open house visit

Can Anyone Go to an Open House? What Should I Know Before I Show Up?

• House Hunting
• Open Houses
• Published on April 26th, 2021

Evette is just your average HGTV fan who dreams of having a home worthy of being on one of those shows. When she isn't writing for HomeLight, she's working at her local real estate office. In her downtime, you'll find her searching for the next great hiking trail in her area.

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At HomeLight, our vision is a world where every real estate transaction is simple, certain, and satisfying. Therefore, we promote strict  editorial integrity in each of our posts.

Picture this: You’re out for a lovely weekend drive to no place in particular, and you spot a gorgeous house with an open house sign out front — balloons and all. You may not be in the market to buy, but curiosity makes you wonder, “Can anyone go to an open house?”

We’ve answered that question and many more in our primer for buyers (and anyone else!) interested in attending open houses. Read on to learn more.

Can anyone go to an open house?

Short answer: Yes, anyone can go to an open house, hence why it’s called an open house.

However, going to an open house is a bit more nuanced than walking in and poking around. Anyone can indeed go to one of these events, but you also need to follow proper open house etiquette because there will be people there who are genuinely interested in the property.

Let’s look at why people will go to an open house and how you will be expected to behave if you attend, too.

Who typically attends an open house?

There are four types of people who typically attend an open house.

The serious buyer

You’d think that the most common open house attendees are those who are genuinely interested in the property. Still, the National Association of RealtorsⓇ (NAR) reveals that only 6% of buyers found their home via an open house. Despite this, the serious buyer at an open house is a beacon of hope for the listing agent because that means the buyer has done the legwork and is ready to buy.

The buyer knows what type of mortgage loan they qualify for and will have a preapproval letter (there’s a difference between preapproval and pre-qualification ) in hand. They’re working with a top-selling real estate agent and are ready to draw up the papers to submit an offer if the buyer wants to go to the next step.

The first-time homebuyer

The first-time homebuyer typically starts their quest to find their dream home by going to open houses. These attendees may be in the market to buy, and they may not know what exactly they’re looking for in a home.

For this type of buyer, they want to attend different open houses to figure out whether the neighborhood is right for them and how much house they can get within their budget. They are weighing their options and are trying to figure out what’s best for their family.

The curious voyeur

Have you ever driven past a neighbor’s house and wonder what the home looked like inside? Do you wonder what kind of upgrades and renovations they’ve done? Maybe you met the owner and want to know if their design style reflects their personality. Perhaps you’re thinking about listing your house and want to see how your home stacks up to others in the area.

The curious voyeur can be anyone: a neighbor, a former owner, an agent looking at houses for their clients, or someone who wants to know what they can do to increase the home’s value .

Simply put, these people have no intention of buying and just want to satisfy their curiosity or get ideas for their home renovations.

The possessive buyer

This type of potential buyer is someone who loves the property and dreams about owning it. They may have driven past the home numerous times, and from the moment the house hits the market, they’re constantly checking to see when there will be an open house .

When they finally see an open house sign, they jump at the chance to go inside. When they do go inside, they instantly know that it’s the one .

These potential buyers become so possessive of the property that they are willing to do whatever they can to dissuade other attendees from adding the property to their list of maybes. They may chat up with other attendees and complain about the price or the neighborhood. They may point out the flaws and what upgrades the house needs.

The dos and don’ts of attending an open house

Regardless which category you fall into, if you’re going to your first open house, there are some dos and don’ts to keep in mind about going to an open house.

Do: Be honest if you already have an agent

As soon as you walk in, let the hosting agent know your intentions and if you’re working with an agent. Mike Nemecek , an experienced agent from the Green Bay Area who sells houses 78% faster than other agents, gives some insight:

“It’s common courtesy to let the person hosting the open house know that you’re already working with someone. It lets the hosting agent know there isn’t a possibility of working together in the future. More or less, it’s managing expectations.”

Don’t: Lie about why you’re there

Understandably, you might feel awkward going to an open house if you aren’t a serious buyer. You might feel like you have to give a fake name or contact information on the sign-in sheet because it’s just a waste of the agent’s time when they try to follow up with attendees.

But when the agent talks to you, don’t be afraid to tell the truth.

“I’ve had people come through and say they’re thinking of listing their house and wanted to see who was listing the house. There are a variety of reasons why someone would go to an open house.

“It’s always best to be upfront with the agent. It’ll save time for both the agent and yourself,” shares Nemecek.

Do: Keep your hands to yourself

A cardinal rule of going to an open house is to respect the homeowner and keep your hands to yourself.

“You’re in someone else’s home, so you shouldn’t touch their things. You’re welcome to go through any rooms that have the doors open, but if the door isn’t open, you shouldn’t go inside. You can see these rooms during a private showing with your agent,” Nemecek advises.

Don’t: Overstay your welcome by lingering too long

What’s changed about open houses in recent months? In 2020, NAR released open house guidelines for open houses during a pandemic and one of those guidelines states there shouldn’t be more than 10 people in attendance at a time.

According to Nemecek, there isn’t a set time limit to open houses, but the typical open house lasts from an hour to an hour and a half, which isn’t a lot of time. When it’s a strong seller’s market and you’re not looking to buy, you should be mindful of other attendees who are considering buying the home and try not to spend too much time touring the property. However, if you are a serious buyer, you can “spend as much time as you feel necessary.”

Do: Keep criticisms to yourself

As a kid, you’ve probably been told that if you have nothing good to say, keep your comments to yourself. This is also true when you’re attending an open house.

You are inside someone’s home, and while you may have some criticisms, try to save the badmouthing until after the visit. Should you fall in love with the house and put in an offer to buy, you could wind up in a situation where there are multiple offers on the home. If the homeowner overheard your criticisms, they may decide not to accept your offer because of that.

Don’t: Let your children run wild

Parents who want to go to an open house will usually call a sitter … but, if they have no choice and you have to bring the kids along, you do not want to leave them unsupervised while you’re looking around.

“Make sure your children stay with you — don’t let them out of your sight. Everyone has to understand their child’s behavior and if your kids aren’t disciplined, it’s best to leave them home or with a sitter,” explains Nemecek.

Again, this is someone’s home, and you don’t want your children to cause any damage because they were careless or engaging in horseplay.

Do: Honor house rules

When you’re in an open house, the hosting agent will give you a few guidelines that the owner has laid out.

This could be anything from asking you to wear booties or taking your shoes off before going through the house, to informing you that you can (or requesting that you do not) take photos or videos of the home. They’ll tell you what rooms you can and cannot go into, and so on.

And in light of the pandemic and what we learned about cleanliness and public health, they may ask you to use hand sanitizer when you walk inside or before touching any doorknobs or light switches, to wear a mask while inside, or to follow other safety precautions.

Yes, anyone can go to an open house

It may feel like open house etiquette has a shroud of mystery surrounding it, but it’s not nearly as mysterious as we think. You don’t have to be a serious buyer working with a real estate agent to attend one.

