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.
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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)
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