Mary's Final Home

The first place we went to when we arrived in Ephesus was to the final home of the Virgin Mary. Now, it must be said that to be honest we were a bit worried about this. Johannes and I both served missions in Catholic countries where the Virgin Mary is a really big deal, Poland even has a lot of followers of the Cult of the Virgin Mary. I was expecting things to be rather, unusual, like they are at many pilgrimage sites, like Czestachowa or other places where there are famous icons of Mary or Christ or the apostles. Although it may not be fair to admit, I was really expecting pilgrims crawling on their knees and groveling all the way up the path, the way I have seen at other sites. Those places always make me feel uncomfortable because although I do believe in Jesus and Mary and the apostles I don't align myself with that level of ...devotion shall we say. I always somehow feel like I am thought to be disrespectful, when I just walk right up. I was relieved to see that although there were a number of international visitors (Poles and Brazilians included) it was a very serene, dignified place. I was treated as a sacred place and you could feel that when you walked around.

The house was rebuilt in recent years, upon the original foundation (you can see the older bricks on the bottoms layers of the house). The history of the place is as follows. While Jesus was on the cross he asked John to take care of his mother for him. We all know that Jerusalem was not a safe place for followers of Christ, particularly immediately after his death. So the belief is that John took Mary up the coast of Israel and around the sea and through was is now Turkey. It is also believed that John and Mary visited groups of believers on their journey and spent some time with the followers of the church who lived in the caves in Cappadocia. They then worked their way across the country to Ephesus (remember these are the Ephesians, people who join the church and Paul writes letters to them). It's is unknown how long this journey took exactly but they eventually settled on a small mountain outside of Ephesus. Just next to the house in the garden area is what some people this was a cistern for water, but others believe to be a baptismal font.