You can attend an open house to get ideas for your home renovation or if you find one during your Sunday drive. Not only that, if you’re thinking about putting your own home on the market, you can go to one and get an idea of what other houses in the neighborhood are selling for.

Regardless of the why, as someone attending an open house, you do have to abide by the rules set by the homeowner. After all, it is still their home!

Header Image Source: (Jonathan Borba / Unsplash)

Evette Zalvino

Contributing Author

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Ashley Judd, Aloe Blacc open up about deaths of Naomi Judd, Avicii in White House visit

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Ashley Judd and Aloe Blacc visited the White House on Tuesday to promote the Biden Administration’s newly formed National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and federal action plan, speaking candidly about the deaths of Judd’s mother, country-music star Naomi Judd , and Blacc’s frequent collaborator Avicii .

“I’ve learned in recovery that I can pretend to care but I can’t pretend to show up,” Ashley Judd said on a panel discussion alongside Vivek Murthy, surgeon general of the U.S., and Shelby Rowe, executive director of the Suicide Prevention Research Center.

“I’m here because I am my beloved mother’s daughter and on the day she died, which will be the two-year anniversary in one week, the disease of mental illness was lying to her and with great terror convinced her that it would never get better,” Judd continued.

The actor and advocate said she firmly believes that “we deserve to be remembered not just for how we died but how we lived.” She spoke about her mother’s early days growing up in the Appalachian region of eastern Kentucky and how Naomi Judd loved “holding an audience’s attention,” and asserted that her mom “left country music better than she found it.”

What not to ask the loved ones of those who have died by suicide

Questions like ‘Did you know?’ have little to do with the person who died or the ones grieving and everything to do with the person doing the asking.

Feb. 18, 2024

The 76-year-old country star died in April 2022, a day before mother-daughter duo the Judds — made up of Naomi and eldest daughter Wynnona — was inducted into Country Music Hall of Fame. The family initially said they lost her “to the disease of mental illness.” Then, weeks later, Ashley Judd confirmed during a “Good Morning America” interview that her mother had used a gun to end her life.

On Tuesday, the “Divergent Series” alum noted again that Naomi Judd was a “survivor of childhood and adult male sexual violence” and became a nurse who sometimes relied on public assistance. She said her mother was fighting “an unseen disease” for most of her life and, “untreated and undiagnosed,” it “stole from her and it stole from our family, and she deserved better.”

A day after Naomi Judd’s death, her daughters usher the Judds into country hall of fame

A day after Naomi Judd’s death, the Country Music Hall of Fame moved forward with the induction of her and daughter Wynonna. It was a tearful affair.

May 2, 2022

The 56-year-old also opened up about her own mental health struggles and successes. She experienced childhood depression after being molested at age 7, she said, and, because of that she knew well the feeling of “not wanting to be here.” However, she started treatment in 2006 for her unresolved childhood grief and sexual trauma.

“I’ve been in good recovery for 18 years and I’ve had a different outcome than my mother,” the “All That Is Bitter and Sweet” memoirist said. “I carry a message of hope and recovery.”

Judd said she relied on her “chosen family” to process her mother’s death, as Aloe Blacc did with his own after Avicii’s suicide .

The “I Need a Doll” and “The Man” hitmaker opened up about how he processed the death of the Swedish DJ, real name Tim Bergling, who died in 2018 .

“The outpouring of love that came from our community of fans was really helpful, helping me get through his passing,” Blacc said. “The family and friends within our circle were also very, very helpful and supportive. Not everybody has that kind of support, and so of course I’ve got a unique experience.”

Ashley Judd says mom Naomi Judd suffered a ‘level of catastrophe’ before her suicide

On ‘Good Morning America’ on Thursday, actor Ashley Judd said her mother, country star Naomi Judd, used a firearm to take her life on April 30.

May 12, 2022

Blacc encouraged people “to offer a moment of joy” when they reach out and to share a positive memory that’s going to bring the person joy. He also elaborated on his fellow panelists’ remarks about how people can “show up” for someone who is having suicidal ideation, explaining that he and his friends have since created “a system of check-ins from everyone within this constellation of support” to help loved ones in need.

“Don’t worry if you’re saying the wrong thing. I think what it comes down to is reaching out and making that connection, and I don’t think there’s some such thing as too much love. Let’s give as much as we can,” he said.

Therapy Elmo? Social media manager weighs in on Elmo’s inadvertent mental health check

Elmo’s 25-year-old Sesame Workshop social media manager was also behind his 2022 feud with Abby’s pet rock, Rocco: ‘Lightning did strike twice — and then some.’

Feb. 1, 2024

Overseeing Tuesday’s panel and advocating for the administration’s federal action plan was Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris. Emhoff said the plan aims to reduce the country’s roughly 132 suicides a day.

“We’re here today because we know that we can and will change this,” he said. “Suicide is preventable.”

Suicide prevention and crisis counseling resources

If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, seek help from a professional and call 9-8-8. The United States’ first nationwide three-digit mental health crisis hotline 988 will connect callers with trained mental health counselors. Text “HOME” to 741741 in the U.S. and Canada to reach the Crisis Text Line .

More to Read

Savannah Chrisley joined ‘Masked Singer’ for imprisoned parents Todd and Julie, she says

March 14, 2024

Regina King says son Ian is ‘always with me,’ breaking her silence two years after his death

Amid Bruce Willis’ dementia, Demi Moore urges sufferers’ families to ‘stay in the present’

Jan. 31, 2024

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Join a student-led campus walking tour to learn about important buildings, resources and the student experience at UMD. Geared toward high school and transfer students, this tour is 60-90 minutes long. Registration required. See available dates on our calendar.

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Our next Discover Maryland will be held in February 2024. This day long event is geared toward high school sophomores/juniors. Discover Maryland is an opportunity to see what UMD has to offer, hear from current students, speak with academic departments and support services, learn about admissions and tour campus. Registration is required.

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Congratulations on your admission to the University of Maryland! Whether or not you've already had a chance to visit campus or connect with us elsewhere, we encourage you to take advantage of the following opportunities just for admitted students.

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This day-long program is geared toward newly admitted students and their families. You'll connect with representatives from your admitted major, hear from current students about their experiences and explore campus resources.

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From bauhaus to beinhaus.

Moscow metro

Buried treasure: The splendor of the Moscow Metro system

Owen hatherley the calvert journal january 29, 2013.

. Reposted from  The Calvert Journal , a daily briefing on the culture and creativity of modern Russia.

. Post-Communist underground stations in Moscow, like the recently completed Pyatnitskoye shosse, are still, very visibly, Moscow Metro stations. Regardless of the need or otherwise for nuclear shelters, they’re still buried deep in the ground; ubiquitous still is the expensive, laborious, but highly legible and architecturally breathtaking practice of providing high-ceilinged vaults with the trains leaving from either side. There have been attempts at “normal” metro lines, like the sober stations built under Khrushchev, or the “Light Metro” finished in 2003, but they didn’t catch on. Largely, the model developed in the mid-1930s continues, and not just in Moscow — extensions in Kiev or St Petersburg, or altogether new systems in Kazan or Almaty, carry on this peculiar tradition. Metro stations are still being treated as palaces of the people, over two decades after the “people’s” states collapsed. This could be a question of maintaining quality control, but then quality is not conspicuous in the Russian built environment. So why does this endure?

