The Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, known as the “Spanish chapel”, was inaugurated this Wednesday, January 14 in Beit Sahour, on the hill of the Shepherds’ Field, on the outskirts of Bethlehem, with a Mass presided over by Emilio Rocha, Archbishop of Tangier, and concelebrated by the Custodian of the Holy Land, Francesco Ielpo, as reported by Alfa y Omega.
The project—promoted from Spain and linked to the Custody of the Holy Land—was approved in 2018 and has come to fruition after more than five years marked by the pandemic and the war. The initiative has been entirely financed with donations from Spain and in 2022 the artistic ensemble of the presbytery was commissioned to the artist Miguel Ángel Laguna.
“A dream come true”
Luis Quintana, representative in Spain of the Custodian of the Holy Land, has explained that the inauguration culminates a construction process that has lasted more than five years since the start of the collection of donations. In his view, “it is a pride” that Spain has in the Holy Land a celebratory space open to all, linked to Immaculate Mary and to the shepherds of Bethlehem, and he has described the inauguration as “a dream come true”.
The celebration was attended by the Consul General of Spain in Jerusalem, Javier Gutiérrez, the deputy consul Luis Pertuso, and a group of Spanish pilgrims.
A presbytery centered on the Immaculate
The presbytery articulates its message around the Immaculate, represented in a mystical almond according to Franciscan iconography, with the Child Jesus in her arms and the moon and the serpent at her feet. Around the central figure are arranged 20 circular icons that compose an vía matris of Marian shrines in the Holy Land.
On one of the sides appears the Spanish people venerating Mary, with figures such as Apostle James or Saint Ferdinand III, under the inscription tota pulchra es Maria. On the other, the Franciscan Family, with the martyrs of Damascus, alongside the phrase tu gloria Hierusalem.
The ensemble is completed with a bronze medallion of the embrace of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne on the altar, a lily in the ambo as a symbol of Mary’s virginity, a way of the cross with relics from the Via Dolorosa, and an entrance door that recreates a starry sky with the inscription “Glory to God in heaven”.