On Tuesday morning, January 9/22, 2019, His Beatitude our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos consecrated the Stocks (vinculis) chapel and of Jesus’ Prison at the north part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. A very old tradition of the Church witnesses that our Lord was imprisoned in the place of this chapel after he had been at Praetorion and marched through Via Dolorosa carrying the Cross towards Golgotha. Christ had been kept in this prison until the soldiers put up the Cross, on which He was willingly crucified for our salvation.
This chapel which is under the exclusive property and usage of the Greek Orthodox faithful has been totally and beautifully renovated in the last few years by the funding of Mr. Boris Kaoufman and his wife from Ukraine.
On the occasion of the completion of the renovation His Beatitude blessed the area with sanctified water, at the presence of the Most Reverend Archbishop Isidoros of Hierapolis, the Fathers who minister at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Geronda Secretary-General Most Reverend Archbishop Aristarchos of Constantina, the Master of Ceremonies Archimandrite Bartholomew and the supervisor of the renovation and architect of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre Dr. Theodosios Mitropoulos.
His Beatitude thanked the wife and daughter of the donor who were present and offered them an icon of the renovated Edicule of the All-holy Tomb.