. The original, 1930s Moscow Metro was the place where even the most skeptical fellow travellers threw away their doubts and surrendered. Bertolt Brecht wrote an awe-filled poem on the subject, “The Moscow Workers Take Possession of the Great Metro on April 27, 1935,” dropping his habitual irony and dialectic to describe the Metro workers perusing the system they’d built on the day of its opening. At the end, the poet gasps, his guard down, “This is the grand picture that once upon a time/ rocked the writers who foresaw it” — that is, that here, at least, a dream of “Communism” had been palpably built. It was not an uncommon reaction, then or now, nostalgia notwithstanding. The first stations, those Brecht was talking about, were not particularly over-ornamented, especially by the standards of what came later, but their extreme opulence and spaciousness was still overwhelming. Stations like Sokolniki or Kropotkinskaya didn’t bludgeon with classical reminisces and mosaics. Yet three things about the underground designs created by architects Alexei Dushkin, Ivan Fomin, Dmitry Chechulin et al were unprecedented in any previous public transport network, whether Charles Holden’s London, Alfred Grenander’s Berlin or Hector Guimard’s Paris. First, the huge size of the halls, their high ceilings and widely-spaced columns; second, the quality of the materials, with various coloured marbles shipped in from all over the USSR; and third, the lighting, emerging from individually-designed, surreal chandeliers, often murkily atmospheric, designed to create mood rather than light.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDC9Fd7UT9w] Continue reading →

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April 26, 2024 - Protests at Columbia and other schools escalate

By Elizabeth Wolfe, Dalia Faheid, Aya Elamroussi, Nouran Salahieh, Samantha Delouya, Aditi Sangal and Tori B. Powell, CNN

Our live coverage of the protests has moved here .

NYPD says "outside agitators" at Columbia are "trying to hijack a peaceful protest"

From CNN’s Josh Campbell

"Outside agitators" at Columbia are "trying to hijack a peaceful protest," New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry said Friday night.

“What may have started as a group of Columbia students wanting to express their constitutional right to protest has drawn crowds of outside agitators who are trying to hijack a peaceful protest and turn it something far more sinister,” Daughtry  posted on X.

The commissioner added the NYPD has seen the same groups of “professional protestors” demonstrating nightly “at various demonstrations regardless of the message.”

Daughtry reiterated the NYPD is ready to intervene and address issues on Columbia’s campus as soon as the university’s president gives them the go-ahead.

Pro-Palestinian protests continue at campuses across the US. Here’s the latest

Pro-Palestinian protests continued at major US universities through Friday evening decrying Israel's bombardment of Gaza.

Throughout the week, several schools called police on protesters, leading to the arrests of hundreds across the country. Protesters have demanded schools divest campus funds from entities connected to Israel.

Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave's health ministry. Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack on Israel killed about 1,200 people.

College administrators are facing increasing pressure from lawmakers to rein in protests. At Columbia - the epicenter of the demonstrations - the school's senate passed a resolution late Friday to investigate the university leadership’s handling of the protests. 

Here are the latest developments:

Arizona State University: Police at Arizona State University arrested three people Friday on suspicion of trespassing "in connection with setting up an unauthorized encampment," a university spokesperson said.

Barnard College: The school said it reached resolutions with “nearly all students who were previously placed on interim suspension” for participating in the protest encampment on Columbia’s campus.

Columbia University: The university banned a student spokesperson for the Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition who said in January “Zionists don’t deserve to live.” He subsequently apologized.

Denver campuses: At a joint campus for the University of Colorado Denver, Community College of Denver and Metropolitan State University of Denver, around 40 of the approximately 100 people who set up a pro-Palestinian encampment were arrested Friday, the campus said in a statement.

Emory University: Faculty gathered on campus to express concerns about the violent arrests that took place on campus on Thursday, with tenured professors calling for the university's president, Gregory Fenves, to step down over the decision to call in state and local police to clear out the protesters. 

George Washington University: The university said Friday that any student who remains in University Yard may be placed on temporary suspension and administratively barred from campus.

Ohio State University: A total of 36 demonstrators were arrested Thursday night after refusing dispersal orders, according to a preliminary report from the university.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: More than 75 students gathered Friday to set up an encampment at the school, demanding the university divest from corporations that invest in Israel and its military operations.

University of Southern California: School president Carol L. Folt said  in a statement the campus has become unsafe and the university will launch an inquiry and take action to protect all USC students, faculty and staff.

University of Texas at Austin: The school has placed the Palestine Solidarity Committee on "interim suspension." The group organized Wednesday's event, where over 50 arrests ensued.

Virginia Tech: School officials on Friday issued a statement about an encampment on campus, saying they told protesters the event does not comply with university policy.

Yale University: One letter from the  Faculty for Justice in Palestine  organization criticized student arrests this week and said faculty are prepared to stage walkouts and boycott Yale’s graduation ceremonies. Another letter  denounced Yale's administration  for failing "in your responsibility to protect the Jewish students, staff and faculty at Yale." 

Around 40 people were arrested for establishing encampment at joint campus of 3 universities in Denver

From CNN's Sarah Dewberry, Lucy Kafanov and Taylor Romine

Around 40 of the approximately 100 people who set up a pro-Palestinian encampment at the Auraria Campus in Denver were arrested Friday, the campus said in a statement. 

The campus  is home to  the University of Colorado Denver, Community College of Denver as well as the Metropolitan State University of Denver. The arrests were made by Auraria Higher Education Center Police and the Denver Police Department.

"While those who gathered at the onset of Thursday’s protest did so peacefully, some participants established an encampment as the demonstration progressed, which violates those policies," a the campus said.

Campus and education department officials directed students to dismantle and leave the encampment, and after "protestors did not comply after numerous written and verbal requests, law enforcement stepped in at approximately 12:30 p.m. on Friday to remove the encampments," the campus statement continued.

Barnard College reaches "resolution" with students placed on interim suspension

From CNN’s Artemis Moshtaghian

Barnard College said it reached resolutions with “nearly all students who were previously placed on interim suspension” for participating in the protest encampment on Columbia’s campus.

The college “immediately restored full access for these students to residence halls, dining facilities, classrooms, and other parts of campus,” according to a statement from the school released Friday.

At least 55 Barnard students were placed on interim suspension for participating in Columbia’s protest encampment, according to a  statement  from Barnard’s Student Government Association. 

Barnard College declined to comment on the number of students suspended.

Columbia's senate passes resolution to investigate administration’s handling of Pro-Palestinian protests

From CNN’s Maria Sole Campinoti

Columbia University's senate voted in favor of a resolution to create a task force to investigate the university leadership's handling of Pro-Palestinian protests on campus, according to documents obtained by CNN.

