16173 - Deir Hajla (Monastery of Gerasimus) - Lower Church

Deir Hajla (Monastery of Gerasimus) - Lower Church

Church Name, type, function

Site Name:

Deir Hajla (Monastery of Gerasimus)

Identification:

The medieval-modern monastery, built on the Byzantine remains, presently known as Deir Hajla, was traditionally identified as the core of the original composite monastery (a laura with a coenobium at its core, serving as a noviciate) built by St. Gerasimus in 455 CE (Wilkinson 1977: 157; Hirschfeld 1992: 28–29; Tabula: 110; Di Segni 2005: 106, 239–240, note 24). J.L. Féderlin supposed that the core of the laura was situated ca. 350 m to the east from Deir Ḥajla (Hirschfeld 1990: 19–20). The monastery was restored in medieval times by the Byzantine emperor Manuel Komnenos (1143-1180) and again in the nineteenth century. It is currently active. It was described mostly detailed by A.M. Schneider, who erroneously had identified it as Kalamon. Pringle (1993: 197) repeated this identification.

Church name:

Lower Church

Functional Type:

Monastic

Church type:

Chapel

Location

Coordinates, ITM system:

247.60

63.64

Coordinates, ICS system:

19,759.00

11,364.00

Geographical region:

Southern Jordan Valley

Topographical location:

on the plain

Distance from nearest bishop-seat:

ca. 25 km east - northeast of Jerusalem.

Distance from nearest settlement:

ca. 5 km southeast of Jericho.

Distance from Roman roads:

ca. 2 km south from the road connecting Jericho, Nevo and Amman

Provincial affiliation:

Palaestina I

Bishopric:

Regio Jericho

Source of knowledge

Literary sources:

HideLiterary sources

Deir Hajla (Monastery of Gerasimus) - Lower Church

Source:

Cyr. Scyth., Vita Euthymii

Abbreviation for Journals and Series

Paragraph:

31bis

Translation:

Now I shall come to the great Gerasimus. Our great father Gerasimus, became a coloniser and patron of the desert of the Jordan, having founded there a very large laura with 70 anchorites, with a coenobium built in its middle. He decreed that the beginners should stay in the coenobium and learn the monastic discipline, while those who were perfect in God’s eyes, excellent in the ascetic labours and superior to most in their ascent to God, such men he settled in the cells, giving them the following rules. For five days of the week each must live in seclusion in his own cell, eating nothing but bread and dates, and (drinking) water. On Saturday and Sunday they come to the church and take part in the divine mysteries, then eat a cooked meal in the coenobium, accompanied by a little wine. (Gerasimus) did not permit to anybody to light a lamp in his cell, to make himself a hot drink or to eat cooked food; but all were poor and humble. Each of (the anchorites) would bring his weekly work to the coenobium on Saturday, and on Sunday evening he would receive his weekly allowance - loaves of bread, dates, water and palm-leaves - and go back to his cell. And they were so unconcerned with all things human - in a word, dead to the worldly life and alive only for God - that nobody had in his cell any material thing, except the merest necessities: a tunic, a mantle and a cowl. Each had one rush-mat for his bedding and one earthen jar, that served both for drinking and for soaking the palm-leaves.

(transl. Leah Di Segni)

Summary:

The anchorites of the laura of Gerasimus come each Saturday and Sunday to the church to take part in the divine mysteries.

Deir Hajla (Monastery of Gerasimus) - Lower Church

Source:

Jo. Mosch., Prat.

Abbreviation for Journals and Series

Paragraph:

Translation:

Abba Peter, the priest of the laura of our holy father Sabas, told us a story about Hagiodoulos. When he was hegumen of the laura of blessed Gerasimus, one of the brothers who lived there died, and the old man was not informed of the fact. When the director of the office struck the wooden beam, at which signal all the brothers would gather and escort the dead (to his grave), the old man, seeing the body of the brother lying in the church, was grieved that he had not given him the farewell kiss, before (the brother’s) departure from this life. So he came up to the bier and said to the dead: “Rise, brother, and give me a kiss”. And the dead man rose and kissed the Elder. Then the old man said to him: “Now go to rest, until the Son of God will come and raise you”.

(transl. Leah Di Segni)

Summary:

Miracle of abbot Hagiodoulos in the church of the laura, from an early 7th cent. collection of anecdotes.

Deir Hajla (Monastery of Gerasimus) - Lower Church

Source:

Jo. Mosch., Prat.

Abbreviation for Journals and Series

Paragraph:

107

Translation:

When Abba Gerasimus migrated to the Lord and was buried by the fathers, by God’s disposition the lion was not in the laura; but after a short time it came back and began looking for the old man. The disciple of the Elder and Abba Sabbatius, [the Cilician, who was a friend of our holy father Gerasimus ], seeing the lion said to it: “Jordan, our old man has left us orphans and has migrated to the Lord; but come on, eat something”. However the lion refused to eat: instead, it unceasingly turned its eyes here and there, trying to discover the old man, whining aloud, unable to endure his departure. At this sight, Abba Sabbatius and the other patting the beast’s back, said to it over and over again: “Our father had gone to the Lord, he has left us”. But in spite of all their words, they could not stop the lion’s roars and wails: on the contrary, the more they thought to appease the beast with words and to divert it from its grief, the more the lion wailed and roared and increased its lamentations, showing with its voice, its countenance and its eyes the grief it felt, not finding the old man. Finally Abba Sabbatius said to it: “Come with me, if you do not believe us, and I shall show you where our Elder lies”. And he took the lion and lead it to the place where they had buried (the Saint): it was at a distance of about half a mile from the church. And Abba Sabbatius, standing upon the grave of Abba Gerasimus, said to the lion: “Here is our old man”, and bent his knees. When the lion saw him kneel [upon the grave of the holy Elder and weeping, it prostrated itself too], violently knocking its head against the ground and roaring with grief, and died at once on the grave of the old man …

(transl. Leah Di Segni)

Summary:

Story of Gerasimus and the lion and mention of the chruch.

