A drone's eye view of the Holy Land as Christians look to Easter

An aerial view shows early morning fog rolling over the Cathedral of All Russian Saints in the grounds of the Russian Orthodox Gorny Convent in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem, September 10, 2020. REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg

Seen from the air, the fragility of humanity as it must have been in the Holy Land in centuries past is plain to see - ancient monasteries clinging to precipices, tiny fishing boats on the Sea of Galilee, deserts gnawing at the edges of towns.

For the Christian faithful, the Biblical journey and legacy of Jesus are written in stonework and monuments across the landscape, straddling modern political faultlines.

A boy is washed during a baptism ceremony at the Jordan River, near Jericho in the Israeli-occupied West Bank January 18, 2020. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta

But modern pandemics, like ancient plagues, are no respecters of political and belief systems. For a year the Christian sites of the Holy Land, like the sacred places of Judaism and Islam, were under varying degrees of lockdown or restriction, and bereft of foreign pilgrims.

Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, was the first area in the occupied Palestinian Territories to be forced into lockdown just before Easter last year, closing the Church of the Nativity.

Other churches followed soon afterwards, including Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulchre, built over the sites where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.

The Roman Catholic Church of the Visitation stands in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem, March 29, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

"Death is stalking a lot all over the world," a despondent Apostolic Administrator Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa told Reuters a year ago on Good Friday, known to Palestinian Christians as Sad Friday.

Throughout 2020 little changed and by Christmas Pizzaballa, by then elevated to Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, still cut a glum figure as he arrived in a rain-soaked Bethlehem for a muted celebration in front of a tiny congregation.

But on Dec. 19 Israel had begun a rapid COVID-19 vaccination programme that gradually brought hope of a freer 2021. At least for Israelis, if not Palestinians, where the vaccine roll-out has been slower.

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, leads a Christmas midnight mass at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, December 25, 2020. Abed Al Hashlamoun/Pool via REUTERS

But on both sides of the Holy Land, as the Christian calendar progressed from Christmas to Easter, the faithful began to turn out again in greater numbers.

At the sites revered as places of Jesus’s early life and miracles there were cautious, masked celebrations.

In February beneath the Mount of Temptation, where tradition has it that Jesus was tempted by the devil, Jericho priest Father Mario Hadchiti said: "We have high hopes as believers living on this holy land, the land of prophets and saints, that we will overcome the pandemic and return to normal."

An aerial view shows a baptismal site known as Qasr el-Yahud on the River Jordan near Jericho in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 30, 2021. REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg

Early hopes that this year's Easter celebrations might be completely free of restrictions proved over-optimistic.

But at the start of Holy Week, the huge medieval doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre swung open to admit churchgoers.

On the spot in the southern courtyard where he had stood despondently a year earlier, a more upbeat, though still masked, Latin Patriarch emerged from the church flanked by Catholic clerics and worshippers before heading to the Mount of Olives for the traditional, albeit reduced, Palm Sunday procession.

Father Simon Khoury looks out as he opens the door of a room under renovation at his church in Kafr Kana, in northern Israel, March 15, 2021. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

"We feel more hopeful that things will become better," Pizzaballa said. "The message of Easter is life and love, despite all the signs of death, corona, pandemic, whatever, we believe in the power of love and life."

(Reporting by Stephen Farrell; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

A man looks up Greek Orthodox Patriarchate Street as snow falls on Ash Wednesday in Jerusalem's Old City, February 17, 2021. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo

A picture taken with a drone shows an aerial view of the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth in northern Israel, March 13, 2021. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

An aerial view shows snow falling over the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site (in the foreground) and the Dome of the Rock, located on the compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount (in the background) on Ash Wednesday, in Jerusalem, February 17, 2021. REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg/ File Photo

People pass two Stations of the Cross along the route of the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem's Old City, March 21, 2021. Reuters/Amir Cohen

An aerial view shows houses standing in Kafr Kana, a town that some Christians believe is the Biblical town of Cana where Jesus is said to have turned water into wine at a wedding, in northern Israel, March 16, 2021. REUTERS/Amir

An aerial view shows walls surrounding Jerusalem's Old City and The Dome of the Rock, located on the compound revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, in Jerusalem, March 30, 2021. REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg

Scouts take part in a Christian procession on the eve of the Feast of the Annunciation in Nazareth, northern Israel, March 24, 2021. This was the celebration of the announcement by the Archangel Gabriel to Mary that she would give birth to Jesus. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

An aerial view shows people taking part in a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Manger Square outside the Church of the Nativity, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Bethlehem, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, December 5, 2020. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

A picture taken with a drone shows an aerial view of a monastery standing on the Mount of Temptation near Jericho in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 2, 2021. REUTERS/Yosri Aljamal

A dog looks on as a man surfs on the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel, March 30, 2021. REUTERS/ Nir Elias

A priest leads a mass in the nearby Good Shepherd Church in Jericho in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 21, 2021. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma

An aerial view shows fishing boats sailing in the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel, March 9, 2021. REUTERS/Amir Cohen