The resolution passed Friday alleges, among other things, that the administration jeopardized academic freedom, breached privacy and due process of students and faculty members and violated shared governance principles by calling for police intervention on campus, according to documents on the meeting. 

After the investigation, the task force will present its findings and recommendations to the university's senate to determine further actions and take the necessary steps to address the alleged misconduct of the administration, according to the documents. 

Some context: The decision comes after the school and university president Minouche Shafik faced criticism from students, faculty and left-leaning lawmakers after Shafik authorized the New York Police Department to shut down student protests on campus, which have urged school leaders to cut off economic and academic ties to Israel. At the same time, students, religious groups and right-leaning lawmakers have said the administration has failed to stop antisemitism inside Columbia’s campus and at protests outside its gates, CNN  previously reported .

Columbia's senate represents people on campus, including faculty, researchers, students, administration and more, according to the school's website . The body has the authority to make policies on a variety of issues that affect the school.

3 people arrested in connection with setting up an encampment at Arizona State University

From CNN’s Taylor Romine

Police at Arizona State University arrested three people Friday “for trespassing in connection with setting up an unauthorized encampment, in violation of university policy,” a university spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.

“Demonstrations, protests and expressions of free speech are protected at Arizona State University, consistent with the First Amendment. Peaceful expression of views is always acceptable – but demonstrations cannot disrupt university operations,” the statement says.

Encampments, unless they are part of an approved event, are prohibited by the university, the spokesperson said in an earlier statement.

USC president says school became unsafe and that she took steps to protect the community amid protests

From CNN's Stephanie Becker and Nick Watt 

The University of Southern California needed to "act immediately to protect our community" when it came to protests on campus this week, school president Carol L. Folt said  in a statement .

 "This week, Alumni Park became unsafe. No one wants to have people arrested on their campus. Ever," she said. "But, when long-standing safety policies are flagrantly violated, buildings vandalized, DPS directives repeatedly ignored, threatening language shouted, people assaulted, and access to critical academic buildings blocked, we must act immediately to protect our community."

The university has "long-standing protocols that allow for peaceful protesting" and has been working with the school community to ensure they are followed during the school year, Folt said.

"The current pressures and polarization have taken a toll in ways that break my heart," she said. "I know Trojans will do what they have always done: share points of view, listen, search for common ground – and find ways to support each other."

She encouraged anyone in the campus community experiencing harassment or bullying to report it to the school, saying it would launch an inquiry and take action to protect students, faculty and staff "no matter their views."

Columbia student protest leader banned from campus after saying "Zionists don’t deserve to live"

From CNN’s John Towfighi

Columbia University has banned one of the students leading the university’s pro-Palestinian protests, a university spokesperson told CNN on Friday.  

Khymani James, a student spokesperson for Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) coalition, acknowledged in a post on X that he said, “Zionists don’t deserve to live,” saying it was from an Instagram Live video taken in January.

“I misspoke in the heat of the moment, for which I apologize," James wrote.

“I want to make clear that calls of violence and statements targeted at individuals based on their religious, ethnic or national identity are unacceptable and violate university policy,” the university spokesperson said.

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• International

Protests at Columbia and other schools escalate

Chandelis Duster, Christina Zdanowicz and Lucy Bayly

House Speaker Johnson to visit Columbia University Wednesday

From CNN's Melanie Zanona

House Speaker Mike Johnson will head to Columbia University Wednesday to visit with Jewish students and deliver remarks and hold a press conference “regarding the troubling rise of virulent antisemitism on America’s college campuses,” according to his office.

This comes as pro-Palestinian protests have rocked major American universities, including Columbia. After days of tense demonstrations, Columbia University announced it is  moving to mostly hybrid classes  on its main campus until the end of the semester, April 29.

New York House Republicans have called on Columbia president Minouche Shafik to resign immediately for failing to crack down on the protests.

Students, faculty and staff at University of New Mexico protest in support of Gaza

From CNN's Taylor Romine

Students, faculty and staff at the University of New Mexico started protesting Monday in support of Gaza and have done so peacefully, the university said in a statement Tuesday. 

On Tuesday, "members of our UNM community assembled at the UNM Duck Pond in peaceful protest," the statement said. Some people brought tents and sleeping bags, which is in violation of school policy, and campus police told them citations or arrests would occur if not removed, they said. 

"Police monitored the situation throughout the evening, without incident, and around midnight advised those who were remaining that their tents needed to be taken down or they would be cited," the statement said. "The tents were eventually taken down, with some people remaining at the duck pond."

As of Tuesday, there are about a dozen people at the duck pond with banners and chairs, but no tents, the statement said, and the university continues to monitor the situation. 

"The University is grateful to our entire community for modeling how protests can occur in a way that both upholds freedom of expression and ensures a safe and productive campus environment for everyone," the statement said. 

Students at Columbia University encampment say they plan to occupy until demands are met

From CNN's Omar Jimenez and Taylor Romine

Students occupying the West Lawn at Columbia University said Tuesday they are planning on staying there until the university meets their demands of divestment.

They are asking for a “complete divestment” from anything related to Israel, financial transparency into the university’s investments and amnesty from any disciplinary measures for students participating in the protests.  

“This is what we are here for – calling for an end to genocide and for Columbia to financially divest from the violent Zionist settler entity,” a student who identified themself as W told CNN. 

“We are putting our principles into action, and we plan to continue to do so by being here every day until Columbia divests." 

The group is in negotiations with the university through a legal negotiator, said student organizer Khymani James, who declined to share details of the negotiations.  

When asked about the encampment making Jewish students feel unsafe on campus, W said protesters try their best “to make sure everyone feels safe in the encampment," and their community guidelines “preach and hope for peace continuously.” 

Columbia University officials warn ongoing encampment is in violation of university rules

From CNN's Sara Smart

Columbia University officials warned Tuesday that the ongoing encampment is in violation of university rules — but school leaders have not given specifics on disciplinary actions.

“The safety of our community is our number one priority,” university spokesperson Ben Chang said in a press conference Tuesday afternoon. “That includes the safety of the encampment that continues to grow. We are watching this closely.”

University officials met with student organizers until 2 am ET Tuesday to discuss the situation, Chang said. “Columbia students have the right to protest but they are not allowed to disrupt campus life or harass and intimidate fellow students and members of our community," he added.

Chang said acts of vandalism, reports of harassment and discrimination have all been reported during the ongoing protest.

Officials will not release the specifics of student suspensions as “disciplinary actions continue” on campus.

Harvard Yard is closed with no visible demonstrators

From CNN's Isabel Rosales and Matt Egan

Harvard Yard is closed and people associated with the university require permission to be in the area, a CNN team on site reports, adding no demonstrators could be seen from CNN's viewpoint. 

"Harvard affiliates must produce their ID card when requested. Structures, including tents and tables, are not permitted in the Yard without prior permission," the sign posted on a gate says. "Blocking pedestrian pathways or access to building entrances is prohibited. Students violating these policies are subject to disciplinary action."

As of Sunday, the university has limited access to Harvard Yard to those with school identification, the university confirmed to CNN Monday.

