With the celebration of Palm Sunday, Holy Week has begun in Jerusalem. In the very first hours of the morning, there was the procession around the Edicule at the Holy Sepulchre, followed by the Solemn Mass, presided over by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Card. Pierbattista Pizzaballa.
At the beginning of the liturgical celebration, the Latin Patriarch gave the blessing to the palms from Jericho and the olive branches brought from the Franciscan Convent of St Saviour, in the Edicule of the Holy Sepulchre. The blessed branches were then distributed to the faithful present and to the many concelebrants, thus starting the traditional procession around the Rotunda of the Sepulchre. The gesture commemorates the triumphant entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, welcomed by a festive crowd. The participants in the procession went round the Edicule three times, a number which symbolizes the days Christ remained in the Tomb.
For the first time since 2017, Easter will be celebrated on the same day both by the Catholic Church and by the Orthodox Churches. This is an exceptional occasion, which was also echoed in the liturgy of Palm Sunday at the Holy Sepulchre. At the same time, the celebrations of the Coptic, Syriac and Ethiopian Churches were held around the Edicule.
The Eucharistic celebration was held at the altar of Mary Magdalene, as the space in front of the Edicule was occupied by the Orthodox Church. The Gospel of the Passion was proclaimed during the Pontifical Mass. According to the age-old tradition, dating back to the 11th century, the story was intoned in Latin by three friars of the Custody of the Holy Land, each of whom interpreted a role from the evangelical passage – Christ, the narrator and the people – using three distinct melodies.
Lucia Borgato
