# FaithonMaps

> An interactive map of Christian faith stories: biblical sites, saints, church history and pilgrim journeys, pinned to the places where they happened. Bilingual (English and Dutch). Made by EmielLabs.dev. https://faithonmaps.com/

Each place has a short introduction, sources (Bible references and Wikipedia), a photo and a link to Google Maps. Every place has its own page: https://faithonmaps.com/place/<id> (Dutch: /nl/plek/<id>), and an overview at https://faithonmaps.com/places.

## Places (109)

- [Mount Ararat](https://faithonmaps.com/place/ararat) – Turkey, Primeval history. Where Noah's ark came to rest. After the flood, Genesis says, the ark came to rest 'on the mountains of Ararat', the ancient land of Urartu. Noah sent out a raven and then a dove, which came back with a fresh olive leaf: a sign that new life had begun. God then set the rainbow in the clouds as a promise never again to destroy the earth by a flood. Today the snow-capped volcano rises above the plain near the borders of Turkey, Armenia and Iran, and is a symbol of Armenia.
- [Ur](https://faithonmaps.com/place/ur) – Iraq, c. 2000 BC. Where Abraham's journey began. Abraham's story begins in Ur, a rich Sumerian city on the Euphrates, usually identified with the 'Ur of the Chaldeans' in Genesis. From here his father Terah set out with Abraham, Sarah and Lot towards Canaan, a land they had never seen. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all trace their story back to this departure. Today the ruins lie in the desert of southern Iraq, where archaeologists found royal tombs full of gold in the 1920s.
- [Harran](https://faithonmaps.com/place/harran) – Turkey, c. 2000 BC. Abraham's stopover. On their way from Ur, Abraham's family settled in Harran, in what is now south-eastern Turkey. Here his father Terah died, and here, at the age of 75, Abraham heard the call: 'Go to the land I will show you.' He left his security behind and became the man of faith whom Jews, Christians and Muslims call their father. Today you can walk among the ruins of the old city, next to a village that still lives here.
- [Cave of the Patriarchs](https://faithonmaps.com/place/hebron) – Hebron, c. 1850 BC. Tomb of Abraham and Sarah. When Sarah died, Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah here as a family grave: the first piece of the promised land he ever owned. Later Abraham himself, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah were buried here too. That makes the place holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims, who all call Abraham their father. Today believers of different faiths still come to pray at the memorial tombs above the cave.
- [Rachel's Tomb](https://faithonmaps.com/place/rachel) – Bethlehem, c. 1750 BC. Where Jacob buried his beloved. Jacob's beloved wife Rachel died on the road to Bethlehem while giving birth to her second son, Benjamin. Jacob buried her by the roadside and set up a pillar on her grave. Centuries later the prophet Jeremiah pictured Rachel weeping for her children, words that Matthew recalls at the birth of Jesus. Today the domed tomb at the entrance of Bethlehem lies behind high walls and is a place of prayer, especially for Jewish women.
- [Crossing of the Red Sea](https://faithonmaps.com/place/redsea) – Egypt, c. 1250 BC. The sea parts for Israel. With Pharaoh's chariots closing in, the Israelites stood trapped between the army and the water. Moses stretched out his hand, a strong east wind blew all night, and the people crossed on dry ground. On the other side Miriam took her tambourine and sang, one of the oldest songs in the Bible. Where exactly it happened is not known; this pin marks one of the places suggested, near the Gulf of Suez.
- [Mount Sinai](https://faithonmaps.com/place/sinai) – Egypt, c. 1250 BC. The Ten Commandments. After the exodus from Egypt, the people of Israel camped at the foot of the mountain of God. Moses climbed it in thunder and smoke and came back with the Ten Commandments: words for a freed people to live with God and with each other. Since the 4th century Christians have identified this peak, Jebel Musa, as that mountain. Today many pilgrims climb its 3,750 'Steps of Repentance' in the dark to see the sunrise from the top.
- [Mount Nebo](https://faithonmaps.com/place/nebo) – Jordan, c. 1210 BC. Moses sees the Promised Land. After forty years in the desert, Moses climbed this mountain and looked out over the land God had promised. He was not allowed to enter it himself: he died here, God buried him, and no one knows where his grave is. His task was not to arrive, but to bring his people to the threshold. Today, from the terrace by the Memorial Church of Moses, you can see the Jordan valley, Jericho and, on a clear day, Jerusalem.
- [Jericho](https://faithonmaps.com/place/jericho) – West Bank, c. 1200 BC. The walls come tumbling down. Jericho was the first city the Israelites reached after crossing the Jordan. For six days they marched around it in silence, on the seventh day seven times; then the trumpets sounded, the people shouted and the walls fell. Earlier Rahab had hidden the spies here, a woman who is later named among the ancestors of Jesus. Today you can climb the excavated mound of ancient Jericho, Tell es-Sultan, with a Stone Age tower that is among the oldest buildings known.
- [Valley of Elah](https://faithonmaps.com/place/elah) – Israel, c. 1020 BC. David and Goliath. In this valley the army of Israel faced the Philistines, and every day the giant Goliath shouted his challenge. The young shepherd David, who had only come to bring food to his brothers, went out with his sling, five smooth stones and his trust in God. One stone was enough. Today the valley is quiet farmland, and above it lie the excavated walls of Khirbet Qeiyafa, a fortified town from around David's time.
- [Mount Carmel](https://faithonmaps.com/place/carmel) – Israel, c. 860 BC. Elijah and the fire from heaven. In a time of drought the prophet Elijah challenged the 450 prophets of Baal on this mountain: the god who answered with fire would be the true God. Baal's prophets danced and shouted all day without an answer. Elijah prayed a short prayer, and fire from the Lord burned up his offering, even though it had been soaked with water. Today the Carmelite monastery of Deir al-Muhraqa stands on the traditional spot, with a wide view over the Jezreel valley.
- [Nineveh](https://faithonmaps.com/place/nineveh) – Mosul, Iraq, c. 760 BC. Jonah's unwilling mission. Nineveh was the great capital of Assyria, the empire that would later destroy the northern kingdom of Israel. When God sent Jonah to warn the city, he fled the other way by ship and ended up in the belly of a great fish. When he finally preached here, the whole city repented, and Jonah was angry that God showed mercy to his enemies. Today the remains of Nineveh's walls and gates lie on the east bank of the Tigris, inside the city of Mosul.
- [Babylon](https://faithonmaps.com/place/babylon) – Iraq, 586 BC. Exile, the fiery furnace and the lions' den. After Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed in 586 BC, many Jews were taken into exile here. By the rivers of Babylon they sat down and wept, yet here too Daniel and his friends stayed faithful, even in the fiery furnace and the lions' den. In exile the people discovered that God was not bound to one land or one temple. Today the ruins lie near the town of Hillah in Iraq, partly rebuilt in the 1980s, and are on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
- [Susa](https://faithonmaps.com/place/susa) – Iran, c. 480 BC. Queen Esther saves her people. In the Persian royal city of Susa, the young Jewish woman Esther became queen. When the official Haman plotted to destroy all the Jews of the empire, her cousin Mordecai told her: 'Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?' Esther risked her life by going to the king uninvited, and her people were saved, which Jews still celebrate at Purim. Today the ruins of the palace lie beside the Iranian town of Shush.
- [Qumran](https://faithonmaps.com/place/qumran) – West Bank, c. 100 BC, found 1947. The Dead Sea Scrolls. In 1947 a Bedouin shepherd threw a stone into a cave above the Dead Sea and heard pottery break. Inside were jars with scrolls hidden about 2,000 years ago, probably by a Jewish community that lived here. In the following years some 900 manuscripts were found in eleven caves, including parts of almost every book of the Hebrew Bible. Today you can walk through the excavated settlement and look up at the caves; the scrolls themselves are kept in the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem.
- [Nazareth](https://faithonmaps.com/place/nazareth) – Israel, c. 5 BC. The angel visits Mary. Nazareth was an unimportant village in Galilee: 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?' someone asked. Here the angel Gabriel told a young woman named Mary that she would bear the Son of God, and she answered: 'Let it be to me according to your word.' Jesus grew up here as the son of Joseph the carpenter. Today the Basilica of the Annunciation, one of the largest churches in the Middle East, is built over the grotto remembered as Mary's home.
- [Bethlehem](https://faithonmaps.com/place/bethlehem) – West Bank, c. 4 BC. The birth of Jesus. In the small town of King David, Jesus was born and laid in a manger, because there was no room for them. The first to hear were shepherds in the fields: the news came to ordinary people first. In the 4th century Emperor Constantine built a church over the cave where Christians remembered the birth. Today a silver star in that grotto, under the Church of the Nativity, marks the spot.
