3-082-565 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Holy Thursday at the Holy Sepulchre: kissing the column at which Christ was flagellated, 1895. 'Jerusalem presents during the Easter festival an aspect altogether unique...the most diverse types mingle together...Europeans, Asiatics, and Africans...The Church of the Holy Sepulchre...unites into one the places where the supreme acts of the Passion were accomplished: the Crucifixion and the Burial...The principal temple...is erected on the very spot where the body of the Saviour was laid, at...Golgotha...On Maundy Thursday is exhibited the column of scourging...It is brought out of the tabernacle which protects it on ordinary days; and, under the supervision of the Franciscans, the believers come to kiss it. Greeks, Russians, Armenians - all the Christians of every confession - hasten to profit by this opportunity which is offered to them. The throng, in consequence, is dense, noisy, and agitated, impossible to keep in order although the whips of the cavas are exercised on it with great vigour. The Engraving which represents this episode of the holy days, gives an idea of the frightful tumult. Each one is trying to approach the first, trembling lest the day should close before he has been able to arrive at the precious relic'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.