From Latin, the name of this church is translated as “The Lord Wept.” An unusual description, isn't it? You will be even more surprised when you find out that this church was built in the shape of a tear! — which is a very rare and completely non-canonical phenomenon in church architecture.
It is also interesting that the church altar is oriented not to the east, as is customary in churches, but toward the Temple Mount. This was done deliberately so that during the liturgy parishioners could see what Christ saw about 2000 years ago.
And what exactly did he see, you may ask? And we will tell you a very beautiful, but sad story.
This event happened even before Christ entered Jerusalem. In those times, on this spot stood the home of a simple Jewish family who gave shelter to a traveler for the night. It is believed that in his sleep Jesus had a vision of the city engulfed in flames, the Temple of Solomon destroyed, and thousands of inhabitants dead. Christ, sensing that what he had seen was inevitable, weeps.
Forty years later, hundreds of thousands of Jews weep as well. After the terrible suppression of the revolt by the future Roman emperor Titus Flavius Vespasian, almost nothing of Jerusalem truly remained…
