On the Road to Ephesus

 Located about 200 miles miles from Istanbul is the Turkish town of Ephesus, Turkey.  It is the place where, according to the Bible, St. Paul was imprisoned and where Mary, the Mother of Jesus is reputed to have lived when she was brought there by  St. John the Evangelist following the Crucifixion..  Some twenty-nine years of excavations have revealed one of the most intact Roman and Greek ruins in the world.. At one time it was the second largest city in the Eastern Mediterranean and the capital of the Roman province of Asia.  Originally a Greek city first built around 1000 BC, it became the chief port on the Aegean Sea with a population of around 290,000. 

Today, the ruins of those ancient civilizations can be seen in a mile-long corridor of a marble road rutted with the wheels of chariots.One of the most impressive of these ruins is the  Library of Celsus. The library was built in honor of the Governor  of the Roman province of Asia between 117 and 125 A.D. Much of the facade of the library remains. Plaster copies of statues which represented the intellectual virtues of wisdom , goodness , thought and knowledge adorn  the niches .

                                                          Library of Celsus
Located nearby is the house of the Virgin Mary. It was discovered by a German nun, Katharina Emmerich in the 19th century. In 1891 the Lazarian priests established   a shrine in honor of the Virgin Mary. It has now become a pilgrimage site for both Muslims and Christians alike. While we were there, we met a nun who was going to come to the United States for a retreat not far from our home. Quite a remarkable coincidence !

                                                         Shrine of the Home of the Virgin Mary - 98C21003B9A74C1E063E7AD9BF9A0C7C