Monastery of St. John in the Wilderness

Monastery of St. John in the Wilderness is a Franciscan monastery built next to a spring on a wooded slope just north of Even Sapir and south of Jerusalem, Israel.

In the Mamluk period the church was in hands of Georgians.

Franciscans paid the Georgians rent for the building and adjacent garden.

The Georgians made a final attempt to regain the monastery by legal means in 1596.

The monastery celebrates the childhood wanderings of John the Baptist in this region. Born close by in Ein Karem according to tradition, Luke tells us that John "grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel".