On all mount Olivet no place appears to be higher than that from
which the Lord is said to have ascended to heaven. A great round church
stands there, which has within its circuit three arched porticos roofed
in over. Now of this round church the central area lies wide open to
heaven under the clear air without roof or vaulting, and in its eastern
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portion an altar is erected which is sheltered by a narrow covering.
The reason the central area has no vaulting placed over it is this: so
that, from the place where the divine feet rested for the last time when
the Lord was raised up to heaven in a cloud, there should always be an
open passage leading to the ethereal regions for the eyes of those who
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pray there. Because, when this basilica (of which a few details are now
being recorded) was being built, the place of the Lord's footprints
(as is found written in another source) could not be incorporated in a
pavement with the rest of the floor. For the ground (unwont to bear
anything human) would reject whatever was laid upon it, casting the
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marble into the faces of those who were laying it. Nay more, so lasting
is the proof that the dust was trodden by God that the imprints of the
Thus, in this spot, as the holy Arculf (a sedulous visitor of it) relates,
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a huge bronze circular structure has been set up, levelled out on top,
the height of which measures up to the chin. In the middle of it is quite
a large perforation, and when this is open the footprints of the Lord
are pointed out plainly and clearly stamped on the dust. Also, at the
western side of the structure, there is a sort of door always open, so that
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people entering by it can easily approach the place of the sacred dust,
and take particles of it by stretching in their hands through the open
perforation in the circular structure.
Our friend Arculf's account then of the place of the footprints of the
Lord is perfectly in accordance with the writings of others, to the effect
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that the area can by no means be covered over by a roof or by any special
covering lower down and nearer, with the result that there is a clear view
for all the people who frequent it, and the footprints of the Lord impressed
in the dust of the place can be clearly pointed out. For these footprints
of the Lord are illuminated by the light of a huge lamp which
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hangs above the circular structure on pulleys, burning day and night.
Then, on the western side of the above-mentioned round church
there are eight windows, constructed high up, with glass shutters. Now
near these windows and straight opposite them on the inside, there burn
eight lamps hanging by ropes. The lamps are so placed that each lamp
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hangs, not above or below, but so as to seem fastened to the particular
window, opposite to which it is hung at close quarters, one observes, on
the inside. So radiant is the brightness of the lamps, that as their light
pours out copiously through the glass from the high vantage point on
mount Olivet, not alone that area of the mountain which adjoins the
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round stone basilica on the western side, but the stairway mounting
steeply up to the city of Jerusalem from the valley of Josaphat, is
illuminated with a wondrous clarity on nights however dark. Indeed the
greater portion of the city, the portion in the foreground straight opposite,
is likewise illuminated with equal clarity. The bright and remarkable
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glow from the eight great lamps shining by night from the holy mount
and the place of the Lord's ascension, as Arculf relates, pours into the
hearts of the faithful who behold it greater eagerness for divine love and
imbues them with a sense of awe coupled with great interior compunction.
This item too, we think, ought not to be suppressed. The oft-mentioned
Arculf told it to me when I questioned him carefully about this round
church. He said: On the anniversary solemnity of the day of the Lord's
ascension, after the celebration of mass in the basilica, at midday every
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year a blast of the strongest wind is wont to burst in with such force,
that no one can manage to stand or even sit in the church or in places
adjacent to it, but all lie stretched face downward on the ground until
the terrible tempest passes. It is because of this terrific blast that part
of the structure cannot have a roof, the part over the place of the Lord's
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footprints (visible through the perforation in the open circular structure
mentioned above) which appears always open to heaven. For whenever
the skill of human hands attempted to lay any sort of material as roofing
over it, the intensity of that divinely sent wind, mentioned above,
destroyed it. Concerning this formidable tempest then the narrative
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of the holy Arculf was thus. He himself was actually present in the church
on mount Olivet at the very hour when that intense blast rushed in on
the day of the Lord's ascension. The structure of the round church is
displayed in a drawing, albeit a rough representation, and the character
of the circular bronze structure situated in its centre is shown too in the
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little diagram appended.
This too we learned from the account of the holy Arculf. In the
round church, to the customary (light) of the eight lamps, which, as
mentioned above, shine in the interior by night, on the night of the
feast of the Lord's ascension it is usual to add innumerable other lamps;
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and under the terrible and wondrous gleaming of these, pouring out
copiously through the glass shutters of the windows, all mount Olivet
seems not alone to be illuminated, but even to be on fire, and the whole
city, situated on the lower ground nearby, seems to be lit up.