Monastery of St. John in the Wilderness, Franciscan monastery in Even Sapir, Jerusalem, Israel

The Monastery of St. John in the Wilderness is a Franciscan monastery on the south-eastern cliff of Nahal Sorek, below Moshav Even Sapir and facing Sataf, not in Ein Karem. Its small church, under a dome and bell, has a cross-vaulted ceiling, fourteen Stations of the Cross marked in Roman numerals, and a wooden altar with the Jerusalem cross. A spring, Ain el-Habis, emerges beneath the church into an octagonal pool.

A 6th-century monastery stood here and was restored and enlarged under the Crusaders, who built a church and convent. In the Mamluk period the Georgians held the church and the Franciscans paid them rent for the building and adjacent garden; the Georgians made a final legal attempt to regain it in 1596. The present monastery and church, designed by Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi, were inaugurated in 1922, and Barluzzi declined credit for the work.

The monastery takes its Arabic name, Deir al-Habis, from the spring 'Ain el-Habis, the "spring of the hermit", which rises in a short tunnel beneath the church and feeds an octagonal pool whose eight sides recall a baptistery. The monks keep bees and make mead from spring water and honey, about 400 g of honey and 12 percent alcohol per litre, fermented in wooden barrels for a year.

The site can be visited throughout the year, and guests can join guided tours that lead through the rooms and grounds. Sturdy footwear is recommended since the monastery sits on a hillside and accessing the underground chambers involves stairs.

The spring of Ain el-Habis rises from Sorek-formation rock through a short tunnel beneath the church, at 550 m above sea level. Its water fills an octagonal ornamental pool whose eight sides stand for a baptistery; from there it flows to a storage basin and on to the monks' vegetable plots.