Epigraphy:

Epigraphy

Archaeological remains

Surveyed site

Surveyors:

Name	Date
Conder, Kitchener	1871-1877
Guérin	1874-1875
Κοικυλίδου	1890s-1900
Féderlin	1903
Schneider	1933
Augustinović	1950
Bar Adon	1967-1968

History:

See under Identification. A group of ten monks are attested in the Commemoratorium occupying it in the early ninth century.

Bibliograpy:

Conder, C. R. and Kitchener, H. H., 1881	Vol. III, 178, 214-216
Guérin, V., 1868-1880	I: 53–56
Vailhé, S., 1898
Vailhé, S., 1899	520
Κοικυλίδου Κ. Μ., 1902
Federlin, L., 1903	134
Federlin, L., 1903	148
Schneider, A. M., 1938
Augustinović, A., 1951
Kochavi, M. and Ovadiah, R., 1972	117, no. 76
Wilkinson, J., 1977
Hirschfeld, Y., 1988/89
Hirschfeld, Y., 1990	18-19, no,7
Hirschfeld, Y., 1991
Hirschfeld, Y., 1992
Pringle, D., 1993	197-202
Patrich, J., Arubas, B. and Agur, B., 1993
Tsafrir, Y., Di Segni, L. and Green, J., 1994	110
Sharon, M., 2004	48-54
Magen, Y. and Kagan, E. D., 2012	JSP 13, no. 158, p. 302-3

Abbreviation for Journals and Series

General description

State of preservation/which parts were uncovered:

The modern monastery was built in the 12th century CE and restored in the 19th on the remains of the Byzantine complex, the masonry of which is still traceable at the southern and eastern monastic walls. There are the remains of the three aisled basilica on the second floor. Also there are the remains of the church on the first floor, not so well preserved (width 7.70 m, the length is not clear), but also with three aisles (3 piers in each row) and eastern compartment (the apse and pastophoria were not preserved). The piers are more monumental than in the church of the second floor. In the northern rectangular unit the geometric mosaic was preserved. The passage into it was decorated with the geometric medallion. There are two plans of the church available so far. One of them was presented by Conder and Kitchener and it takes into consideration the remains of all periods without differentiation. Schneider had published the remains of the Byzantine upper and lower churches and their anticipated reconstructions according to the architectural and mosaic remains. The architectural details, exhibiting in front of the modern monastery, were never published. Their provenance is not clear, as well as we don't know when they had appeared at the spot, but most probably, the members (both Byzantine and Medieval) were derived from the original monastic building and will be described further in the proper section.

Description

Illustrative material:

Illustrative_material

Photos

Figures

Atrium:

The church was abutting to the northern wall of the monastic complex, so the rest area of it might be used as atrium.

Façade and entries:

According to the reconstruction of Schneider, there was one entrance from southern side.

Nave:

The width of the nave was 4 m, the length is not clear; the width of the piers was 1.40.

Aisles:

The width of the aisles was 2.30 m, the length is not clear

Small finds

Small finds illustrative material:

Illustrative_material

Detailed description

Structure

Orientation:

Facing east

Materials applied (walls):

Limestone

Water cistern:

Yes

Aisles:

Colonnades / Arcades:

Arcade of pillars

Number of nave columns in a row:

Total	Extant in N	Extant in S
6	3	3

Capital types:

Ionic

Composite

Basket

Corinthian

Cult of relics

Cult of relics loci:

elsewhere

Reliquiaries: shapes and contents:

The are the venerated remains of the martyrs, massacred by Persians in 614 in the monastery. The tomb of St. Gerasimus is said to be somewhere in the desert; lost.

Architectural Evolution

Phase name (as published)	General outline	Dating material	Iconoclastic evidence	Phase no.	Century	Within century
Byzantine	The monastery was founded by Gerasimus around 455 CE.	Literary sources	Undetermined	Phase 1	5th c.	Mid
Early Islamic	Probably, during the Persian invasion (according to local tradition)		Undetermined	Abandonment	7th c.	First half

Post conquest history comments:

The monastery probably was deserted after the Persian invasion in 614 (Hoade 1984: 493). The commemoratorium de casis Dei (808) mentions ten monks at the site. It is, however, not known when these monks settled at the site and whether the monastery had been abandoned at some earlier time and then resettled. According to Pringle (Pringle 1993: 197), the monastery was had been occupied from its foundation till the 12th century CE without the break (Vailhe 1899: 122-16, Augustinovic 1951: 108). It was restored in 1185, according to the bilingual inscription from the monastery. Likewise, it is not known when this later group of monks abandoned the site. In the late 19th-early 20th century it was rebuilt once again, but only at the spot of the monastic church, the coenobium wasn't renewed.