A few miles away at Emerson College, about 20 tents were set up in an alley leading up to the school with signs that read "Emerson Demands Ceasefire" and "from the river to the sea," a phrase that demands equal rights and the independence of Palestinians, although in some cases is intended to call for the abolishment of Israel.

New York City mayor says “outside agitators” are causing problems at student protests

From CNN's Mark Morales

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday authorities have identified “outside agitators” causing problems at the mostly peaceful student protests at Columbia, NYU and other schools in the city. 

“We can’t have outside agitators come in and be disruptive,” the mayor said at a news conference Tuesday.

“We need to address this while it’s a spark. Let’s not wait until it’s a blaze,” Adams said. The mayor's administration will be meeting with the heads of universities Tuesday to go over best practices for how they can keep students protesting peacefully. 

A key part of that, he said, is keeping protesters who are not students off the campus. That may mean sharing intel by identifying some known protesters to the universities. 

CNN's Chris Boyette contributed to this report.

President Biden aware of campus protests in this "painful moment" for communities

From CNN's DJ Judd

President Joe Biden is “of course aware” of pro-Palestinian protests that have roiled college campuses across the country, the White House said Tuesday.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates told reporters traveling with Biden on Air Force One that the administration is “monitoring these situations closely,” taking the opportunity to condemn what he called “alarming rhetoric,” at some student protests.

“[The president]’s, of course, aware of the protests — we know that this is a painful moment for many communities, we respect that, and we support every American's right to peacefully protest, that's something that we have been consistent about,” Bates said.

“But as I said, when we witness calls for violence, physical intimidation, hateful, anti-Semitic rhetoric, those are unacceptable. We will denounce them. The president knows that silence is complicity and that's why he uses the platforms he has to try and ensure that our fellow Americans are safe.” 

But he wouldn’t say what the administration thinks of some Republicans’ call to deploy the National Guard to respond to campus protests at Columbia University. Bates added that the decision to deploy National Guard members would fall to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.

A complex time for the Passover Seder

From CNN's Nicole Goodkind

Passover is a Jewish holiday symbolizing emancipation. But this year, with the backdrop of the war against Hamas, still-missing Israeli hostages and devastating civilian causalities in Gaza, the celebration — and the conversations around it — will be more complex for many who will be partaking.

Rabbi Jan Uhrbach, the founding director of the Block/Kolker Center for Spiritual Arts at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, told CNN she will host two Passover Seders this year.

“The whole ritual of the Seder is grounded in the notion that when we speak to each other in deep, holy ways, and we listen in deep holy ways, that’s what brings redemption,” she said. “It’s about uncovering the complexity of what we’re seeing. It’s about uncovering the struggles, the things that are hard to talk about. Not only because we worry that someone may disagree, but because we have trouble articulating what we ourselves may feel and believe.”

It’s important to remember that discussions at the Seder table could get contentious in part because people care, not because they want to hurt one another, she said.

“We human beings long for things to be simple, especially to be morally simple,” she said. “We want clear good guys and bad guys that enable us to feel like we are right. But the reality of morality isn’t like that. The reality of a moral life for a mature person is that we make complex choices.”

Rabbi Uhrbach says that this year’s Seder is ultimately about gratitude.

“We’re all here at the same table,” she said. “That’s what matters.”

Nine arrested at University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus after pro-Palestine encampment formed 

Nine people were arrested Tuesday morning at the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus after they formed an encampment that went against school policy, the university told CNN in a statement. 

The university's Department of Public Safety received reports Tuesday morning of an encampment near the Northrop Mall on the Twin Cities campus, the statement said. Police arrived around 6 am local time and told those at the encampment "they were in violation of both  University policy  and state trespassing law," they said. 

Police asked the group to disperse by 7 am and told they would be arrested if they stayed. Nine people remained who were arrested without incident, the statement said. 

The Faculty, Librarians, Alumni, Graduate Students, and Staff for Justice in Palestine at the University of Minnesota (FLAGS JP)  posted video on their social media Tuesday  showing the encampment in support of "unconditional solidarity with Palestine and demand an end to the genocide and apartheid." CNN has reached out to the group for comment on the arrests. 

The university said in its statement it "supports and respects free speech through lawful protest" and "supports the rights of all members of our University community to speak and demonstrate peacefully." 

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Middle East crisis: Israel has agreed to listen to US concerns before any Rafah invasion, says White House – as it happened

Israel has started to meet commitments it made to Joe Biden on allowing aid into the north of Gaza, says White House national security spokesperson

• 2h ago Closing summary
• 3h ago White House: Israel has agreed to listen to US concerns before any Rafah invasion
• 5h ago Hamas delegation to visit Cairo on Monday for Gaza ceasefire talks - official
• 5h ago French foreign minister calls for calm during second visit to Lebanon
• 6h ago Summary of the day so far...
• 7h ago Death toll in Gaza reaches 34,454, says health ministry
• 8h ago Palestinian president 'expects Israeli assault on Rafah to happen in the next days'
• 9h ago Saudi Arabia's foreign minister chairs meeting with Arab countries to discuss war in Gaza – report
• 10h ago Opening summary

White House: Israel has agreed to listen to US concerns before any Rafah invasion

Israel has agreed to listen to US concerns and thoughts before it launches an invasion of the city of Rafah in Gaza, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby has said.

Kirby, speaking to ABC, also said Israel has started to meet the commitments it made to the US president, Joe Biden, on allowing aid into the north of Gaza .

Israel has signalled it plans to push ahead with a ground operation in southern Rafah, the only part of Gaza where it has not sent in troops. More than half of the Palestinian territory’s population of 2.3 million has sought shelter in Rafah after fleeing Israeli bombardment from elsewhere.

The long-threatened plan to attack the city has drawn intense opposition from Israel’s allies, including the US, which said it would cause thousands of civilian casualties and further disrupt aid deliveries .

Biden has previously warned that Israel should not go into Rafah without credible plans to protect civilians.

Closing summary

Diplomatic efforts increased on Sunday to reach a long sought-after truce and hostage-release deal in Gaza. The World Economic Forum (WEF) summit opened in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, which US secretary of state Antony Blinken and high-ranking officials from other countries trying to broker a ceasefire are also due to attend. While there is no Israeli participation, the other key players will discuss Israel’s war in Gaza, WEF president Borge Brende has said.

Speaking at the WEF summit, Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas , said only the US could stop Israel attacking Rafah , the southernmost city in Gaza, where more than 1 million people are sheltering. Abbas added that he expected an assault on the city in the next days . “We call on the United States of America to ask Israel to not carry on the Rafah attack. America is the only country able to prevent Israel from committing this crime,” he was quoted as saying. “What will happen in the coming few days is what Israel will do with attacking Rafah because all the Palestinians from Gaza are gathered there,” Abbas said. He added that only a “small strike” on Rafah would force the Palestinian population to flee the Gaza Strip. “The biggest catastrophe in the Palestinian people’s history would then happen,” Abbas warned.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby later said that Israel had agreed to listen to US concerns and thoughts before it launches an invasion of Rafah. “They’ve assured us that they won’t go into Rafah until we’ve had a chance to really share our perspectives and our concerns with them,” Kirby told ABC. “What we’re hoping is that after six weeks of a temporary ceasefire, we can maybe get something more enduring in place,” Kirby said. “The Israelis have started to meet the commitments that (US) President (Joe) Biden asked them to meet,” he said. Biden has previously said that Israel should not go into Rafah without credible plans to protect civilians.