- [Abu Serga, Cairo](https://faithonmaps.com/place/cairo) – Egypt, c. 3 BC. The Holy Family's refuge in Egypt. To escape King Herod, Joseph fled by night with Mary and the child Jesus to Egypt, the land where Israel had once been enslaved. Coptic Christians remember a long route of places where the Holy Family is said to have rested on their journey. This church in Old Cairo, dedicated to the soldier saints Sergius and Bacchus, is one of the most important. Today you can go down into its crypt, where Copts believe the family stayed.
- [Baptism Site on the Jordan](https://faithonmaps.com/place/jordan) – Jordan, c. 28 AD. Jesus is baptised by John. John the Baptist called people to turn back to God and be baptised in the Jordan. Jesus, who had nothing to confess, joined the line too. As he came up out of the water, the Spirit came down on him like a dove and a voice said: 'You are my beloved Son.' Today you can visit the excavated Byzantine churches and baptism pools of Al-Maghtas, on the Jordanian bank of the river.
- [Kana](https://faithonmaps.com/place/cana) – Israel, c. 28 AD. Water into wine. At a village wedding in Cana the wine ran out, a real disgrace for the family. Mary told the servants: 'Do whatever he tells you.' Jesus had six large stone jars filled with water, and it became the best wine of the feast, the first of his signs. Today the village of Kafr Kanna near Nazareth has a Franciscan wedding church; another site, Khirbet Qana, is also put forward as the real Cana.
- [Jacob's Well](https://faithonmaps.com/place/jacobswell) – Nablus, c. 29 AD. Jesus and the Samaritan woman. At midday Jesus sat down, tired, at the well that Jacob had dug, and asked a Samaritan woman for a drink. Jews and Samaritans did not talk to each other, and a teacher did not speak with a woman alone, yet he offered her 'living water'. She ran back to her town to tell everyone she might have met the Messiah. Today the well lies in the crypt of a Greek Orthodox church in Nablus, completed in 2007.
- [Capernaum](https://faithonmaps.com/place/capernaum) – Israel, c. 30 AD. The town of Jesus. When Jesus left Nazareth, he made this fishing village on the Sea of Galilee his home base. Here he called the fishermen Peter and Andrew, James and John, taught in the synagogue and healed many sick people, among them Peter's mother-in-law. Friends even lowered a paralysed man through the roof to reach him. Today you can walk among the ruins of the village and the white limestone synagogue from the 4th or 5th century, built on the foundations of an older one.
- [Mount of Beatitudes](https://faithonmaps.com/place/beatitudes) – Israel, c. 30 AD. The Sermon on the Mount. On a hillside above the lake, Jesus sat down and taught the crowds what we call the Sermon on the Mount. He called the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek and the peacemakers 'blessed', turning the values of the world upside down. Here he also taught his followers the Lord's Prayer. Today a quiet church from 1938, with a view over the Sea of Galilee, stands on the traditional spot.
- [Tabgha](https://faithonmaps.com/place/tabgha) – Israel, c. 30 AD. Five loaves and two fish. A large crowd had followed Jesus to a quiet place by the lake, and evening came with nothing to eat. A boy's five loaves and two fish were all there was, but Jesus gave thanks, broke the bread, and everyone ate until they were full. Twelve baskets of leftovers were gathered. Today the Church of the Multiplication stands here, rebuilt in 1982 on the foundations of a Byzantine church.
- [Magdala](https://faithonmaps.com/place/magdala) – Israel, c. 30 AD. Home town of Mary Magdalene. Magdala was a busy fishing town on the Sea of Galilee, known for salting fish. Mary Magdalene came from here: Jesus freed her from seven demons, and she followed him and supported his work. She stayed at the cross when others fled, and on Easter morning she was the first to meet the risen Jesus. Today you can visit the excavated town and its 1st-century synagogue, next to a modern church with an altar shaped like a boat.
- [Mount Tabor](https://faithonmaps.com/place/tabor) – Israel, c. 30 AD. The Transfiguration. Jesus took Peter, James and John up a high mountain to pray. His face shone like the sun, his clothes became dazzling white, and Moses and Elijah talked with him; a voice from a cloud said: 'This is my beloved Son, listen to him.' The Gospels do not name the mountain, but since the 4th century Christians have remembered it here on Mount Tabor. Today a winding road leads up to the Franciscan Church of the Transfiguration on the summit.
- [Bethany](https://faithonmaps.com/place/bethany) – West Bank, c. 30 AD. Lazarus raised from the dead. In this village near Jerusalem Jesus often stayed with his friends Martha, Mary and Lazarus. When Lazarus died, Jesus came four days later, and at the grave he wept. Then he called: 'Lazarus, come out!', and the dead man walked out of the tomb. Today you can go down narrow steps into the traditional tomb of Lazarus in al-Eizariya.
- [The Upper Room](https://faithonmaps.com/place/cenacle) – Jerusalem, c. 30 AD. The Last Supper and Pentecost. On the night before he died, Jesus shared a last Passover meal with his disciples, washed their feet and gave them bread and wine: 'Do this in remembrance of me.' Fifty days after Easter the disciples were together in an upper room when the Holy Spirit came on them like wind and fire. Christians have remembered both events here on Mount Zion since early times. Today you can stand in a vaulted Gothic hall from the Middle Ages, built where earlier churches stood.
- [Garden of Gethsemane](https://faithonmaps.com/place/gethsemane) – Jerusalem, c. 30 AD. The night before the cross. After the last meal Jesus went with his disciples to this olive garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives. In deep anguish he prayed: 'Not my will, but yours be done', while his friends fell asleep. Then Judas arrived with soldiers and betrayed him with a kiss. Today the Church of All Nations, built in 1924 with gifts from many countries, stands beside the old olive trees.
- [Church of the Holy Sepulchre](https://faithonmaps.com/place/sepulchre) – Jerusalem, c. 30 AD. Crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus was crucified on a rock just outside the city walls of that time and buried in a new tomb in a garden nearby. On the third day the tomb was found empty, the heart of the Christian faith. In the 4th century Emperor Constantine built a church over both places, which Christians had remembered until then. Today pilgrims climb to the rock of Golgotha inside the church and queue to enter the small shrine over the tomb, the Edicule.
- [Emmaus](https://faithonmaps.com/place/emmaus) – Israel, c. 30 AD. Hearts burning on the road. On the evening of Easter day two disappointed disciples walked home to Emmaus. A stranger joined them and explained the Scriptures, and at the table he broke the bread: then they recognised Jesus, and he was gone. 'Did not our hearts burn within us?' they said, and hurried back to Jerusalem that same night. Several places claim to be Emmaus; this pin marks Emmaus Nicopolis, where the ruins of a Byzantine and a Crusader church can be seen.
- [Straight Street, Damascus](https://faithonmaps.com/place/damascus) – Syria, c. 34 AD. Saul becomes Paul. Saul was on his way to Damascus to arrest followers of Jesus when a light from heaven blinded him and a voice asked: 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' For three days he could not see. Then Ananias, though afraid of him, came to a house on Straight Street, laid his hands on him and called him 'brother'. Today the long street still crosses the old city from the Roman East Gate, and a chapel nearby is honoured as the house of Ananias.
- [Caesarea Maritima](https://faithonmaps.com/place/caesarea) – Israel, c. 40 AD. The first non-Jewish believer. King Herod built Caesarea as a splendid Roman port city, and it became the seat of the Roman governors. Here Peter visited the officer Cornelius and baptised him and his household, the first non-Jews to join the church: 'God shows no partiality.' Later Paul was held prisoner here for two years, until he appealed to the emperor. Today you can see the Roman theatre, the hippodrome and the remains of Herod's harbour along the sea.
- [Antioch](https://faithonmaps.com/place/antioch) – Antakya, Turkey, c. 40 AD. Where they were first called Christians. When persecution broke out in Jerusalem, believers fled to Antioch, then one of the largest cities of the Roman Empire, and began telling Greeks about Jesus as well. Here the disciples were first called 'Christians'. The church in Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas out on the first missionary journeys. Today you can visit the cave church of St Peter in the hillside above Antakya, a city badly hit by the earthquake of 2023.
- [Philippi](https://faithonmaps.com/place/philippi) – Greece, c. 49 AD. Lydia and the singing prisoners. Philippi was a Roman colony on the main road across Macedonia. Outside the gate, by the river, Paul met a group of women at prayer; Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, believed and was baptised, the first known Christian in Europe. Later Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into prison, yet they sang hymns at midnight until an earthquake opened the doors. Today you can walk through the forum, the theatre and the early Christian basilicas of this UNESCO World Heritage site.
- [Areopagus, Athens](https://faithonmaps.com/place/athens) – Greece, c. 50 AD. Paul and the unknown god. In Athens Paul was troubled by the many idols, but he also noticed an altar 'to an unknown god'. On this rock hill, where the city council once met, he told the philosophers about the God who made the world and is not far from any of us. Some laughed, but a few believed, among them Dionysius, a member of the council, and a woman named Damaris. Today you can climb the worn marble rock and look out over the ancient Agora, with the Acropolis right behind you.
