The House of the Virgin Mary in Ephesus & the story of obedience
The death of Jesus Christ on the cross is not only a story of total surrender and eternal redemption. It is also a tale of all-embracing obedience on the part of St. John.
On the cross, in His Seven Last Words, Jesus told his mother Mary, “Woman, behold your son.” And to John, the disciple He dearly loved, He said, “Behold your mother.” (John 19:26-27).
Even in the hour of death, Jesus displayed his final act of love and care for His mother, entrusting her to the care of the disciple. John obeyed and took Mary into his home. By this time, Mary’s husband Joseph was perceived to be already dead. According to some biblical sources, John and Mary later moved to Ephesus, where she lived under his protection.
One solid proof of John’s obedience is the House of the Virgin Mary (Meryem Ana Evi) in Ephesus. Christian scholars believe that the house was possibly built by John for Mary, whom the disciple considered his own mother. It is believed that it was the last house where Mary lived before her assumption to heaven.
“The House of the Virgin Mary (Meryem Ana Evi) in Ephesus is believed to date back to the 1st century AD, making it nearly 2,000 years old. It was likely built by St. John the Apostle or early Christian followers,” said Eyup Karapinar of True Blue Tour, our knowledgeable tour guide when my best friend Christine Dayrit, her sister Yvonne Romualdez and I joined a pilgrimage to Turkey in March 2023.
The house, according to online sources, was discovered in the 19th century by following the descriptions “in the reported visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824), a German Catholic nun and visionary.”
“In 1891, based on Emmerich’s visions, French priests and researchers discovered the ruins of a small stone house on Mount Koressos, matching the descriptions in her visions. The House of Mary is a modest stone structure, restored based on its foundations,” Eyup said.
There is an air of obedience in the House of the Virgin Mary, now a shrine, that is nestled on Mount Koressos. The house consists of two rooms — a chapel area and a smaller room believed to be Mary’s sleeping quarters. It measures approximately seven by 17 meters.
Its exterior is resplendent in simplicity as the house, unyielding to the elements, is built from stone and bricks. The house seems to obey the virtue of solemnity as it is surrounded by a lush, green forest. The prevailing silence is pierced momentarily by the gawking of birds or by the footsteps of the Christian and non-Christian visitors of Ephesus.
The shrine has a courtyard with a fountain where pilgrims can collect spring water. Marian devotees believe the water, cold and refreshing, has healing properties. Tourists are seen filling their containers with water before leaving the holy site. There’s also a wishing wall nearby where visitors find a fissure to insert their written prayers and wishes.
Inside the small, modest house (that is now a chapel) is another experience. Christine, Yvonne and I, together with other Filipino pilgrims, fell on our knees and prayed the rosary. My Dayrit sisters were misty eyed as they silently prayed. Fr. Dennis Paez concelebrated Mass and the experience was like having a holy date with God.
(Fr. Dennis and his group of pilgrims were in Ephesus to pray for guidance from the Blessed Mother about building a replica of the House of the Virgin Mary in the Philippines. Last year, through the kindness of many faithful, the Ephesus House was blessed and inaugurated in Alfonso, Cavite. The replica remained accurate to the look and measurements of the original house in Ephesus, with chapel architect Nina Christine Pajaron working pro bono. She and her artisans personally baked 24,000 clay bricks one by one to somehow get the texture of the original.)
Personally, as a Marian believer, I felt I was simply whispering my prayers to the Virgin’s ears. The atmosphere inside the House of Virgin Mary was nurturing, enlightening, insulating. The winter cold outside the house was no match to the warmth the shrine provided us.
The House of the Virgin Mary is a house of obedience. In that particular visit to Ephesus, I obeyed the voice of God that prompted me to silently put my mother Candida on a video call. The great distance between Gulod and Ephesus was bridged by our faith in God. We prayed together as I showed her the house. Candida whispered her prayers, the same way she did when our pilgrims group attended Masses in every church we visited in Israel days before, and asked the intercession of the Blessed Mother to heal her. Two months later, she died in the hospital with a rosary I got for her in Ephesus in her duster’s pocket.
“According to Christian tradition, Mary lived in Ephesus under the care of St. John the Apostle. It is believed she spent her final years there. Some sources claim she passed away in Ephesus, while others maintain she was assumed into heaven (the Assumption of Mary),” said Eyup.
Mary’s exact age when she was assumed into heaven is unknown “but tradition suggests she was between 60 and 70 years old.” On the other hand, “John would have died in his nineties.” We visited St. John’s tomb in Ephesus, located within the ruins of the Basilica of St. John.
He said that according to scholars of the Church, Mary was likely between 46 and 50 years old when Jesus was crucified. “Jewish women at that time often married young, and if Mary was around 14 to16 years old when she gave birth to Jesus, and Jesus died at 33 years old, this would place her age in the late forties when Jesus died on the cross.”
Eyup said Ephesus was a major center of early Christianity for several reasons: 1) it was home to St. John the Apostle, who wrote the Gospel of John there; 2) the Council of Ephesus (431 AD) took place there, affirming Mary as the Theotokos (Mother of God); it was one of the Seven Churches of Revelation, addressed in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 2:1-7); and 4) Ephesus was a key hub for early Christian missionary work, with figures like St. Paul preaching there.
To Marian devotees, Ephesus is important in because of the House of the Virgin Mary, a testament that obedience is a gift from God.*
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