Where Christ Taught the Apostles the Lord’s Prayer at Pater Noster on the Mount of Olives

On the site where tradition held that Jesus Christ taught the 12 disciples the Lord’s Prayer:

“And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.” Luke 11:1-4.

In Luke, this takes place on the Mount of Olives not far from Bethany where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived (see Luke 10). This may also celebrate the place where the Lord taught about the signs of the times and the end of the world in Mark 13:3-37; Matthew 24:3 to 25:46. The teaching of the Lord’s Prayer appears to be a reteaching of the prayer, as it was previously taught in the Sermon on the Mount (on the Mount of Beatitudes) in Matthew 6:9-13 (full instruction on prayer verses 5-13).

A church called the ‘Church of the Disciples and Ascension‘ was first built here in 335 AD by the Roman Emperor Constantine on the spot identified by his mother, Saint Helena. After a time it was nicknamed the Eleona Church (Helena church) by the locals. It was the last of the early three churches built in the Holyland by Constantine, after the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Together they were the ‘big three’ Byzantine churches in the Holyland.

Originally the Church of the Disciples and Ascension complex included what is now a separate facility, The Church/Mosques of the Ascension located only about 50 yards (46 meters) west.

The church was destroyed in the Persian invasion in 614 AD. A modest church was built here by the Crusaders (1099 – 1291 AD), but after the Muslims retook the region from the Crusaders the church gradually disappeared (the stone being robbed and reused elsewhere). After excavations and surveys between 1868 to 1870, a cloister complex was built. The convent of the Carmel of the Pater Noster was founded in 1873 and continues here today under the protection and ownership of France.

Around the cloister and courtyard the Lord’s Prayer is inscribed in 140 languages.