- [House of the Virgin Mary](https://faithonmaps.com/place/marysHouse) – near Ephesus, Turkey, c. 50 AD, found 1891. Mary's last home?. On the cross Jesus entrusted his mother to the disciple John: 'Here is your mother.' According to one tradition John later took Mary with him to Ephesus, where she spent her last years in a small house on a wooded hill; other traditions place her last home in Jerusalem. Popes Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI all came here to pray. Today the small restored stone chapel lies among the trees, and below it pilgrims leave their prayers on a wall of paper and cloth.
- [Corinth](https://faithonmaps.com/place/corinth) – Greece, c. 51 AD. The chapter on love. Corinth was a rich and lively port city between two seas. Paul stayed here for a year and a half, making tents with the Jewish couple Priscilla and Aquila and building up a church of people from every class. Later he wrote them letters full of advice about quarrels and gifts, including the famous words: 'Love is patient, love is kind.' Today you can walk among the ruins of the ancient city below the steep rock of Acrocorinth, where seven columns of the Temple of Apollo still stand.
- [Ephesus](https://faithonmaps.com/place/ephesus) – Turkey, c. 54 AD. Paul and the riot of the silversmiths. Ephesus was one of the greatest cities of the Roman world and home to the huge temple of Artemis. Paul lived and taught here for more than two years, and so many people turned away from idols that the silversmith Demetrius stirred up a riot. For two hours the crowd in the theatre shouted: 'Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!' Today Ephesus is one of the best-preserved ancient cities, with its marble streets and the Library of Celsus.
- [St Paul's Bay](https://faithonmaps.com/place/malta) – Malta, c. 60 AD. Shipwrecked on Malta. On his way to Rome as a prisoner, Paul's ship was caught in a storm for fourteen days and ran aground off Malta. All 276 people on board reached land alive. The islanders showed them unusual kindness; Paul shook off a viper unharmed and healed the father of Publius, the chief official of the island. Today a statue of Paul stands on St Paul's Islands at the mouth of the bay, the traditional place of the shipwreck.
- [St Peter's Basilica](https://faithonmaps.com/place/rome) – Vatican City, c. 64 AD. The tomb of Peter. Peter, the fisherman to whom Jesus said 'feed my sheep', came to Rome and, according to early tradition, died here as a martyr under Emperor Nero, around 64 AD. He was buried in a cemetery on the Vatican hill, and in the 4th century Constantine built a basilica over his grave. Today's basilica, with Michelangelo's dome, was built in the 16th and 17th centuries. Its high altar stands directly above the place honoured as his tomb.
- [St Paul Outside the Walls](https://faithonmaps.com/place/stpaulwalls) – Rome, Italy, c. 65 AD. The tomb of Paul. Paul, who had carried the gospel across the Roman world, was beheaded near Rome under Emperor Nero, according to early tradition. He was buried along the road to Ostia, and Constantine built a church over his grave that was later enlarged into a great basilica. After a fire in 1823 it was rebuilt in the same form. Today you can see his sarcophagus below the altar, and a long row of portraits of every pope along the walls.
- [San Thome, Chennai](https://faithonmaps.com/place/chennai) – India, c. 72 AD. Thomas, apostle to India. Thomas, the apostle who doubted until he could touch Jesus' wounds, is said to have taken the gospel as far as India. Indian Christians have long told that he founded churches in Kerala and died as a martyr near Chennai in 72 AD. The Christians of Kerala still call themselves Saint Thomas Christians. Today the white neo-Gothic San Thome Basilica, rebuilt in 1896, stands over the tomb honoured as his.
- [Patmos](https://faithonmaps.com/place/patmos) – Greece, c. 95 AD. John's vision of the end. Towards the end of the 1st century John was banished to this small rocky island 'because of the word of God'. On the Lord's day he heard a loud voice like a trumpet and saw the visions written down in the Book of Revelation, ending with a new heaven and a new earth. Christians have honoured a cave halfway up the hill as the place where it happened. Today you can visit that Cave of the Apocalypse, with the split in the rock that pilgrims link to the voice of God.
- [Catacombs of St Callixtus](https://faithonmaps.com/place/catacombs) – Rome, Italy, 2nd – 4th century. Underground city of the dead. Roman law forbade burials inside the city, so Christians dug kilometres of tunnels in the soft rock outside Rome to bury their dead together. Rich and poor lay side by side, and on the walls they painted signs of hope: the fish, the dove, the anchor and the Good Shepherd. The catacombs were cemeteries and places of remembrance, not secret hiding places. Today guides take you down into the Catacombs of St Callixtus, along the old Appian Way.
- [Cave of the Seven Sleepers](https://faithonmaps.com/place/sleepers) – Ephesus, Turkey, c. 250 AD. Asleep for two centuries. During a persecution under Emperor Decius, seven young Christians from Ephesus hid in a cave and fell asleep. According to the story they woke almost two centuries later, when the empire had become Christian, and their return showed people that God raises the dead. From the 5th century the story was told all over the Christian world. Today you can see the excavated cave complex, with hundreds of graves, on the slope of Mount Pion near the ancient city.
- [Monastery of St Anthony](https://faithonmaps.com/place/anthony) – Egypt, c. 270 – 356. The father of monks. In church the young Egyptian Anthony heard Jesus' words: 'Go, sell what you have and give to the poor.' He did exactly that, and moved ever deeper into the desert to live in prayer. People came to him for advice, and thousands followed his example: he is called the father of monks. Today the Coptic monastery at the foot of his mountain welcomes visitors, and you can climb up to the cave where he lived.
- [Etchmiadzin](https://faithonmaps.com/place/etchmiadzin) – Armenia, 301. The first Christian nation. Gregory the Illuminator was thrown into a deep pit for years by King Tiridates III for refusing to worship the old gods. When Gregory was freed and healed the king, Tiridates was baptised, and Armenia became the first nation to make Christianity its state religion, traditionally in 301. Gregory saw a vision of Christ coming down from heaven, which gave the place its name: 'where the Only-Begotten descended'. Today Etchmiadzin Cathedral is the seat of the Catholicos, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
- [Nicaea](https://faithonmaps.com/place/nicaea) – İznik, Turkey, 325. The Nicene Creed. In 325 Emperor Constantine gathered about 300 bishops at Nicaea for the first council of the whole church. They argued about the teaching of Arius, who said the Son of God was created, and confessed that Jesus is 'true God from true God, of one being with the Father'. The creed that grew from it is still said by Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christians. Today İznik is a small town by a lake, with old walls and the former Hagia Sophia church, where the seventh council met in 787.
- [Myra](https://faithonmaps.com/place/myra) – Demre, Turkey, 4th century. Saint Nicholas. Nicholas was bishop of Myra, a port town in what is now southern Turkey, in the 4th century. Stories tell how he secretly threw bags of gold into the house of a poor man at night, so that his three daughters could marry instead of being sold. He became one of the most loved saints of East and West, patron of children and sailors. Today you can visit the church of St Nicholas in Demre, with its old frescoes and the sarcophagus where he was first buried.
- [Aksum](https://faithonmaps.com/place/aksum) – Ethiopia, 4th century. Guardian of the Ark?. Aksum was the capital of a powerful trading kingdom that became Christian in the 4th century, when King Ezana was baptised by the bishop Frumentius. Ethiopian tradition tells that the Ark of the Covenant was brought here from Jerusalem by Menelik, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. It is said to be kept in a chapel next to the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. Today you can also see the giant carved stone obelisks of the ancient kingdom, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
- [Tours](https://faithonmaps.com/place/tours) – France, 371 – 397. Martin shares his cloak. Martin was a Roman soldier when, at the gate of Amiens on a freezing day, he cut his cloak in two and gave half to a beggar. That night he dreamed of Christ wearing the half cloak. He left the army, became a monk and in 371 bishop of Tours, a bishop who lived simply and travelled the countryside. Today his tomb lies in the crypt of the Basilica of Saint-Martin, built around 1900 on part of the site of the great medieval basilica.
- [Hippo](https://faithonmaps.com/place/hippo) – Annaba, Algeria, 396 – 430. Augustine, the restless heart. Augustine was a brilliant teacher who chased success and pleasure, while his mother Monica never stopped praying for him. In a garden in Milan he finally surrendered to God. He became bishop of the port town of Hippo, where for more than thirty years he preached, cared for his people and wrote: 'Our heart is restless until it rests in you.' Today the Basilica of St Augustine stands on a hill above the ruins of ancient Hippo, in the Algerian city of Annaba.
