Orthodox Christians gather with wooden Crosses in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as they celebrate the Good Friday in a procession on Via Dolorosa in the Old City of Jerusalem, on April 26, 2019. (Thomas Coex/AFP)
Orthodox Christians from Serbia celebrate the Good Friday in procession on Via Dolorosa in the Old City of Jerusalem, on April 26, 2019. (THOMAS COEX / AFP)
Orthodox Christians from Serbia celebrate the Good Friday in procession on Via Dolorosa in the Old City of Jerusalem, on April 26, 2019. (THOMAS COEX / AFP)
Orthodox Christians brandish the crown of thorns in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre after they celebrated the Good Friday in a procession on Via Dolorosa in the Old City of Jerusalem, on April 26, 2019. (THOMAS COEX / AFP)
Orthodox Christians from around the world marked Good Friday with a procession through Jerusalem’s Old City, retracing the steps Jesus is said to have taken on the way to his death.
Thousands of pilgrims, many carrying wooden crosses and at least one wearing a crown of thorns on his head, visited the 14 Stations of the Cross marking the traditional sites of Jesus’s condemnation up to his crucifixion.
Armed Israeli police lined the route, along the “Via Dolorosa” or “Way of the Suffering,” which includes points where Jesus is said to have met his mother, fallen several times, been helped in carrying the cross and met the lamenting women of Jerusalem.
The procession ended at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem, built at the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.
Orthodox Christians pray inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre after they celebrated the Good Friday in a procession on Via Dolorosa in the Old City of Jerusalem, on April 26, 2019. (Thomas Coex/AFP)
Western Christians, who follow a different calendar to the Orthodox churches, made the same procession a week earlier.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories
Orthodox Christians enter with wooden Crosses in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as they celebrate the Good Friday in a procession on Via Dolorosa in the Old City of Jerusalem, on April 26, 2019. (Thomas Coex/AFP)
The majority of the Christians in the Holy Land belong to the Orthodox faith but traditionally they do not play a major part in the procession.
Orthodox Christians celebrate the Good Friday in a procession on Via Dolorosa in the Old City of Jerusalem, on April 26, 2019. (Thomas Coex/AFP)An Orthodox Christian man with a crown of thorns on his head enters in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre after they celebrated the Good Friday in a procession on Via Dolorosa in the Old City of Jerusalem, on April 26, 2019. (THOMAS COEX / AFP)Greek Orthodox clergymen address to the worshipers outside of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre after they celebrated the Good Friday in a procession on Via Dolorosa in the Old City of Jerusalem, on April 26, 2019. (THOMAS COEX / AFP)Orthodox Christians from Serbia celebrate the Good Friday in procession on Via Dolorosa in the Old City of Jerusalem, on April 26, 2019. (THOMAS COEX / AFP)
We can't do this work alone.
The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this,please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