At least 34,454 Palestinian people have been killed and 77,575 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement . An estimated 66 people have been killed and 138 others injured over the past 24 hours, the ministry said.

A Hamas delegation will arrive in Egypt on Monday to deliver the group’s response to Israel’s new hostage and truce counterproposal, a senior official of the Palestinian militant group told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Hamas has previously insisted on a permanent ceasefire – a condition that Israel has rejected. However, the Axios news website, citing two Israeli officials, reported that Israel’s latest proposal includes a willingness to discuss the “restoration of sustainable calm” in Gaza after hostages are released.

During a visit to the headquarters of the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL), France’s foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné , said that Paris had been making proposals to “avoid war in Lebanon”. “I will head to Beirut to meet political authorities to … make proposals,” he said . “Our responsibility is to mitigate escalation, and that is also our role in UNIFIL. We have 700 soldiers here.” Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group have exchanged near-daily fire since Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on 7 October, in which about 1,200 people were killed.

We are closing this blog now, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here .

Here are the quotes from White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, about Israel having apparently agreed to listen to US concerns before it launches its planned invasion of Rafah (see earlier post at 14.43 ).

Washington has said it could not support a Rafah operation without an appropriate and credible humanitarian plan.

“They’ve assured us that they won’t go into Rafah until we’ve had a chance to really share our perspectives and our concerns with them,” Kirby told ABC.

“What we’re hoping is that after six weeks of a temporary ceasefire, we can maybe get something more enduring in place,” said Kirby, who also noted that the number of aid trucks into the north of Gaza was starting to increase.

“The Israelis have started to meet the commitments that (US) President (Joe) Biden asked them to meet,” he said.

A Democratic senator has questioned whether the Joe Biden administration has been properly assessing whether Israel was complying with international law, following a Reuters report that stated some senior US officials did not find the country’s assurances credible.

“This reporting casts serious doubt on the integrity of the process in the Biden administration for reviewing whether the Netanyahu government is complying with international law in Gaza ,” Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a statement.

The Reuters report found that some senior state department officials have advised secretary of state Antony Blinken that they do not find “credible or reliable” Israel’s assurances that it is using US-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law.

Blinken must tell Congress by 8 May whether he finds Israel’s assurances credible. According to an internal state department memo, several bureaus within the agency did not find Israel’s statements credible, citing military actions that raised questions about potential violations of international humanitarian law, according to Reuters.

Van Hollen said the Reuters report had found that the recommendations of those bureaus “were swept aside for political convenience”.

“The determination regarding compliance with international law is one of fact and law. The facts and law should not be ignored to achieve a pre-determined policy outcome. Our credibility is on the line,” he said.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu “couldn’t have done things worse” in the war in Gaza, according to a former speaker of the US House of Representatives.

Speaking on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Nancy Pelosi said she is “not a big fan” of Netanyahu and that he “has never been an agent for peace”.

In the interview, the former speaker said the war is challenging “the conscience of the world”, that the impact of famine on children in Gaza is “almost unforgivable” and criticised the death toll.

Pelosi told the BBC that the actions of Hamas on 7 October were “barbaric”.

She continued:

Israel has the right to defend itself – the manner in which they are doing it is really challenging because Netanyahu has never been an agent for peace. I’m not a big fan of his, but he couldn’t have done things worse than tens of thousands, whatever the figure may be of people dying, children malnourished, and the uncertainty that is there, and that’s what people are speaking out about.

Here are some of the latest images coming out from the newswires:

Student protests on US university campuses over Israel’s war on Gaza showed little sign of letting up over the weekend, with protesters vowing to continue until their demands for US educational bodies to disentangle from companies profiting from the conflict are met.

In what is perhaps the most significant student movement since the anti-Vietnam campus protests of the late 1960s, the conflict between pro-Palestinian students and university administrators has revealed an entire subset of conflicts.

After several years of semi-seasonal student marches through the city to voice positions on topics from racial justice to global heating to gun control, protests over the Israel-Gaza war are the latest headache for authorities. New York’s mayor, Eric Adams, blamed the NYU protests on “professional agitators”; the university fenced off the square where students customarily gather.

Several days earlier, and more than 100 blocks uptown, Columbia University officials had warned student members of the Gaza Solidarity encampment on the quadrangle of the Ivy League college that while they had a right to protest, they were not allowed “to disrupt campus life or harass and intimidate fellow students”.

But then, contentiously, the SRG was called in. Officers arrested – and later released – more than 100 students, inflaming a larger political debate surrounding the university president, Minouche Shafik, in the job less than a year. Students demanded Shafik resign because she’d called the police on to campus – actions that supercharged the spirits of student protest nationally – while accusations of antisemitism have mounted, both against protesters and against Shafik for, her critics say, not sufficiently protecting Jewish students.

You can read the full story by my colleague, Edward Helmore , here:

Israeli media has reported that Benjamin Netanyahu is fearful that the international criminal court (ICC) could imminently issue an arrest warrant against him, as well as top Israeli officials and fighters in the Israeli military.

“While decisions made by the court in The Hague will not affect Israel’s actions, they will set a dangerous precedent that threatens soldiers and public figures,” the Israeli prime minister said in a statement.

One of Israel’s leading television news outlets, Channel 12, reported earlier this month that Israel was increasingly worried by the possibility that the ICC would issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and other top officials for alleged violations of international law in Gaza .

The report said that the prime minister’s Office held an “emergency discussion” on the issue.

Israel is not a member of the court, based in The Hague, and does not recognise its jurisdiction, but the Palestinian territories were admitted as a member state in 2015.

ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said in October the court had jurisdiction over any potential war crimes carried out by Hamas fighters in Israel and by Israelis in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas delegation to visit Cairo on Monday for Gaza ceasefire talks - official

A Hamas delegation will visit Cairo, the Egyptian capital, on Monday for talks aimed at securing a ceasefire, a Hamas official has told Reuters.

The delegation will reportedly discuss a ceasefire proposal handed by Hamas to mediators Qatar and Egypt, as well as Israel’s response.

Reuter’s source did not disclose details of the latest proposals.

On Friday, senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya said the group had received Israel’s response to its ceasefire proposal and was studying it before handing its response to Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

Prior rounds of talks have failed to bridge the gaps in the two sides’ positions. Hamas wants an accord for a permanent end to the war and for Israel to pull its forces out of the Gaza Strip.

Israel has only offered a temporary ceasefire to free about 130 hostages remaining in captivity and to allow the delivery of more humanitarian aid. It has said it won’t end its operations until it has achieved its aim of destroying Hamas.

