St George’s Monastery in Wadi Qelt
Watercolour and crayon
Charlene Brown
Wadi Qelt, said to be the valley of the shadow of death mentioned in Psalm 23, parallels the old Roman road to Jericho, the backdrop of the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
St George’s Monastery was originally built in about 500 CE, destroyed by the Persians 140 years later, then rebuilt by Crusaders but abandoned after their defeat. Restored by Greek monks in the twentieth century, it is now a site of intense Greek Orthodox pilgrimage.
This picture was originally published on this blog two years ago, in anticipation of a Travel Study program in Israel I planned join in November 2020. Like most plans for 2020, the program was ‘postponed’ to 2021, then 2022. I’m hoping it will happen in 2023.