- [Croagh Patrick](https://faithonmaps.com/place/croagh) – Ireland, 5th century. The mountain of Saint Patrick. As a boy of sixteen, Patrick was kidnapped from Britain by Irish raiders and kept as a slave herding animals. He escaped, but years later he returned of his own free will to bring the gospel to the people who had enslaved him. Tradition says he fasted for forty days on top of this mountain in 441. Today a small chapel stands on the summit, at the end of a steep, stony path to 764 metres.
- [Kildare](https://faithonmaps.com/place/kildare) – Ireland, c. 480. Brigid and her eternal flame. Brigid founded a monastery here for both women and men, beside a great oak: Kildare means 'church of the oak'. She was famous for her generosity; stories say she gave away butter, food and even her father's jewelled sword to the poor. With Patrick and Columba she is one of the three patron saints of Ireland. Today St Brigid's Cathedral stands on the site of her monastery, next to a tall round tower you can climb.
- [Monte Cassino](https://faithonmaps.com/place/montecassino) – Italy, 529. Benedict: pray and work. Around 529 Benedict of Nursia founded a monastery on this mountain, on the site of an old pagan temple. Here he wrote his Rule: a short, sensible guide for monks to live together in prayer, work and study, later summed up as 'ora et labora'. Benedictine monasteries kept learning alive across Europe, and Benedict became one of its patron saints. Today the rebuilt abbey welcomes visitors, and from its terraces you look far out over the valley below.
- [Hagia Sophia](https://faithonmaps.com/place/hagiasophia) – Istanbul, Turkey, 537. Heaven on earth. In 537 Emperor Justinian dedicated this church to Holy Wisdom, built in less than six years. Its enormous dome seems to float on a ring of light, and Justinian is said to have exclaimed: 'Solomon, I have outdone you!' For almost a thousand years it was the heart of the Orthodox world. Today it is open to visitors outside prayer times, and Christian mosaics and Islamic calligraphy can be seen in the same space.
- [St Catherine's Monastery](https://faithonmaps.com/place/catherine) – Sinai, Egypt, c. 550. The burning bush. At the foot of Mount Sinai, Emperor Justinian had a fortified monastery built around the place where God spoke to Moses from a bush that burned but was not consumed. It is named after Catherine of Alexandria, whose relics monks are said to have found on a nearby mountain. Inside the walls there is even a small mosque, a sign of centuries of peace with its Bedouin neighbours. Today visitors can see the 6th-century basilica, the burning bush and some of the monastery's treasures.
- [Iona](https://faithonmaps.com/place/iona) – Scotland, 563. Columba's island. In 563 the Irish monk Columba sailed to this small island with twelve companions and founded a monastery. From here monks went out to the Picts in Scotland and, through Aidan of Lindisfarne, to northern England. Viking raids later drove most of the monks away. Today the restored medieval abbey is home to the Iona Community, which has welcomed pilgrims here since 1938.
- [Canterbury](https://faithonmaps.com/place/canterbury) – England, 597 / 1170. Augustine and Thomas Becket. In 597 the monk Augustine, sent by Pope Gregory the Great, landed in Kent and was welcomed by King Ethelbert, whose wife was already a Christian. He became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, and the church of the English grew from here. In 1170 Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in the cathedral by four knights of King Henry II, and his tomb became one of the great pilgrimages of Europe. Today a single candle burns where his shrine once stood, in the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
- [Utrecht](https://faithonmaps.com/place/utrecht) – Netherlands, 695. Willibrord, apostle of the Low Countries. Around 690 the English monk Willibrord sailed with eleven companions to Frisia to preach the gospel. In 695 the pope made him archbishop of the Frisians, and he built his church inside the old Roman fort of Utrecht. From here the faith spread through the Low Countries, which is why he is called their apostle. Today the Dom Church and its tower stand on the site, and a statue of Willibrord on horseback stands on the Janskerkhof nearby.
- [Lindisfarne](https://faithonmaps.com/place/lindisfarne) – England, 635 – 793. The Holy Island. In 635 King Oswald of Northumbria asked Iona for a missionary, and the gentle monk Aidan came and founded a monastery on this tidal island. From here Aidan, and later Cuthbert, walked the countryside to bring the faith to northern England. Around 715 the monks made the Lindisfarne Gospels, one of the most beautiful books of the Middle Ages, now kept in the British Library. Today you can walk among the red sandstone ruins of the priory, built centuries later on the same spot.
- [Dokkum](https://faithonmaps.com/place/dokkum) – Netherlands, 754. Boniface. The English missionary Boniface had spent his life spreading the faith in Germany. In old age he returned to Frisia, and on 5 June 754, while he was waiting near Dokkum to confirm new believers, armed men attacked and killed him and his companions. He forbade his followers to fight back. Today the Bonifatius chapel stands in a park on the traditional spot, and each year in June a pilgrimage is held there in his memory.
- [Santiago de Compostela](https://faithonmaps.com/place/santiago) – Spain, since 9th century. The end of the Camino. The apostle James, brother of John, was the first of the twelve to die as a martyr. In the early 9th century a tomb was found here that was believed to be his, and Compostela grew into one of the three great pilgrimages of the Middle Ages, with Rome and Jerusalem. For more than a thousand years pilgrims have walked the Camino here from all over Europe. Today they arrive on the great square before the cathedral, where on special days the giant censer, the Botafumeiro, swings through the church.
- [Göreme, Cappadocia](https://faithonmaps.com/place/goreme) – Turkey, 4th – 12th century. Churches in fairy chimneys. In the soft volcanic rock of Cappadocia, Christians carved churches, chapels and monasteries and painted them with bright frescoes of the life of Jesus. This is the land of the 4th-century church fathers Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa, who helped shape the faith in the Trinity. Many of the paintings date from the 10th to the 12th century. Today the Göreme Open-Air Museum lets you step inside these painted cave churches, such as the Dark Church with its well-preserved colours.
- [Rila Monastery](https://faithonmaps.com/place/rila) – Bulgaria, 10th century. John the hermit. In the 10th century the hermit John of Rila withdrew into these mountains to live alone in prayer, first in a hollow tree and then in a cave. His followers built a monastery near his grave, which grew into the spiritual heart of Bulgaria. John is still honoured as the patron saint of the Bulgarian people. Today the colourful monastery, rebuilt in the 19th century with striped arches and a painted church, is one of Bulgaria's best-known sights and on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
- [Mount Athos](https://faithonmaps.com/place/athos) – Greece, since 963. The Holy Mountain. Since 963, when Athanasius founded the Great Lavra, monks have lived on this mountainous peninsula in northern Greece. There are now twenty monasteries and many small hermitages, where some 2,000 monks pray day and night. The Holy Mountain governs itself within Greece and is the spiritual heart of Orthodoxy. Most visitors see the monasteries from a boat sailing along the coast.
- [Kyiv Cave Monastery](https://faithonmaps.com/place/kyiv) – Kyiv, Ukraine, 1051. Monks in the caves. In 1051 the monk Anthony, who had lived on Mount Athos, settled in a cave in the hills above the Dnieper. Others joined him, among them Theodosius, and the community grew into the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, the 'monastery of the caves'. It became one of the great centres of Orthodox faith and learning in Eastern Europe. Today its golden domes and the 18th-century bell tower rise above the river, and the site is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
- [Basilica of St Nicholas, Bari](https://faithonmaps.com/place/bari) – Italy, 1087. Where Nicholas lies today. In 1087, after the Seljuk Turks had taken the region of Myra, sailors from Bari sailed there and carried off the bones of Saint Nicholas. They were welcomed home with great joy, and a basilica was built to hold them. Since then Bari has been a place of pilgrimage for both Catholic and Orthodox Christians. Today the relics rest in the crypt under the Romanesque basilica in the old town, and every May the city celebrates their arrival.
- [Eibingen Abbey](https://faithonmaps.com/place/hildegard) – Germany, 1098 – 1179. Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard was given to a convent at the age of eight and later became its abbess. She had visions all her life, and at 42 she began to write them down. She also wrote about plants and healing and was bold enough to correct popes and emperors in her letters. Today the Benedictine nuns of St Hildegard's Abbey above the Rhine still live by her example, and her relics are kept in the parish church of Eibingen below.
- [Lalibela](https://faithonmaps.com/place/lalibela) – Ethiopia, 12th – 13th century. Churches cut from the rock. Around 1200 King Lalibela of Ethiopia had eleven churches carved out of the red volcanic rock, as a new Jerusalem for Christians who could not travel to the Holy Land. Even the stream that runs through the site was named the Jordan. The churches are still in daily use by priests and by pilgrims dressed in white. Today the cross-shaped church of Bete Giyorgis, sunk deep into the rock, is the best known, and the whole site is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
- [Assisi](https://faithonmaps.com/place/assisi) – Italy, 1182 – 1226. Francis. Francis was a rich cloth merchant's son who gave everything away, even the clothes he wore, to live in poverty. In the run-down chapel of San Damiano he heard: 'Francis, go and repair my house.' He began with stones and ended up renewing the church with a movement of poor brothers who preached joy, peace and care for all creation. Today he lies buried in the crypt of the Basilica of San Francesco, which was begun two years after his death.
- [Padua](https://faithonmaps.com/place/padua) – Italy, 1195 – 1231. Anthony, finder of lost things. Anthony was born in Lisbon and became a Franciscan after seeing the bodies of the first Franciscan martyrs brought home from Morocco. He turned out to be a gifted preacher, and huge crowds came to hear him in Padua, where he stood up for the poor and spoke out against usury. He died in 1231, aged about 36, and was made a saint within a year. Today pilgrims lay their hands on his tomb in the great basilica that the people of Padua simply call 'Il Santo'.
- [Trinity Lavra of St Sergius](https://faithonmaps.com/place/sergiev) – Sergiev Posad, Russia, 1337. Sergius of Radonezh. Around 1337 the young Sergius went into the forest with his brother and built a small wooden church dedicated to the Holy Trinity. He lived simply and humbly; even a bear is said to have come to share his bread. His monastery grew into the spiritual centre of Russia, and Sergius blessed Prince Dmitri before the battle against the Golden Horde in 1380. Today the fortified monastery with its blue and gold domes is still home to many monks and on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
- [Meteora](https://faithonmaps.com/place/meteora) – Greece, 14th century. Monasteries in the sky. From the 14th century monks built monasteries on top of huge sandstone pillars rising out of the plain of Thessaly. Up there they were closer to heaven and safe from raiders in troubled times. 'Meteora' means 'suspended in the air'. Today six of the monasteries are still lived in, and you can reach them by steps cut into the rock.
- [Siena](https://faithonmaps.com/place/siena) – Italy, 1347 – 1380. Catherine writes to the pope. Catherine was the 24th child of a wool dyer in Siena. She chose a life of prayer at home, nursed the sick during the plague and gathered a circle of followers around her. Although she learned to write only late in life, she dictated hundreds of letters to popes and princes and urged Pope Gregory XI to return from Avignon to Rome, which he did in 1377. Today you can visit her family home, now the Sanctuary of St Catherine, and her head is kept in the Basilica of San Domenico.
- [Bethlehem Chapel, Prague](https://faithonmaps.com/place/prague) – Czech Republic, 1402 – 1415. Jan Hus. A century before Luther, the priest and university master Jan Hus preached in this chapel in Czech, the language of the people, to crowds of up to 3,000. He criticised the sale of indulgences and the wealth of the clergy and called the church back to the Bible. Summoned to the Council of Konstanz with a promise of safe conduct, he was arrested and burned at the stake in 1415. Today's chapel is a faithful reconstruction from the 1950s, with his texts painted on the walls.
- [Rouen](https://faithonmaps.com/place/rouen) – France, 1431. Joan of Arc. Joan was a farm girl from Domrémy who heard voices telling her to save France during the Hundred Years' War. At seventeen she helped lift the siege of Orléans and brought Charles VII to his coronation in Reims. Captured and handed over to the English, she was tried for heresy and burned at the stake in the old market square of Rouen in 1431, aged 19. Today a modern church dedicated to her, with a roof like flames, stands on that square.
- [Wittenberg](https://faithonmaps.com/place/wittenberg) – Germany, 1517. Luther and the 95 theses. The monk and professor Martin Luther was troubled that people were buying indulgences to shorten their punishment for sin. On 31 October 1517 he wrote 95 theses for a debate and, according to tradition, nailed them to the door of the Castle Church. Within weeks they were printed and read across Germany, and the Reformation had begun. Today bronze doors with the theses hang in that place, and Luther himself is buried inside the church.
- [Grossmünster, Zurich](https://faithonmaps.com/place/zurich) – Switzerland, 1519. Zwingli and the sausages. On 1 January 1519, his 35th birthday, Ulrich Zwingli began as preacher in the Grossmünster. Instead of following the set readings, he preached straight through the Gospel of Matthew, chapter by chapter. Step by step the city council of Zurich adopted the Reformation, and from here it spread through Switzerland. Today you can climb one of the twin towers, and the church's bronze doors show scenes from the Bible and the Reformation.
- [Loyola](https://faithonmaps.com/place/loyola) – Spain, 1521. Ignatius and the cannonball. The young Basque nobleman Íñigo dreamed of glory as a soldier until a cannonball shattered his leg at Pamplona in 1521. While recovering here in his family home he asked for novels, but there were only books about Jesus and the saints. Reading them, he noticed that dreams of fame left him empty, while thoughts of God gave a lasting joy. He went on to found the Jesuits, and today his family's tower house stands inside a great Baroque sanctuary.
- [Worms](https://faithonmaps.com/place/worms) – Germany, 1521. 'Here I stand'. In April 1521 the young Emperor Charles V summoned Luther to the imperial diet in Worms. Before the emperor and the princes of the empire, Luther was asked to take back his books. He answered that unless he was convinced by Scripture and plain reason he could not, for his conscience was captive to the Word of God. Today the large Luther Monument in Worms, unveiled in 1868, shows him surrounded by other reformers.
- [Wartburg](https://faithonmaps.com/place/wartburg) – Germany, 1521 – 1522. The Bible in German. On his way back from Worms in 1521, Luther was 'kidnapped' by men of his protector, Frederick the Wise, and hidden in this castle above Eisenach. Disguised as a knight, he translated the New Testament from Greek into German, in words ordinary people could understand. His translation helped shape the German language itself. Today you can visit the simple room where he worked, the Luther room.
- [Guadalupe](https://faithonmaps.com/place/guadalupe) – Mexico City, Mexico, 1531. Mary appears to Juan Diego. In December 1531, ten years after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, the indigenous farmer Juan Diego saw a young woman on the hill of Tepeyac who spoke to him in his own language, Nahuatl. She asked for a church to be built there. When the bishop wanted a sign, Juan Diego brought roses in his cloak, and when he opened it, an image of Mary was on the cloth. Today that cloak, the tilma, hangs in the modern basilica, where moving walkways carry visitors past it.
- [Vilvoorde](https://faithonmaps.com/place/vilvoorde) – Belgium, 1536. William Tyndale. William Tyndale wanted 'the boy that drives the plough' to know the Bible as well as any priest. Because translating it into English was forbidden, he worked in exile on the continent and had his New Testament printed and smuggled into England. In 1535 he was betrayed in Antwerp and imprisoned in the castle of Vilvoorde. In 1536 he was strangled and burned here; today a monument in a small park marks the place.
- [Geneva](https://faithonmaps.com/place/geneva) – Switzerland, 1536 – 1564. Calvin. The young French lawyer John Calvin passed through Geneva in 1536 and was persuaded to stay and help with the Reformation. He preached and wrote tirelessly, and his 'Institutes of the Christian Religion' became the main textbook of Reformed faith. Refugees came to Geneva from all over Europe, and the academy he founded trained preachers for France, Scotland and the Netherlands. Today you can see his chair in St Peter's Cathedral, where he preached.
- [Bom Jesus, Goa](https://faithonmaps.com/place/goa) – India, 1542 – 1552. Francis Xavier. Francis Xavier, one of the first companions of Ignatius of Loyola, sailed for Asia in 1541 and reached Goa the next year. In ten years he travelled to India, the Moluccas and Japan, teaching children and caring for the sick. He died in 1552 on an island off the coast of China, still hoping to go further. Today the Basilica of Bom Jesus, where he is buried, is part of the UNESCO-listed churches and convents of Old Goa.
- [Ávila](https://faithonmaps.com/place/avila) – Spain, 1515 – 1582. Teresa and the interior castle. Teresa grew up in Ávila and entered a Carmelite convent, but for years her prayer felt half-hearted. In her forties she went through a deep conversion and began to found small, simple convents where nuns lived in poverty and prayer. She wrote about prayer as a journey into an 'interior castle' with many rooms, with God dwelling at the centre. Today the Convent of Santa Teresa stands on the site of the house where she was born.
- [Nagasaki](https://faithonmaps.com/place/nagasaki) – Japan, 1597. The 26 martyrs and the hidden Christians. In 1597 the Japanese ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi had 26 Christians, Japanese and European, marched from Kyoto to Nagasaki in the winter cold. On this hill they were crucified; the youngest, Luis Ibaraki, was twelve and is said to have sung as he died. Christianity was then banned in Japan for more than 250 years. Today a bronze monument with the 26 figures and a museum stand on Nishizaka hill.
- [Leiden](https://faithonmaps.com/place/leiden) – Netherlands, 1609 – 1620. The Pilgrim Fathers. From 1609 a group of English Separatists who had fled persecution lived in Leiden with their pastor John Robinson. The Dutch city gave them freedom of religion, but they feared their children would lose their English identity. In 1620 part of the group sailed via Delfshaven and Plymouth to America on the Mayflower, and they became known as the Pilgrim Fathers. Today the small Leiden American Pilgrim Museum and the Pieterskerk, near which many of them lived, tell their story.