Israel’s foreign minister said on Saturday that a planned incursion into Rafah, where more than one million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, could be suspended should a deal emerge to release the Israeli hostages.

US news website Axios, citing two Israeli officials, reported that Israel’s latest proposal includes a willingness to discuss the “restoration of sustainable calm” in Gaza after hostages are released.

It is the first time in the nearly seven-month war that Israeli leaders have suggested they are open to discussing an end to the war, Axios said. These reports have not yet been independently verified.

French foreign minister calls for calm during second visit to Lebanon

France’s top diplomat on Sunday urged calm in Lebanon during his second visit since cross-border tensions with Israel flared on the back of the war in Gaza.

Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group have exchanged near-daily fire since Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October sparked the war in Gaza .

Fighting has intensified in recent weeks, with Israel striking deeper into Lebanese territory, while Hezbollah has stepped up its missile and drone attacks on military positions in northern Israel.

France has for months sought to de-escalate the cross-border tensions, presenting to Lebanon and Israel an initiative in January seeking to end hostilities.

Dans le Sud-Liban, les casques bleus de l’ @UNIFIL_ poursuivent l’objectif de paix et de stabilité dans la région. 🇺🇳 Une action nécessaire que je tiens à saluer. pic.twitter.com/WkruGLSuio — Stéphane Séjourné (@steph_sejourne) April 28, 2024

During a visit to the headquarters of the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL), French foreign minister Stéphane Séjourné reiterated that Paris has been making proposals to “avoid war in Lebanon”.

“I will head to Beirut to meet political authorities to … make proposals,” he said. “Our responsibility is to mitigate escalation, and that is also our role in UNIFIL. We have 700 soldiers here.”

A French diplomatic source told AFP that the volume of cross-border attacks had doubled since 13 April.

Séjourné is set to meet Lebanese officials on Sunday afternoon before holding a press conference.

In March, Beirut submitted its response to the French initiative, which was based on a UN resolution barring the presence of any forces other than the Lebanese military and UNIFIL in south Lebanon.

Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati, who heads a caretaker government with reduced powers, on Friday suggested that Paris was reviewing its proposal and would submit a new one to Beirut.

Séjourné’s trip – which will also see him stop in Riyadh for a summit on Gaza – coincides with a visit to Jerusalem by US envoy Amos Hochstein as Washington also pushes for de-escalation along the Israel-Lebanon border.

Summary of the day so far...

Diplomatic efforts increased on Sunday to reach a long sought-after truce and hostage-release deal in Gaza. The World Economic Forum (WEF) summit opened in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, which US secretary of state Antony Blinken and high-ranking officials from other countries trying to broker a ceasefire are also due to attend. Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan al Saud , chaired a meeting in Riyadh earlier today with representatives from six Arab countries to discuss Israel’s war in Gaza. They reiterated their calls to see Israel’s military offensive in Gaza end and voiced their opposition to Israel’s planned assault on Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah , the only corner of the strip that has not seen fierce ground fighting and where more than half of the Palestinian territory’s population of 2.3 million has sought shelter.

Speaking at the WEF summit, Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas , said only the US could stop Israel attacking Rafah , adding he expected an assault on the city in the next days . “We call on the United States of America to ask Israel to not carry on the Rafah attack. America is the only country able to prevent Israel from committing this crime,” he was quoted as saying. “What will happen in the coming few days is what Israel will do with attacking Rafah because all the Palestinians from Gaza are gathered there,” Abbas said. He added that only a “small strike” on Rafah would force the Palestinian population to flee the Gaza Strip. “The biggest catastrophe in the Palestinian people’s history would then happen.”

Peter Beaumont , a senior international correspondent for the Guardian, has an interesting piece about the sense of growing optimism in the truce talks between Hamas and Israel, and explores what the contours of any agreement could look like.

You can read it in full here:

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460 Years Ago, Shakespeare Was Born Here. Or Somewhere.

Every year, millions flock to Stratford-upon-Avon, England, to visit the house known as Shakespeare’s Birthplace. But was he really born there? A whole industry depends on it.

By Elizabeth Winkler

Sometime in the late 18th century, a sign appeared outside a shambly butcher’s hut in the English town of Stratford-upon-Avon: “The Immortal Shakspeare was born in this house,” it announced, using a then common spelling of his name. Devotees began making pilgrimages — dropping to their knees, weeping, singing odes: “Untouched and sacred be thy shrine, Avonian Willy, bard Divine!”

A tradesman grew rich selling carvings from a local mulberry tree, like pieces of the true cross. Some skeptics suspected that the sign was part of a scheme to bring visitors to Stratford; others wondered if it had been hung by the property’s occupant. A local antiquarian criticized the whole scene as “a design to extort pecuniary gratuities from the credulous and unwary.”

Pilgrims flocked to the house, and it became a site so hallowed that one visitor warned that the veneration of Shakespeare threatened to eclipse that of God:

Yet steals a sigh, as reason weighs/ The fame to Shakespeare given,/ That thousands, worshippers of him,/ Forget to worship Heaven!

About 250 years after its break from the Catholic Church, England had its own Bethlehem and manger.

The problem: No one really knows where Shakespeare was born.

Mock Tudors and magic wands

Stratford-upon-Avon lies two hours northwest of London in the Midlands, more or less the heart of England. Today, it is one of Britain’s most popular tourist destinations, drawing up to three million visitors a year. The Birthplace is its main attraction, followed by the cottage reputed to be the place where Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife, grew up.

Stratford exudes Elizabethan kitsch, with souvenir shops and half-timbered buildings. ​​In the 19th century, the Victorians tried to make Stratford look more “authentic,” which has left it teeming with mock Tudors.

It’s a town whose economy and identity revolve around Shakespearean fervor, which peaks every year on April 23, the date celebrated as Shakespeare’s birthday. It is also, conveniently, St. George’s Day , honoring the patron saint of England.

On my first visit in June 2021, I passed the Hathaway Tea Rooms and a cafe called the Food of Love, a cutesy name taken from “Twelfth Night” (“If music be the food of love, play on”). Confusingly, there were also several Harry Potter-themed shops. Stratford and Hogwarts, quills and wands, poems and spells . Then again, maybe the conflation was apt: Wasn’t Shakespeare a sort of boy wizard, magically endowed with inexplicable powers?

On Henley Street, I arrived at the Birthplace, a half-timbered house yellowed with age. Today, it looks like a single detached building, but it was originally a row of tenements. John Shakespeare bought one tenement on the street in 1556, though he also bought property on nearby Greenhill Street, which could just as easily have been the site of his son’s birth. He bought the property thought to be the Birthplace in 1575, 11 years after his son was born.

Those who believe in the Birthplace point to a record from 1552 showing that a John Shakespeare was fined for keeping a dung heap somewhere on Henley Street. It doesn’t specify the location, but that dung heap has fueled a theory that he must have been living there at the time of his son’s birth, perhaps as a renter.

Similarly, the claim for the authenticity of Anne Hathaway’s Cottage rests on a record that a John Hathaway leased the 90-acre farm on which the building stood 13 years before Anne was born in about 1556. The cottage may well be linked to the Hathaways, but there is no proof that Anne actually grew up in it, just as there is none that Shakespeare was born in the house on Henley Street.

