers

6. 19 Mars - Le Bûcher

7. Le point de vue des Arabes

8. Attention vendredi 13 !

9. La chute du Temple

10. La Loire de relais en châteaux

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Português

1. 1312: Dissolução da Ordem dos Templários

2. Charola de Tomar vai ser recuperada

3. Os Templários em Portugal

4. Edição portuguesa divulga documento secreto sobre Templários

5. Sarcófagos encontrados em Jerusalém podem conter tumba de Jesus

6. A Paixão de Cristo em Malta

7. EUA: Alunos luso-americanos descobrem presença Portuguesa

8. Malta guarda sepultura lendária

9. Iniciação

10. Wallpaper - Guimarães, Portugal

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10 Other Posts You Should Read (no particular order)

1. Chaplains: The Calm in the Chaos [English]

2. World Watch V - Cult of Combat [English]

3. Does God Want You To Be Rich? [English]

4. Holy, Holy, Holistic [English]

5. Spiritual Enlightenment - The Three Stages [English]

6. Giving to charity - Bring back the Victorians [English]

7. World Watch III - Globalization And Poverty [English]

8. Spiritual Ecumenism, a Task for Everyone [English]

9. Un tesoro de papel [Castellano]

10. St Paul’s tomb unearthed in Rome [English]

 LOS TEMPLARIOS dejaron su huella en Fisterra, al igual que lo hicieron en el Finistère de Bretaña, Francia (país del que eran originarios).

El cómo y el porqué llegan a Fisterra podría ser motivo de otro artículo; por ahora sólo estudiaremos su impronta en el exterior de la ecclesie ste. Marie de finibus terre , según reza en la donación que hizo Urraca Fernández, en el año 1199, para su construcción.

Así es que, rodeando el templo fisterrán de Santa María das Areas, nos encontramos grabada en la pared oriental la inconfundible cruz templaria casi imperceptible por el paso del tiempo; en el muro norte, al lado de la puerta santa, otra más pequeña; un espiral o laberinto y otra cruz templaria; en la pared occidental una cruz inscripta en un círculo y en el lado sur una rueda de ocho rayos.

Analicemos sucintamente cada caso.

Las cruces

Una cruz es de extremos cóncavos y otra de extremos convexos e identifican al dueño del templo. La cruz pequeña representa las ocho beatitudes, que son: contento espiritual, vivir sin maldad, lamentar los pecados, humillarse ante el ultraje, amar la justicia, ser misericordiosos, ser puros de corazón y sufrir con paciencia las injusticias.

Laberinto

El laberinto tiene una doble razón de ser, en cuanto permite o veda, según los casos, el acceso a determinado lugar donde no todos pueden penetrar indistintamente; sólo los que están cualificados podrán recorrerlo hasta el fin, mientras que los otros se verán impedidos de penetrar o extraviarán el camino. Se ve inmediatamente que hay aquí la idea de una selección , en relación evidente con la admisión a la orden.

La cruz en el interior de un círculo se ha tomado, desde una época muy antigua, como una figura solar , pero el sol mismo es un símbolo del principio divino. A su vez, esta figura es imagen de un ciclo de manifestación, como los ciclos cósmicos de los hindúes. Las divisiones determinadas sobre el círculo por los brazos de la cruz corresponden a las diferentes fases en que se divide este ciclo, según sea más o menos extenso: se tendrá así, por ejemplo y para atenernos sólo al orden terrestre, los cuatro momentos del día, las cuatro fases de la luna, las estaciones del año o las cuatro edades de la Humanidad. No hago más que dar una pequeña idea de lo que expresa el símbolo en cuestión; y que está relacionada directamente con el siguiente y último signo.

La rueda de 8 rayos

La rueda celta se representa con seis u ocho rayos. La segunda de esas dos formas se encuentran también en países orientales, como el Tíbet o la India (donde se la llama chakra).

La rueda, en lugar de ser un simple signo solar, es ante todo un símbolo del mundo. En la simbología hindú se habla constantemente de la rueda de la vida , lo cual corresponde netamente a esa significación.

El número 8 indica justicia y equilibrio. Este signo desempeñó un papel importante en el simbolismo templario, pues se la ve tanto como signo heráldico de estatuas funerarias del siglo XIII; como grabada en muros de distintas encomiendas francesas. No son sino un ejemplo entre muchos, de la continuación de las tradiciones célticas a través de todo el Medioevo.

by JUAN GABRIEL SATTI in www.lavozdegalicia.es

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and urderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it…always.”, Mahatma Gandhi