- [Dordrecht](https://faithonmaps.com/place/dordrecht) – Netherlands, 1618 – 1619. The Synod of Dort. In 1618 and 1619 Reformed theologians from the Netherlands and abroad met in Dordrecht for a great synod. They had to settle a bitter conflict about predestination between the followers of Arminius and of Gomarus, which had divided the country. The synod wrote the Canons of Dort, still a confession of many Reformed churches worldwide. Today the medieval Grote Kerk still towers over the old harbour town where the synod met.
- [Plymouth, Massachusetts](https://faithonmaps.com/place/plymouth) – United States, 1620. The Mayflower lands. After 66 days at sea, the Mayflower reached Cape Cod in November 1620, and in December the passengers began building the colony of Plymouth. Before landing they signed the Mayflower Compact, an agreement to govern themselves together. Half of them died in the first winter, but with the help of the Wampanoag people the survivors brought in their first harvest. Today a granite rock under a portico by the water is shown as the place where they landed: Plymouth Rock.
- [Jasna Góra, Częstochowa](https://faithonmaps.com/place/czestochowa) – Poland, since 1382. The Black Madonna. Since 1382 the Pauline monks of Jasna Góra, the 'bright mountain', have kept a dark icon of Mary holding the child Jesus. In 1655 the small monastery held out against a Swedish army, and afterwards King John Casimir dedicated Poland to Mary as its queen. Through wars and occupation the icon became a symbol of Polish faith and freedom. Today millions of pilgrims come each year, many of them on foot from all over Poland, especially around 15 August.
- [Herrnhut](https://faithonmaps.com/place/herrnhut) – Germany, 1727. A prayer that lasted 100 years. In 1722 Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf allowed Protestant refugees from Moravia to settle on his estate, where they built the village of Herrnhut, 'under the Lord's protection'. After years of quarrelling, a deep experience of unity during a communion service on 13 August 1727 made them one community. They began a round-the-clock prayer chain that went on for more than a hundred years. Today the plain white church hall and the 'God's acre', with its flat, equal gravestones, still show their ideals.
- [Aldersgate, London](https://faithonmaps.com/place/aldersgate) – England, 1738. John Wesley's 'warmed heart'. John Wesley was a strict, hard-working Anglican priest, but after a failed mission to America he felt he lacked real faith. On the evening of 24 May 1738 he went unwillingly to a meeting in Aldersgate Street, where someone was reading Luther's preface to the letter to the Romans. 'I felt my heart strangely warmed,' he wrote that night. Today a bronze memorial in the shape of a flame, with the words from his journal, stands near the spot.
- [Lourdes](https://faithonmaps.com/place/lourdes) – France, 1858. Bernadette and the spring. In 1858 Bernadette Soubirous, a poor and sickly 14-year-old girl, saw a young lady in white eighteen times in the grotto of Massabielle. The lady called herself 'the Immaculate Conception' and asked for a chapel and for people to come in procession. At her word Bernadette dug in the mud, and a spring appeared that still flows today. Today the grotto lies at the heart of a large sanctuary, with candlelight processions every evening from spring to autumn.
- [Knock](https://faithonmaps.com/place/knock) – Ireland, 1879. A silent vision in the rain. On a rainy evening in August 1879, in a poor village still marked by famine, fifteen people of all ages saw Mary, Joseph and John the Evangelist standing silently at the gable of their church, beside an altar with a lamb. The vision lasted about two hours, and not a word was spoken. People came to pray, and many reported healings. Today the old gable wall is protected by a glass chapel, beside a large basilica that Pope John Paul II visited in 1979.
- [Namugongo](https://faithonmaps.com/place/namugongo) – Uganda, 1886. The Uganda Martyrs. When Christianity came to the kingdom of Buganda in the late 1870s, many young pages at the court became Christians. King Mwanga demanded that they give up their faith; they refused. On 3 June 1886 a large group of them, Catholics and Anglicans, were burned alive here at Namugongo, among them their leader Charles Lwanga. Today a basilica shaped like a traditional African hut stands where Charles Lwanga died, with an Anglican shrine nearby.
- [Azusa Street, Los Angeles](https://faithonmaps.com/place/azusa) – United States, 1906. Birth of Pentecostalism. In April 1906 the Black preacher William Seymour, son of former slaves, began holding meetings in an old building at 312 Azusa Street that had been used as a stable. People prayed for hours, three times a day, for about three years; many spoke in tongues and prayed for healing. Unusually for the time, Black, white, Latino and Asian believers worshipped side by side. The building is gone, but today a plaque near the Japanese Village Plaza marks the birthplace of the worldwide Pentecostal movement.
- [Lambaréné](https://faithonmaps.com/place/lambarene) – Gabon, 1913. Albert Schweitzer's hospital. Albert Schweitzer was already a famous theologian and organist when, at 30, he began to study medicine. In 1913 he and his wife Helene, a nurse, travelled to Lambaréné on the Ogooué river and started a hospital in a former chicken house. He gave concerts and lectures in Europe to keep the hospital going, guided by his idea of 'reverence for life'. Today the hospital is still at work, and his old house is a museum.
- [Fátima](https://faithonmaps.com/place/fatima) – Portugal, 1917. Three shepherd children. In 1917, in the middle of the First World War, three shepherd children, Lúcia, Francisco and Jacinta, said a lady from heaven appeared to them six times in the Cova da Iria. She asked them to pray the rosary every day for peace in the world. Francisco and Jacinta died young in the flu epidemic and were made saints in 2017. Today a small chapel marks the place of the apparitions, at the edge of a huge square where candlelight processions are held.
- [Christ the Redeemer](https://faithonmaps.com/place/rio) – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1931. Arms wide over the city. On top of the Corcovado mountain stands a 30-metre statue of Christ with his arms spread wide over Rio de Janeiro. It was designed by the Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa with the French sculptor Paul Landowski, and paid for largely with gifts from Brazilian Catholics. Since its completion in 1931 it has become the symbol of the city and of Brazil. Today a small train climbs through the forest to the foot of the statue, where a chapel is built into its base.
- [Taizé](https://faithonmaps.com/place/taize) – France, 1940. Songs of the young. In 1940 the young Swiss Brother Roger came to this village in Burgundy, close to the line dividing occupied France, and hid refugees, among them Jews, in his house. After the war he founded a community of brothers from Protestant and later also Catholic backgrounds, living together as a sign of reconciliation. Brother Roger was killed during evening prayer in 2005, at the age of 90. Today the brothers still welcome tens of thousands of young people each year to pray with short, repeated songs.
- [Auschwitz](https://faithonmaps.com/place/auschwitz) – Poland, 1941. Maximilian Kolbe gives his life. In the summer of 1941 a prisoner escaped from Auschwitz, and as punishment ten men were chosen to starve to death. When one of them cried out for his wife and children, the Franciscan priest Maximilian Kolbe stepped forward and offered to die in his place. In the starvation cell he led the others in prayer and song, until after two weeks he was killed with an injection. Today you can see his cell in Block 11 of the Auschwitz memorial.
- [Corrie ten Boom House](https://faithonmaps.com/place/haarlem) – Haarlem, Netherlands, 1940 – 1944. The Hiding Place. The Ten Boom family were watchmakers and devout Christians who lived above their shop in the Barteljorisstraat. During the German occupation they hid Jews and members of the resistance in a secret room behind a false wall. In 1944 they were betrayed; Corrie's father and her sister Betsie died in prison and in the camp, but Corrie survived Ravensbrück and later spoke all over the world about forgiveness. Today you can visit the house and see the hiding place for yourself.
- [Flossenbürg](https://faithonmaps.com/place/flossenburg) – Germany, 1945. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a gifted young theologian who saw from the start that the church could not stay silent about Hitler. He led an underground seminary, wrote about the cost of following Jesus and joined the resistance. Arrested in 1943, he was moved to Flossenbürg camp at the end of the war and hanged at dawn on 9 April 1945; his last message was: 'This is the end, for me the beginning of life.' Today the camp is a memorial, with a plaque for Bonhoeffer and the other resistance fighters killed here.
- [Mother House, Kolkata](https://faithonmaps.com/place/kolkata) – India, 1950. Mother Teresa. In 1946, on a train journey, the teacher Sister Teresa felt a 'call within a call' to serve the poorest of the poor. She left her convent school, put on a simple white sari with blue borders and went into the slums of Calcutta. In 1950 she founded the Missionaries of Charity, who cared for the dying, orphans and people with leprosy. Today her simple tomb lies in the Mother House, where you can also see the small room where she lived.
