HOLY LAND

HOLY LAND. The term is used infrequently in Scripture (q.v.), for the first time in Zech 2:12, and connotes Palestine, the present territory of Israel-Jordan, and, especially, of the holy city, Jerusalem. It is the land of the Old Testament revelation and of Jesus Christ. Other and later holy places are those locales associated with great ascetic saints (q.v.) such as a monastery, a cave, or a chapel. They can be the scenes of deaths or tombs of noted martyrs (q.v.), as the Vatican in Rome was of Peter and Paul. Evidence does suggest that Christian pilgrimages (q.v.) to the latter site occurred as early as the 2nd c.; but clearly pilgrimage must have been familiar from classical Judaism, which required celebration of the feasts-and all sacrifice-to take place in Jerusalem. Clear evidence of Christian pilgrimages to Palestine does not come until the 4th c. and the changes wrought by Constantine (q.v.), though they might have been earlier. But this is very speculative because of the renovation of the city done by Hadrian, reconstructing the new city as the (pagan) Aelia Capitolina. The theology of holy places derives from the general sacramental understanding of the Orthodox Church: Where the very elements of bread and wine or water and oil may became vehicles of God’s presence in the sacraments of Eucharist, Baptism (qq.v.), Anointing, so may the earth itself be affected through the labors of God’s holy ones and the visitation of his grace (q.v.).