Church of Eleona, 326-333 CE

The Church of Eleona on the Mount of Olives was initiated in 326 by Helen following her visit to Palestine and was completed in 333. The Eleona Church was a basilica, but one which was placed, according to Christian tradition, over the cave where Jesus and his disciples often met. The church is also referred to as the Church of the Disciples.

During the Crusades in the twelfth century, a chapel called “Pater Noster” (Our Father in Latin) was built by the crusaders on the site of the Eleona Church. This chapel later passed into disuse with the departure of the crusaders and possibly was destroyed in 1187 by Saladin’s armies. In 1874, a convent of Carmelite nuns from France was established on the site of the Pater Noster chapel.

In 1910, the foundations of the original Eleona basilica were discovered by the French, who in the 1920s began construction of a new basilica near the old foundations based upon the model of the Constantinian church. Because funds for the construction soon ran out, the construction was never finished.

See also-

Church on the Mount of Olives (Eleona)