- [Dexter Avenue Church, Montgomery](https://faithonmaps.com/place/montgomery) – Alabama, United States, 1954 – 1960. Martin Luther King Jr.. In 1954 the 25-year-old Martin Luther King Jr. became pastor of this Baptist church, a block from the Alabama State Capitol. When Rosa Parks was arrested in December 1955 for refusing to give up her bus seat, Black leaders met in the church and organised a boycott. King became its spokesman, preaching non-violence and love for enemies. Today you can visit the church and, in the basement, a large mural of the civil rights movement.
- [San Salvador](https://faithonmaps.com/place/sansalvador) – El Salvador, 1980. Óscar Romero. Óscar Romero was a cautious, bookish priest when he became archbishop of San Salvador in 1977. When his friend, the Jesuit Rutilio Grande, was murdered weeks later, Romero began to speak out on the radio every Sunday against the killing of poor farmers. On 24 March 1980 he was shot while celebrating Mass in the chapel of the Divina Providencia hospital. Today you can visit that chapel and the small house where he lived, and his tomb lies in the crypt of the cathedral.

## Journeys (34)

- Abraham's journey: From the city of Ur, Abraham travelled along the Fertile Crescent to Canaan, a land he only knew as a promise. Stops: Ur, Harran, Shechem, Bethel, Hebron.
- The Exodus: Moses led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, through the sea and the desert, to the edge of the Promised Land. The route follows the traditional view; the real route is unknown. Stops: Rameses, Sukkot, Red Sea, Marah, bitter water, Elim, twelve springs, Mount Sinai, Kadesh Barnea, Mount Nebo, Jericho.
- The life of Jesus: From the manger in Bethlehem to the empty tomb in Jerusalem: the main places of Jesus' life in the order of the Gospels. Stops: Bethlehem, Egypt, Nazareth, Jordan, Kana, Capernaum, Mount Tabor, Jacob's Well, Bethany, Upper Room, Gethsemane, Golgotha and the tomb, Emmaus.
- Paul's first missionary journey: Paul and Barnabas sailed from Antioch to Cyprus and walked through the mountains of present-day Turkey, founding churches along the way. Stops: Antioch, Seleucia, Salamis, Paphos, Perge, Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Attalia, Antioch.
- Paul's second journey: to Europe: After a dream of a man from Macedonia calling for help, Paul crossed over to Europe for the first time. Stops: Antioch, Derbe, Lystra, Troas, Neapolis, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, Caesarea.
- Paul's voyage to Rome: As a prisoner, Paul sailed to Rome to stand trial before the emperor. A storm drove the ship off course for fourteen days, until it ran aground on Malta. Stops: Caesarea, Sidon, Myra, Knidos, Cape Salmone, Fair Havens, Crete, Malta, Syracuse, Rhegium, Puteoli, Rome.
- Celtic saints: Ireland to the Low Countries: From Patrick's Ireland the faith travelled with wandering monks to Scotland, northern England and finally the Low Countries. Stops: Croagh Patrick, Kildare, Iona, Lindisfarne, Utrecht, Dokkum.
- The Camino Francés: The most popular route to Santiago de Compostela: about 780 km on foot across northern Spain, usually walked in five weeks. Stops: Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, Roncesvalles, Pamplona, Logroño, Burgos, León, Astorga, O Cebreiro, Sarria, Santiago de Compostela.
- Luther's road: From the theses in Wittenberg to the emperor in Worms, the hiding place in the Wartburg and back: the Reformation in a few dramatic years. Stops: Wittenberg, 1517, Erfurt, Worms, 1521, Wartburg, 1521–22, Wittenberg, 1522.
- The Pilgrim Fathers: Puritans who had found refuge in Leiden sailed via Delfshaven and England to the New World in 1620. Stops: Leiden, Delfshaven, Southampton, Plymouth, England, Cape Cod, Plymouth, Massachusetts.
- Joseph sold into Egypt: Jacob sent his favourite son to find his brothers. At Dothan they threw him into a pit and sold him to traders heading for Egypt, where he would one day rule. Stops: Hebron, Shechem, Dothan, the pit, Egypt.
- Ruth and Naomi: During a famine Naomi's family left Bethlehem for Moab. Years later the widow Naomi walked back, and her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth refused to leave her: 'Where you go, I will go.' Stops: Bethlehem, The fields of Moab, Bethlehem, at the barley harvest.
- Elijah's flight to Horeb: After the fire on Mount Carmel, Queen Jezebel swore to kill Elijah. He fled south into the desert, where an angel fed him, and walked forty days to the mountain of God. There God spoke in a gentle whisper. Stops: Mount Carmel, Jezreel, running ahead of the king, Beersheba, Under a broom tree in the desert, Horeb, the mountain of God.
- Jonah's detour: God sent Jonah east to Nineveh, so Jonah boarded a ship going west. After a storm, three days inside a great fish and a second call, he went to Nineveh after all. Stops: Joppa, boarding for Tarshish, Storm at sea, thrown overboard, Spat out on dry land, Nineveh.
- Into exile in Babylon: After Jerusalem fell, the people of Judah were marched north and then down the Euphrates to Babylon. There they sat by the rivers and wept for Zion. Stops: Jerusalem destroyed, Riblah, before King Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon.
- The Holy Family: From Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census, to the temple in Jerusalem, on the run to Egypt and finally home again to Nazareth. Stops: Nazareth, Bethlehem, birth, Jerusalem, presented in the temple, Egypt, in hiding, Back home in Nazareth.
- The Wise Men: Following a star, wise men travelled from the east to find the newborn king. They asked the wrong king, Herod, for directions, found the child in Bethlehem and went home by another road. Stops: 'From the east', perhaps Babylon or Persia, Jerusalem, at Herod's palace, Bethlehem, the star stops.
- Holy Week in Jerusalem: The last week of Jesus' life, step by step through Jerusalem: from the donkey on Palm Sunday to the cross on Good Friday and the empty tomb. Stops: Bethany, Bethphage, the donkey, Mount of Olives, Palm Sunday, The temple, tables overturned, Upper Room, the Last Supper, Gethsemane, arrested, House of Caiaphas, Peter's denial, Before Pilate, Golgotha and the empty tomb.
- Philip and the Ethiopian: An angel sent Philip to a desert road. There he met an Ethiopian official reading Isaiah in his chariot, explained it to him and baptised him in water by the road. Stops: Samaria, preaching, Desert road to Gaza, the chariot, Azotus, Caesarea.
- Peter opens the door: Peter healed Aeneas in Lydda and raised Tabitha in Joppa. On a rooftop there he had a vision of a sheet full of animals, and then travelled to Caesarea to baptise the Roman Cornelius. Stops: Jerusalem, Lydda, Aeneas healed, Joppa, Tabitha and the rooftop vision, Caesarea, Cornelius baptised.
- Paul's third journey: Paul spent three years in Ephesus, then visited the churches of Greece once more. On the way back he said a tearful goodbye to the elders at Miletus and sailed to Jerusalem, knowing that prison awaited him. Stops: Antioch, Galatia and Phrygia, Ephesus, three years, Macedonia, Corinth, three months, Troas, Eutychus falls from the window, Assos, Miletus, farewell, Rhodes, Patara, Tyre, Caesarea, Jerusalem.
- The seven churches of Revelation: John wrote seven letters to seven churches in what is now western Turkey. The cities lie on a circular road, in the same order as the letters, and are still a popular tour today. Stops: Ephesus, the first love, Smyrna, faithful unto death, Pergamum, where Satan's throne is, Thyatira, Sardis, wake up!, Philadelphia, an open door, Laodicea, lukewarm.
- Egeria's pilgrimage: Around 381 a woman named Egeria, probably from Spain or Gaul, spent three years travelling to the holy places and wrote it all down for her 'sisters' at home. It is one of the oldest travel journals by a woman. Stops: Constantinople, Tarsus, Antioch, Jerusalem, Mount Sinai, Mount Nebo, Edessa, Harran, Back to Constantinople.
- Boniface, apostle of the Germans: The English monk Boniface worked in Frisia, travelled to Rome three times and felled the sacred oak of Thor at Geismar. As an old man he returned to Frisia, where he was killed near Dokkum. Stops: Crediton, birthplace, Frisia, with Willibrord, Rome, sent by the pope, Geismar, the oak of Thor, Fulda, his monastery, Mainz, archbishop, Dokkum.
- Cyril and Methodius: Two brothers from Thessalonica were sent to the Slavs of Moravia. They invented an alphabet so the Slavs could read the Bible and worship in their own language. Stops: Thessalonica, their home town, Constantinople, sent out, Velehrad, Great Moravia, Venice, defending Slavic worship, Rome, Cyril's grave.
- Via Francigena: The great pilgrims' road from Canterbury to Rome, about 2,000 km. In 990 Archbishop Sigeric wrote down the 79 stops of his journey home, and modern walkers still follow them. Stops: Canterbury, Calais, Reims, Besançon, Lausanne, Great St Bernard Pass, Aosta, Pavia, Lucca, Siena, Rome.
