(Death, Heaven, Purgatory, Hell)
Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults
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Question 11: Why do some crucifixes have a skull and bones underneath the corpus of Christ?
Answer: The explanation is that the mountain upon which the Old City of Jerusalem is built was called Golgoltha, which means “the Skull.” On top of this mountain stands the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The name Golgoltha has entered the Christian tradition as “Golgotha,” and the site has become sacred. The word was translated into Latin, and is now known as Calvary.
Why was the mountain called Golgoltha–the Skull? According to an ancient legend, cited by early Christian sources as a Jewish tradition, the skull of Adam, the first man, lies hidden in this mountain. It is also told that Shem, son of Noah the righteous, hid this skull here after he left the ark, at the end of the flood on the earth.
Christian lore relates that when Jesus was crucified on Mount Golgoltha, a drop of his blood fell to the earth, touched the skull of Adam and revived in it a breath of life for a fleeting moment.
In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Mount Golgotha there is a large hall in the possession of the Greeks. They call it Catholicon. On the floor of the Catholicon stands a large bowl, which marks the central point of the world. Therefore it is called the “Navel of the Earth.”
The legend of the Catholicon is parallel to the Hebrew tradition, which tells that the navel of the earth is in the Foundation Stone, on nearby Mount Moriah, the site of the Temple in ancient days. The sages of Israel relate that, “The Almighty created the world in the same manner as a child is formed in its mother’s womb. Just as the child begins to grow from its navel and then develops into its full form, so the world began from its central point and then developed in all directions.”
