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These two churches were built at the initiative of Queen Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine. Eusebius writes: "Subsequently she built two places of prayer to the God she adored, one in the Grotto of the Nativity and the other on the Mount of the Ascension. The imperial mother erected a stable structure on the Mount of Olives as a monument to the progress of the Savior to heaven, building and consecrating a church atop the hill at its highest point. Here, in this cave, the true story relates that the universal Savior revealed to his disciples inscrutable myseries. The Church of Eleona stood above the grotto where, according to tradition, Jesus taught the disciples. The major element of the church was an impressive basilica. The pilgrim Arculepus wrote: "On the whole Mount of Olives there is no higher place than that from which our Lord ascended to heaven, a place where there is today a round church surrounded by three rows of pillars all standing under one roof. The inside of the church is not covered by a roof and is open to the sky..." Thus, the place from which the Lord soared aloft in a cloud is not covered by a roof, so that all the worshippers who stand in the place where the divine footrpints were lately seen can pray to the heavens above them. Buildings of later eras now stand at both sites. |
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