- St Olav's Way: King Olaf, who brought Christianity to Norway, fell in battle in 1030 and was soon honoured as a saint. Pilgrims walked from Oslo over the mountains to his grave in Trondheim. Stops: Oslo, Hamar, Lillehammer, Dombås, into the mountains, Oppdal, Trondheim, Nidaros Cathedral.
- Francis Xavier to Asia: In 1541 Francis Xavier sailed from Lisbon around Africa to India. Over eleven years he travelled on to Malacca and Japan, and died on an island off China, waiting for a boat to take him in. Stops: Lisbon, Cape of Good Hope, Mozambique, a winter waiting, Malindi, Goa, Pearl Fishery Coast, Malacca, Kagoshima, Japan, Shangchuan Island, his death.
- Corrie ten Boom's road: After the raid on their house in 1944, Corrie and her sister Betsie were taken from prison to prison and finally to Ravensbrück. Betsie died there; Corrie was released through a clerical error and came home. Stops: Haarlem, the raid, Scheveningen prison, Vught camp, Ravensbrück, Berlin, released, Home in Haarlem.
- Jacob's flight and return: Jacob tricked his brother Esau out of their father's blessing and had to flee for his life. Twenty years later he came back, rich but afraid, and on the way home he wrestled with God through the night. Stops: Beersheba, Bethel, the ladder, Harran, twenty years, Peniel, by the Jabbok, Rachel's tomb.
- From Saul to Paul: Saul set out for Damascus to arrest Christians and arrived there blind, led by the hand. The man who wanted to destroy the church became its greatest messenger. Stops: Jerusalem, The road to Damascus, Damascus, Arabia, Damascus, over the wall, Jerusalem, afraid of him, Caesarea, Tarsus, his home town.
- Ignatius: from soldier to pilgrim: After his conversion on a sickbed, Ignatius of Loyola set out as a poor pilgrim. He walked, begged, studied with schoolboys at the age of 33, and gathered friends who would found the Jesuits with him. Stops: Loyola, Montserrat, Manresa, the cave, Barcelona, Venice, Jerusalem, Paris, Montmartre, Rome.
- Mother Teresa: from Skopje to Kolkata: At eighteen, Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu left her home in Skopje to become a missionary. She would never see her mother again. Stops: Skopje, Dublin, Loreto Abbey, Darjeeling, Calcutta, Entally, Patna, Kolkata, the home for the dying.
- Selma to Montgomery: In 1965 Black citizens in Alabama were still being kept from voting. A march from Selma to the state capital Montgomery became one of the turning points of the civil rights movement. Stops: Selma, Brown Chapel, Edmund Pettus Bridge, Lowndes County, City of St. Jude, Montgomery, the Capitol.

## Stories (75)

- Four friends and a hole in the roof (Capernaum): How far would you go for a friend who can't get there on his own?
- A boy's lunch (Tabgha): What use is a little when the need is so big?
- Called by name (Church of the Holy Sepulchre): Everyone went home. Only Mary stayed.
- 'Brother Saul' (Straight Street, Damascus): Could you call your enemy 'brother'?
- Singing at midnight (Philippi): What do you do at the worst moment of your life?
- Quo vadis? (St Peter's Basilica): What if you turned around just as you were running away?
- What gets through the snares (Monastery of St Anthony): What would get you through anything?
- A mother's tears (Hippo): How long would you keep praying for someone?
- Half a cloak (Tours): Half a cloak. That was all. And people are still talking about it, nearly 1,700 years later.
- The bishop who grabbed the sword (Myra): Would you step between an innocent person and the sword?
- Back to the land of his captors (Croagh Patrick): Would you go back to the people who hurt you most?
- Brigid's cloak (Kildare): What if you asked for more than anyone thought possible?
- The storm of Scholastica (Monte Cassino): Who wins, the rule or love?
- Cuthbert and the otters (Lindisfarne): What do you do when nobody is watching?
- A book instead of a sword (Dokkum): What do you grab when you are attacked?
- Bread for a bear (Trinity Lavra of St Sergius): Who would you share your last piece of bread with?
- The kiss for the leper (Assisi): What if the thing you find most repulsive is exactly where God waits for you?
- She held his head (Siena): Who stays with you at the very end?
- The trick question (Rouen): How do you answer when every answer is a trap?
- Daydreams on a sickbed (Loyola): What do your daydreams leave behind?
- No wonder you have so few friends (Ávila): Can you be honest with God, even angry?
- 'Am I not here, I who am your mother?' (Guadalupe): Have you ever taken a detour to avoid someone?
- Names over his heart (Bom Jesus, Goa): What do you take with you when you go far away?
- A sermon from the cross (Nagasaki): What would your last words be?
- 'Like a broom' (Lourdes): What do you do when everyone suddenly wants a piece of you?
- 'I will take his place' (Auschwitz): Would you die for a stranger?
- A call on the train (Mother House, Kolkata): What if your calling comes on an ordinary train journey?
- The archbishop who changed (San Salvador): What does it take for a careful person to become brave?
- Baptised the night before (Namugongo): Would you choose your faith if it cost you everything?
- A man on a bicycle (Taizé): What can one person do in a world at war?
- A monk who could not keep quiet (Wittenberg): What do you do when something is wrong and everyone goes along with it?
- The boy behind the plough (Vilvoorde): Who is the Bible for?
- Ready to become slaves (Herrnhut): How far would you go to reach someone?
- A heart strangely warmed (Aldersgate, London): Can you do everything right and still miss the heart of it?
- Hippos on the river (Lambaréné): Where do your best ideas come to you?
- The hand she could not lift (Corrie ten Boom House): Can you forgive the person who hurt you most?
- The beginning of life (Flossenbürg): How do you face the end?
- Midnight at the kitchen table (Dexter Avenue Church, Montgomery): What do you do when you have nothing left?
- Not in someone else's armour (Valley of Elah): What giant are you facing right now?
- For such a time as this (Susa): What if you are exactly where you are for a reason?
- Five excuses (St Catherine's Monastery): Do you ever feel you're the wrong person for the job?
- A cloud as small as a hand (Mount Carmel): How often would you go and look?
- Windows open towards Jerusalem (Babylon): What do you do when your faith is suddenly forbidden?
- A stone in a cave (Qumran): What if the greatest find of your life happens by accident?
- News for the night shift (Bethlehem): Who would you tell first?
- A yes from nowhere (Nazareth): 'Can anything good come from Nazareth?'
- He must become greater (Baptism Site on the Jordan): Could you be happy when someone else takes your spotlight?
- Who God calls happy (Mount of Beatitudes): Who would you call lucky?
- A jar left behind (Jacob's Well): What would you leave behind if someone truly saw you?
- Jesus wept (Bethany): What if God cries with you?
- A towel and a bowl (The Upper Room): Whose feet would you rather not wash?
- Take this cup from me (Garden of Gethsemane): Is it allowed to be afraid?
- We had hoped (Emmaus): Have you ever walked away disappointed?
- The son of encouragement (Antioch): Who believed in you when nobody else did?
- To an unknown god (Areopagus, Athens): Where would you start talking about God with someone who doesn't believe?
- Love letter to a church in a fight (Corinth): Did you know the most famous wedding text was written to a church in a fight?
- Everything new (Patmos): What do you see when you are stuck?
- Bring my cloak (St Paul Outside the Walls): What do you ask for at the end?
- More than a doubter (San Thome, Chennai): Do you only know Thomas as the doubter?
- Thirteen years in a pit (Etchmiadzin): Would you help the person who locked you away?
- The captive who became a bishop (Aksum): Can the worst day of your life become the beginning of something good?
- The slave who became bishop of Rome (Catacombs of St Callixtus): Do people deserve a second chance?
- Heaven or earth? (Hagia Sophia): Can beauty bring you closer to God?
- A Jerusalem cut from rock (Lalibela): What if you could not travel to the holy places?
- The last line of the psalm (Iona): How would you like to spend your last day?
- A king on his knees (Canterbury): Can a king say sorry?
- Write what you see (Eibingen Abbey): Is it ever too late to start?
- The kitchen help who could preach (Padua): What if your gift is hidden until someone asks?
- Preaching in the people's language (Bethlehem Chapel, Prague): What is the truth worth to you?
- A vision without words (Knock): What if God speaks without a single word?
- The sausage that started a Reformation (Grossmünster, Zurich): Can a plate of sausages change history?
- A Bible made by refugees (Geneva): What can refugees give the country they flee from?
- More light yet to break forth (Leiden): Do you think you already know it all?
- The man who had every reason not to help (Plymouth, Massachusetts): Would you help strangers from the country that had enslaved you?
- Sitting in the hallway (Azusa Street, Los Angeles): Where would you sit if you were not allowed in?