JD Vance Visits The Site Of Jesus Christ’s Death And Burial In Jerusalem

Vice President JD Vance on Thursday visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, an ancient church in Jerusalem believed to be the site of both the crucifixion and tomb of Jesus Christ, and one of the holiest Christian sites in the world.

“What an amazing blessing to have visited the site of Christ’s death and resurrection,” the vice president said after his visit. “I am immensely grateful to the Greek, Armenian, and Catholic priests who care for this most sacred of places. May the Prince of Peace have mercy on us, and bless our efforts for peace.”

Vance, who is Catholic, spent about 90 minutes inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where he went to confession and attended a private mass.

Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance tour the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Thursday, October 23, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Emily J. Higgins.)

The church not only holds the “Tomb of Christ,” which pilgrims venerate as the site of Jesus Christ’s burial and resurrection, but also “Golgatha” or Calvary, the site of the crucifixion, which pilgrims can climb to via a tall stairwell, the “Stone of the Anointing,” where Jesus Christ’s body is believed to have been prepared for burial, the “Prison of Christ,” where Jesus Christ is believed to have been held before he was crucified, the “Chapel of Adam,” below Golgatha, believed to be the location where the skull of Adam, documented in the Bible as the father of the human race, was buried.

Constantine the Great originally built a church on that site, which was dedicated about 336 AD, then burned by the Persians in the year 614 AD, restored by an abbot, destroyed again by an Islamic caliph around 1009, restored by a Byzantine emperor, further rebuilt by Crusaders in the 12th century, and preserved throughout the years until now. The current structure of the church is mostly dated to 1810.

Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance tour the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Thursday, October 23, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Emily J. Higgins.)

Vance and his wife visited all the main sites inside the church, according to the vice president’s print pooler, beginning with the Stone of the Anointing, where a bishop laid out a red pillow for the vice president to kneel on. Vance knelt on the pillow, made the sign of the cross, bowed his head, put his hand on the slab, and prayed. His wife watched as her husband venerated the stone, where the body of Jesus Christ is believed to have been laid out as he was prepared for burial.

???? Vice President ⁦@JDVance⁩ exits the Chapel of the Angel in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre pic.twitter.com/H0wOerkCBa

— Luke Schroeder (@Luke__Schroeder) October 23, 2025

When the Vances went up to Calvary, they each lit a candle. They also lit candles downstairs in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, using a flame that is reportedly transferred by candle from Jesus Christ’s tomb to that spot every day, meaning that the flame on their candles had been within the tomb.

A bishop who spoke with Vance’s press pooler, Francesca Chambers of USA Today, shared that he was lighting two white candles from the flame that he intended to send back to the White House. That bishop was the superior of the Armenian side of the church.

“We are sending these lights to the White House,” the bishop told Chambers. “May God bless America, the United States and Armenia and our friendship.”

Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance tour the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Thursday, October 23, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Emily J. Higgins.)

Photos of the visit show Vance standing at the Calvary altar in apparent contemplation, lighting a candle, and speaking with the clergy who were guiding him throughout the Christian site.

Vance is now on his way back to the United States after his visit to Israel, where he slammed a vote in the Israeli Knesset on the annexation of the West Bank.

“The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel. That will continue to be our policy,” Vance said before he boarded Air Force Two to return home. “And if people want to take symbolic votes, they can do that. But we certainly weren’t happy about it.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that “the Knesset vote on annexation was a deliberate political provocation by the opposition to sow discord during Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Israel.”

“The two bills were sponsored by opposition members of the Knesset,” Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday. “The Likud party and the religious parties (the principal coalition members) did not vote for these bills, except for one disgruntled Likud member who was recently fired from the chairmanship of a Knesset committee. Without Likud support these bills are unlikely to go anywhere.”