A SINGAPORE SMOM PILGRIMAGE TO THE EXECTION SITE OF ST.JOHN THE BAPTIST, PATRON SAINT OF THE ORDER OF ST.JOHN ,OF JERUSALEM , OF RHODES AND OF MALTA.

Climbing up to the fortress of Herod the Great @ Macchareus ,Jordan ,19th December 2005.

Background history and site

Macchareus ( Arabic for 'sword'), is an ancient fortified hill top fortress of Herod the Great. It was built by the first Hasmonean King Alex Janeus between BC 104 - 78BC. This was destroyed by one of Pompey's generals, but restored by Herod the Great in BC 30. When Herod died in BC 4, his son Herod Antipas took over and ruled till AD 39.

The ancient Romanized Jewish historian of the first century, Josephus Flavus,in his historical account of the Jewish Antiquities and Wars ( AD 66-70,Penguin books) mentioned that this is the location of the imprisonment and the beheading of St. John the Baptist.

Macchareus is a hill , 1,100meters above the Dead Sea, and is surrounded by deep ravines . The west side of the fortress extends to the Dead Sea and the River Jordan on the Jordanian side. It is about 100meters long and 100 meters wide, with an aqueduct which Herod the Great had built ( just like Masada, in Israel).The East side is a steep descent. There were three towers at each end of the fortress. Archeologists found pottery and coins of the Hasmonean and the Roman periods. Some of these pottery , coins are to be found in the Jordanian Archeological Museum at Amman, together with the coins of Alexander the Great and Dead Sea copper scrolls.

Expedition and SMOM Pilgrimage to the Macchareus

On the 18th December 2005, a small contingent of Singapore SMOM members and companions consisting of three Knights of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John , of Rhodes and of Malta( in brief, the Order of Malta) made a special pilgrimage to climb up Macchareus to the site of the beheading of St. John the Baptist. They were led by their Knight Hospitaller Dr. Gabriel Oon, Knight Joe Pillay and Knight Dr. Andrew Kwok .

The purpose of that mission was to study ,explore , and to see the site of the heroic martyrdom of their Patron Saint of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta ( the Order of Malta) , and to understand the Biblical readings of St. John's Mission at the time when he had introduced Jesus , and preached to the Jews and followers of the repentance from sin ( Matthew 3), and later pointed out Jesus, whom he had baptized on the River Jordan (Mark 1,9)

Arriving from Amman, with their guides Anton Farah, and Fadah, they started their climb at about 2pm in the afternoon. The air temperature was cold at +6degrees C, with strong winds. The surrounding area was the Judean desert and bleak.

Photo: Left to right: young boy at the mountainside, Fadah ( Jordanian guide); Knight Joe Pillay; Anton Farah ( Israeli Catholic and archaeological guide) ; Knight Hospitaller Dr.Gabriel Oon; Knight Dr. Andrew Kwok ; Companion of the Order Maria Ho, Companion of the Order Tony Ho.

Both the guides were rich in their knowledge of both the old and new Testaments, and had visited many of these ancient archaeological sites.

Knight Gabriel Oon account: "Our journey began with the Baptism site of Jesus on the Jordan, and then in the afternoon , going on to the hill at Maccahreus in the Judean desert in Jordan"

Photo: the gravel road up Macchareus.

Photo: foot hill of Maccahreus, where we began the climb up.

It was a cold afternoon of about 6 degrees C, when they arrived at the foothill facing the ancient fortress of Herod the Great, who had built this place for his refuge and rest .Their guides informed them of how Herod had made raids down on the rich Nabatheans at Petra, one of the ancient Decapolis. From where we were parked, we could see a shaved off top of a small mountain , of about 3,,000 ft high and Corinthian pillars pointing to the sky.

Photo: Corinthian pillars on top of the Fortress of Herod at Maccahreus.

We started down opposite hill and started up the rocky slope to the foot of the Maccahreus at about 3pm , and the wind was cold. We had our winter clothing on.

Photo: Susie & Gabriel climbing up the sandy and rocky slopes of Macchareus

Knight Gabriel Oon's account :

"As we made our way through the sandy and rocky mountain winding slopes , we started to appreciate the bleakness and the stillness of the Judean desert, when John the Baptist had said " I am the voice in the wilderness... make a straight road for the Lord .." ( John, 1, 23)

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Photo: The Bleakness of the Judean desert from Macchareus . John the Baptist, would say " I am the voice calling out in the wilderness.."(John 1, 23)

After stopping to catch our breath and to appreciate the stillness of the desert, Susie my wife and I then forged ahead.

Photo: resting on the slopes.

Meanwhile, Knight Joe Pillay , Tony Ho and Knight Andrew Kwok had gone ahead. After about a 45 minutes climbed , we were reaching the top of the hill, and the last 100 meters turned out to be a 80degree climb, which required us to use our hands and legs to climb. When we reached the top, we were perspiring , and had to catch our breath.

Photo: Susie & Gabriel arriving at the top. Gabriel carrying the Bible .

The palace of Herod was about 100 meters by 100 meters, and had a commanding view of the whole Judean desert.

Photo: Herod's Palace. Where was it that Salome dance the dance of the seven veils, and where did they jail John the Baptist?

Scattered around us were stone water jars , and Corinthians pillars, some of which had fallen. There was a small cave like room at one end of the Palace, but we felt this was too small to hold John the Baptist.

Photo: Stone wine and water jars at Herod's Palace @ Macchareus.

We then started to read the biblical account of how King Herod Antipas had arrested John the Baptist , and how the daughter of Herodias( the wife of Herod Philippe) , had danced to the pleasure of Herod and his guests , then offered to the girl whatever she wanted .At the instigation of her mother Herodias, who disliked John, she requested for the head of John the Baptist , even though he knew that John was a good and holy man ( Mark, 6, 14-29). In appeasement to his guests, he gave the order for John the Baptist to be beheaded (Mark 6,20-26)

Photo: Knight Joe Pillay reading the Gospel of Mark 6,14-29).

Photo: Knight Dr. Andrew Kwok reading the Gospel of Mark ( 6, 20-26).

As we spent about an hour on top and walked around the top, we saw many wine and stone water jars and wondered what had kept the walls of the palace intact. Perhaps these were made from mud or limestone. But there were no rooms to be seen , and no obvious cells to keep a fugitive or prisoner. But we noticed on our journey up , that there were small caves on the side of the mountains, and wondered whether John the Baptist was incarcerated in one of them .

Photo: Susie pondering at the site of the Palace.

By about 5pm, it was getting dark, but the desert sunset was beautiful , bleak and foreboding .

Photo: Desert sunset at 5pm on top of Macchareus.

ASs evening sunset was fast approaching, we didn't want to be kept up in the freezing weather on top and started to make our way down carefully on the slippery sandy and rocky hillside.

What were our impressions of this place?

It was definitely worth a pilgrimage journey by every member of the Order, to know their ancient heritage, and be at the place their Patron saint, St. John the Baptist, who was martyred for defending the truth. That ground was indeed holy.

There he had defended the Faith and spoke out for the truth .Herod Antipas had committed sin and broken the Ten commandments by committing adultery, by marrying his brother , Philippe's wife. St.John was prepared to die for this believe and to voice his opinion in public.

As Knights and Dames, we too have to defend the Faith , even at times to the lost of our lives , just as many forefathers of the Order did.

Secondly, in the silence of the Desert, we found that Man could converse with God in the silence of the desert. Today , the origins of our silence in retreat are derived from these desert experience of our forefathers of Faith.

We did this conversation with God ,many times when we said our rosary on the top of Herod's fortress.

In the 'desert ' and in the silence, we can more easily converse with Abba , our God , our Creator.