Vice President JD Vance said it was an ‘amazing blessing’ Thursday to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, where Christians believe Jesus Christ was crucified, buried and resurrected.
The visit came as Vance was visiting Israel to build upon the Trump administration’s ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
‘I am immensely grateful to the Greek, Armenian, and Catholic priests who care for this most sacred of places,’ Vance wrote on X on Thursday, sharing photos of his visit to the church. ‘May the Prince of Peace have mercy on us, and bless our efforts for peace.’
‘I am also grateful to the Franciscan monks who celebrated a private mass for my family and many of the Americans working for peace. They are a great credit to the Christian faith, and they were kind enough to take the time to minister to us at a very special moment,’ Vance added.
Vance previewed his church visit in remarks to reporters on Wednesday.
‘I hope to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which Christians believe is the site that Jesus Christ was crucified in,’ Vance said. ‘And I know that Christians have many titles for Jesus Christ, and one of them is the Prince of Peace. And I’d ask all people of faith, in particular my fellow Christians, to pray that the Prince of Peace can continue to work a miracle in this region of the world.’
‘I think that we have made incredible strides over the past week,’ he added. ‘We’re going to have to make a lot more. But I think with your prayers, with God’s providence, and with a very good team behind me, I think we’re going to get it done.’
The church was founded in 326 A.D., though the original fourth-century structure was destroyed by Islamic ruler al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah in 1009 A.D.
The site was taken over by Christian crusaders nearly a century later, and Francesca Stasolla, an archaeology professor at the Sapienza University of Rome, told Fox News Digital earlier this year that the still-standing church is largely the work of the crusaders.
‘The site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is identified as the place of both the crucifixion and the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth,’ the church’s website says. ‘The church has long been a major pilgrimage center for Christians worldwide.’
Before departing the country on Thursday, Vance categorized his trip to Israel as ‘productive,’ adding that so far, the ceasefire has seemed to hold for the most part.
‘The whole purpose of this trip was really to try to understand how to make the peace stick, how to move on to phase two successfully, and a big part of that is just understanding what would be necessary to police and secure Gaza so that on the one hand,’ Vance said. ‘We can provide stability and hopefully some humanitarian assistance to the Gazans, but on the other hand, ensure that Hamas is unable to threaten Israel. So it was a productive trip.’
Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, Vance said that the ‘very, very tough task’ ahead is to ‘disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza to make life better for the people in Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel.’
Fox News Digital’s Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.