Holy Sepulchre

Words: 641
Pages: 3

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is embodied as an interrelated space through its relationship to the change of imperial policy from Hadrian to Constantine. Tweed explains that “political processes, social relations, and economic forces mark religious spaces, and, therefore, they are sites where power is negotiated as meaning is made” (Tweed 120). During his rule, Hadrian attempted to transform the military garrison that was left of Jerusalem into a Hellenistic modern metropolis called Aelia Capitolina. The new city would bear his own middle name, Aelius, as well as honor the gods of the Capitol in Rome. (Armstrong 161) He began an ambitious building program to construct the city in the likeness of a Roman city, complete with the Temple of …show more content…
In constructing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Constantine was not only giving establishing Christianity’s roots in Jerusalem, but also giving the religion the imperial backing of Rome and paving the way for Christianity to become the official religion of Rome. Armstrong writes that “Constantine had taken possession of the center point of Roman Aelia and transformed it into a Christian holy place” (K. Armstrong 182). When the pilgrims visited Golgotha, they were also indirectly connecting with the imperial Byzantine power. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was fully funded by the Roman Empire and was representative of the economic and political might of the Romans in Jerusalem. A transformative, positive experience in Byzantine Jerusalem portrayed the Roman rulers in a favorable way in the eyes of Christian pilgrims. Additionally, Helena, Constantine’s mother, visited Jerusalem on a pilgrim journey throughout her son’s empire. She had arrived during the unearthing of the tomb of Jesus and participated in the festivities and celebrations, and is even portrayed by popular myth to have discovered the True Cross on which Jesus was