Happy Easter!
As we moved through Lent, anticipating Easter, I figured that here in Turkey, where Christians are the minority, Tim and I would have to celebrate on our own, creating joy beyond the reach of a faith community. I couldn’t have been more wrong!
léas (n): ray of light; light, radiance; beam, streak (of light); gleam, glimmer
Palm Sunday
We showed up for 10 AM Mass on Palm Sunday to find the Church’s gates locked, and a choir was practicing in the courtyard. Tim knocked and asked through the slats. Mass had been moved to 11:30 AM and would be bilingual – in Turkish and English. Though there were usually two Masses each Sunday, one in each language, the whole parish would be coming together for this celebration.
As we waited, we walked along the harbor, watching the sun rise further, reflecting off the water and warming the day. We ignored the restaurant owners trying to draw people in for breakfast and instead selected something from the bread cart – Tim got a bread roll stuffed with what may have been sujuk sausage (it wasn’t his favorite; the sweet bread didn’t mix with the savory meat), and I was a bit more indulgent, selecting an İzmir bombası, a shortbread-ish stuffed cookie (but VERY thin) stuffed with chocolate hazelnut spread. 😋And then we headed back to church.
Instead of palms, they blessed olive branches, and we were led in a procession around the church. Since we were at the cathedral, the bishop celebrated Mass. A beautiful choir made it an extra-joyous occasion; they sang in Latin and Turkish.
After Mass, we talked to the choir director. Only some of its members were parishioners; the rest were from the greater İzmir community, and they just loved to sing and were happy to participate in our Mass in this way. We both really appreciate that they enjoy sharing their gifts regardless of the differences in religion and language.
On the way home, we picked up a stem of Asiatic lilies with four blossoms. We’ve been enjoying their sweet scent all week. There’s only one bloom left today, but we’ll have been able to enjoy their full beauty before we head to Cappadocia on Wednesday.
Holy Thursday
Because we work in the evenings due to time zone differences, we were unable to attend Holy Thursday Mass. Yet, in the course of the day, we found moments of reflection, and after my long busy week, I was able to make some much-needed time in my schedule to be present and attentive to Tim. It turns out that was something we both needed.
Good Friday
Good Friday was also Tim’s birthday (he’s 25 now!), so I got up early to grab him a pastry from the bakery next door before he woke up! And after a slow morning reading together, we packed up the hiking backpack and set out for Selçuk.
From the train station, we hiked up the hill past Ephesus and then kept going and going. Our goal was Meryemana – the House of the Virgin Mary. We followed the road up the mountain without knowing how far we had to go. When we turned off the main road through Selçuk, the sign said 6km. Maybe half a mile down that road, it said 7. When we got to Ephesus, it said 5. And when we got to the golden statue of Mary, the sign once again said 6. 🤔 Oh, well. We just knew we had to get to the top.
When Jesus died on the cross, he entrusted his mother to St. John. So, when John came to Ephesus, it is believed that Mary came with him. In the late 1700s, Anna Katharina Emmerick, a German nun who had been bedridden for years, had a vision of the Virgin Mary’s house. She described it in great detail. What she saw was published after her death in a book, The Life of Mary According to the Revelations of Anna Katharina Emmerick. Using this book, some archeologists, led by Lazarist Priest Father Jung, searched for the location of Mary’s house and discovered the place on July 29, 1891. It was an exact match to Emmerick’s descriptions.
Archeological research revealed that the building may have been from the 7th AD century, but its foundations could be traced back to the 1st. The remains of the house were not in good shape, so in 1950, renovation works began, and a chapel now stands on the site.
After walking through the small chapel, collecting water from the spring, and adding our prayers to the prayer wall, we attended the Good Friday service with a small community of visitors and regular parishioners.
After the service, since it was now 7 PM, we approached some of the parishioners to ask if we could get a ride back to town – we did not wish to walk back in the dark. An Irish woman traveling with a group on a minibus asked the driver if he wouldn’t mind a couple of extra passengers. He agreed, and in the 15 minutes it took to get back to Selçuk, it felt like we had known these people from Ireland, the UK, California, and Switzerland for a few days. We traded stories and laughed the whole way down the hill.
Even though it was Good Friday, we were feeling celebratory and blessed, so we grabbed some blueberry Turkish ice cream before getting the train home.
Near Ephesus is also the cave of the Seven Sleepers (which we visited on our first trip to Selçuk). The story:
Around 250 AD, seven young men were accused of being Christians during Roman persecutions. Refusing to give up their faith, they gave their worldly possessions to the poor and retreated to a mountain cave to pray, and they fell asleep there. Since they had not renounced Christianity, the order was given that the mouth of the cave be sealed.
Two hundred years later, a farmer opened the cave, intending to use it as a cattle pen, and found the sleepers inside. They awoke, thinking they had only been asleep a single day, and sent one of their number to Ephesus to buy food. When he arrived in the city, he found crosses affixed to buildings, and shopkeepers were confused by the outdated coins he was using. The bishop was summoned to interview the seven; they told their story and then died, praising God.
Though the locals claim this cave as the one from the story, others claim the seven sleepers were in Damascus, Syria, and Afşin and Tarsus, Turkey, and Amman, Jordan. So, who knows. A similar version of the story is told in Islam.
Holy Saturday
Because one hike is never enough for Tim, he signed up for a mountain trek with the İzmir ex-pat group. 😄 We met at the Balçova Thermal Baths and headed into the mountains that rose behind the complex. It was a good uphill hike, and we met and talked with people along the way. This was our second hike with the group, and we met a whole new set of people this time. There are people from Russia, Turkey, Belarus, Hungary, Wales, Iran, and possibly other countries as well. We seem to be the only Americans, though, which makes us popular among them. What better way to practice English than with native speakers?
We departed from the group on the way down so we could pick up the pace to catch the bus and make it home to get ready for the Easter Vigil. The journey home was tight, and we got stuck in the evening traffic, so we rushed through hamburgers, a bottle of lemonade, showers, and changed to make the 7 PM bus that would take us back into city centre.
It was all worth it, though, because we were blessed with a beautiful sunset!
Mass was beautiful. The Orthodox patriarch was in attendance until the Gloria, when he “slipped” out (his shoes squeaked all the way to the door), and the choir was back! They had the Vigil fire, left the lights off until the Gloria, read 4 of the 7 readings (two in English and two in Turkish), and doused us with holy water. The choir director sang the Exsultet and the litany in Latin – and for the litany, they intentionally included some of Turkey’s famous saints. Everything went off without a hitch (except for the elderly lady who caught her candle wax catcher on fire 😳).
Easter Sunday
We slept in and awoke to a beautiful sunny day. Tim made us eggs for breakfast. We’re going to pick up a miniature cake from the bakery and get a freshly roasted chicken for Easter dinner.
It’s been a wonderful Holy Week, and we found joy in the celebration on our own AND in community, making it a very special season here in the home of the early Church.
We hope that your Easter is as blessed as ours has been!
Holy Week mile count: 27.9 miles
Mile count so far: 1177.5 miles
Next stop: Gallipoli
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