Procession of 'Palms Sunday' entering the Old city of Jerusalem.
The description of the most fateful week in the life of Jesus -- during which He was imprisoned, tried and crucified -- is the major story of all the Gospels. Jesus entered Jerusalem riding the foal of an ass, as befitted the Messiah. Matthew adds: "And all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet, saying:‘Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sittingupon an ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass." (Matthew XXI. The quote is translated from Zachariah IX).
Two disciples brought the foal of an ass from Bethpage, a village on the Eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. From there He began His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Today the Franciscan church of Bethpage, built in 1883, is the starting point of the annual Palm Sunday procession. The church
contains a decorative stone from Crusader times, said to be the stone Jesus stood on to mount the donkey.
