Jerusalem is the focal point of the three monotheist religions of the world—Judaism, Christianity and Islam and is known to be one of the oldest cities. All three of them have a claim to the city of Jerusalem for reasons that are not widely understood by many. Today, Jerusalem is at the center of a great political controversy which affects not only the Jewish people and the Muslims and Arabs in the region, but Christians as well thus engulfing a major part of the globe. The sanctity of Jerusalem can be understood not just from the blood that has been shed in the modern conflict, but from the blood of the millions who have fought and been killed innocently in the thousands of years up till now.

Jerusalem is considered holy for Christians primarily because Jesus was born and crucified in those areas. They also hold it high because it was where Jesus spent the last days of his ministry, and where the Last Supper, and according to Christian beliefs the Crucifixion and the Resurrection took place. The Church of Mary Magdalene is one of the key sites that Christians consider sacred and in some cases make pilgrimage to those sites.

The Church of Mary Magdalene is a Russian Orthodox Church located on the Mount of Olives, near the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem. The church is dedicated to Mary Magdalene (Miryam of Migdal), who Christians believed was a follower of Jesus. According to the sixteenth chapter of the gospel of Mark (Christian text), Mary Magdalene was the first to see Christ after his resurrection.

9 When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons.

10 She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping.

11 When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.

12 Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country.

13 These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.

14 Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.

She is therefore considered a crucial and important disciple of Jesus, and seemingly his primary female associate, along with Mary of Bethany, whom some believe to have been the same woman.

Dedicated to Mary Magdalene, therefore the church has a very special role in the Russian national Orthodox Church. In 1886, Russian Czar Alexander III ordered the construction of a church to honor his mother, Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia.