St John tells us that at the Sheep gate in Jerusalem is a pool with five porches. A healing pool.
Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids-blind, lame, and paralyzed. One
man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"
The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me." Jesus said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk." At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, "It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat." But he answered them, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Take up your mat and walk.'" They asked
him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take it up and walk'?" Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared
in the crowd that was there. John 5:2-12
The first of the pools was built in the C8th BC. Water was channeled to the City of David. The name Bethesda may be translated as - House of Mercy.
According to a Byzantine tradition St Anne’s Church is built over the home of the Virgin Mary and her parents Joachim and Anne.
present Church dates from about 1135. Excavations reveal the remains of an earlier church and healing pools.
Sanctuary
It has been described as the loveliest Church in Jerusalem
St Anne and Mary
