Medieval Melodies at Nativity Church in Bethlehem
The remnants of the oldest known pipe organ have been found, not in some Medieval church in Europe, but at the Church of the Nativity, built over the grotto where Christ was born, in the town of Bethlehem in the Holy Land.
Nativity Church is divided into three ecclesiastical jurisdictions, under the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Armenian Apostolic Church, and Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land, representing the collective interests of the Roman Catholic Church. As with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Bethlehem, a set of complex and detailed rules exists to govern the expansive structure, the foundation of which dates to the fourth century, and with much of the present structure being from the sixth century, making it one of the oldest continuously-functioning churches in the world.
While the Franciscan Custos has the right to hold regular services in the grotto of Nativity Church, the exact place where Christ was born, the Francsicans, the Latin Patriarchate (the local administrative structure of the Catholic church for its mostly Arab-speaking parishes), and the many religious orders that have a presence in the Holy Land administer and use the adjacent Church of Saint Catherine, which shares a common wall with the far more ancient Church of the Nativity, but also includes the underground complex of chapels connected to Saint Jerome, creator of the Vulgate (Latin) Bible, who resided in Bethlehem with his female disciples, Saints Paula and Eustochiam in the fourth century.
The set of twelfth-century pipes and bells that were found during excavations within the complex by the Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land was, without question, used by the Latin-rite Christians who arrived during the time of the Crusades and Latin Kingdom (which lasted from the tenth to twelfth centuries, as neither the Greek Orthodox nor Armenian traditions use pipe organs for liturgical services.
The pipe organ at Bethlehem was most likely brought from France and appears to have been used for over a century before being disassembled and most likely concealed following the end of the Latin Kingdom, in which control over the entire Nativity Church complex returned to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. While far from making a complete organ, the set of pipes and bells that have been discovered are in extraordinarily good condition, so much that a plan to incorporate them into a special functioning organ to be kept by the Franciscan Custos at their monastery of Saint Saviour in the Old City of Jerusalem.
When the project will be completed in 2026, this organ will bring back to life the sounds from not only a bygone era of the Holy Land, but also contain the oldest known functioning pieces of any organ, anywhere in the world, as currently, the oldest playable organ has pipes from the fifteen century (three centuries later), to be found in the fortified Basilica of Valère in Sion, Switzerland.
The secrets of the Holy Land are many, ancient...and are still being discovered!
You can find out more about this exciting discovery from this link, Medieval Pipe Organ Discovered in Nativity Church, or watch the video below!
Journey to the Holy Land!
Good Shepherd Travel offers trips to Nativity Church and Bethlehem as part of our Holy Land comprehensive pilgrimage package along with Jerusalem, Nazareth and the Galilee, the Jordan River, and Jericho. Other popular pilgrimage tours to locations such as Rome, Lourdes, Fatima, and Ireland are also available. For more information on how to begin preparing for a pilgrimage in late 2022 and 2023, contact Good Shepherd Travel owner and manager, Tony AbuAita at Tony@goodshepherdtravel.com.