Together, these traditions have sustained Stratford’s tourist industry, worth about $315 million in 2019, before the pandemic. But they have not convinced many skeptics over the years.

“Stratford permits — indeed encourages — one of the biggest frauds in England to rage unchecked,” the journalist Bernard Levin railed in The Daily Mail in 1965. “I mean those two monumental frauds, ‘Shakespeare’’s Birthplace and Anne Hathaway’s Cottage.”

It didn’t help that hucksters have found ways to make the story profitable. In the early 19th century, a tenant of the Birthplace named Mrs. Hornby ran a lucrative hustle showing and selling Shakespeare’s “relics” to gullible visitors. The relics were eventually exposed in an 1848 article in Bentley’s Miscellany , which observed that four different chairs, each purporting to be “Shakespeare’s chair,” had been sold over the years, each made by a well-known local craftsman.

I entered through the Shakespeare Centre, a strange museum that acts as an antechamber to the Birthplace. There were no books owned by Shakespeare or letters in Shakespeare’s hand, because none are known to exist. Instead, a glass case displayed eight Shakespeare busts dating from 1844 to 2000. Another case featured a Shakespeare beer mug (1933), Shakespeare playing cards (1974) and a Shakespeare action figure made in China (2003).

Inside the Birthplace, I went from room to room with the other visitors. Guides regaled us with tales of Shakespeare’s childhood — how he played and ate and dreamed in these rooms. Of course, his childhood is actually a yawning blank: From his baptism in 1564 to his marriage in 1582, there are no records of him. In one room, a table displayed books, quills and ink, indicating a family of learning — but his parents signed documents with a mark, like many illiterate people in Tudor England.

The other visitors murmured to one another in reverent museum whispers and nodded at the guides. I thought of how, in the late 19th century, a Birthplace custodian named Joseph Skipsey resigned his post after a few months, explaining that “not a single one of the many so-called relics on exhibition could be proved to be Shakspere’s” and that “the Birthplace itself is a matter of grave doubt.”

The power of popular faith

Efforts to preserve the property as the official Birthplace began in 1847, when it was put up for sale. In response to fears that P.T. Barnum was going to buy it and make it part of a show, a committee was formed to “save” the house for the nation, and the group began to solicit donations.

Not everyone was convinced. “The extraordinary sensation caused by the purchase of this shabby sausage-shop deserves a prominent place amongst popular delusions,” declared the 1848 Bentley’s Miscellany article . A writer for another British periodical mocked the gullibility of a nation pouring forth funds to buy a “rubbishing mass of lath and plaster in which the Poet was no more born than was the Man in the Moon himself.”

But the belief had already become an article of faith, strengthened by its own repetition. The Birthplace was a better shrine for the very absence of evidence — for the faith it required of its visitors — the publisher Charles Knight wrote at the time. That same year, the committee secured the Birthplace at auction for 3,000 pounds, worth about $323,000 today .

The “shabby sausage-shop” made an uninspiring temple. So the adjoining premises were demolished, walls moved, floorboards replaced, new doorways and staircases created. Its new stewards transformed it into the large, comfortable home of a prosperous Elizabethan family, leaving the cellar as “the only portion which remains as it was,” as the scholar Sidney Lee wrote in 1901. What emerged was less a Tudor dwelling than a Victorian imagination of one.

The committee became the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust , the group that still runs the site, and maintains its authenticity. “We know that, to the best of our current understanding, the building includes the surviving fabric of a property that is traditionally and intimately associated with Shakespeare and his family,” said a spokesman for the trust.

The trust went on to acquire more properties, including Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, a thatched farmhouse where visitors are invited to “relive Shakespeare’s love story.”

A temple to baby Shakespeare

“This is the room where we believe William Shakespeare was born in April 1564,” read a sign in the Birthroom. Next to the bed stood a cradle laid out with blankets and a tiny pillow, encouraging visitors to imagine the baby genius mewling by his parents’ side. For the Victorians, the Birthroom offered the mystical possibility of contact with the poet. Visitors recorded melodramatic accounts of what they felt on entering the room: They burst into tears. They fell down. They kissed the floor. Those desiring a more extended communion spent the night.

Others were unimpressed. “If I were to allude to Stratford, it would not be in connection with the fact that Shakespeare came into the world there,” wrote the novelist Henry James after visiting. “It would be rather to speak of a delightful old house near the Avon which struck me as the ideal home for a Shakespearean scholar.”

But the fantasy is resilient. In a 2023 PBS documentary, “ Making Shakespeare: The First Folio ,” the scholar Michael Dobson, director of the Shakespeare Institute, stood in the Birthplace, gushing over “the very room in which Shakespeare was born.”

I shuffled around the cradle with the other visitors, unsure of what to do. Were we supposed to genuflect? Kiss it? After an appropriate amount of staring, we moved on.

To exit, I had to pass through the gift shop, where any lingering sense of piety dissipated in a tidal wave of consumerism. Visitors were loading up on Shakespeare T-shirts, breakfast teas and tea towels. Shakespeare rubber ducks and windup toys. Shakespeare Christmas ornaments, baby onesies, tote bags and luxury chocolates. Belief is good business.

When I returned to Stratford last February, little had changed since my first visit. The Shakespeare Centre was now showing modern artists’ interpretations of the poet, including a Surrealist painting of a masked figure that suggested the mystery surrounding him. The trinket stands were still hawking their modern versions of those 18th-century mulberry tree carvings. Faith in the traditions is bound up with desire — the need to believe.

Where was “the Immortal Shakspeare” really born? Stories are usually more seductive than the truth.

Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.

Elizabeth Winkler is a journalist, a critic and the author of “ Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies: How Doubting the Bard Became the Biggest Taboo in Literature .”

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

Open Up Your World

Considering a trip, or just some armchair traveling here are some ideas..

52 Places:  Why do we travel? For food, culture, adventure, natural beauty? Our 2024 list has all those elements, and more .

Mumbai:  Spend 36 hours in this fast-changing Indian city  by exploring ancient caves, catching a concert in a former textile mill and feasting on mangoes.

Kyoto:  The Japanese city’s dry gardens offer spots for quiet contemplation  in an increasingly overtouristed destination.

Iceland:  The country markets itself as a destination to see the northern lights. But they can be elusive, as one writer recently found .

Texas:  Canoeing the Rio Grande near Big Bend National Park can be magical. But as the river dries, it’s getting harder to find where a boat will actually float .

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VLADIMIR SOLOVIEV prophet of Russia’s conversion

T HE conversion of Russia will not be the work of man, no matter how gifted he may be, but that of the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, the Mediatrix of all graces, because this is God’s wish, which he revealed to the world in 1917. The life and works of Vladimir Soloviev are a perfect illustration of this truth of Fatima. He whom our Father regards as « the greatest Russian genius of the 19th century », was in his own way a prophet of the “ conversion ” of his beloved Country, announcing the necessity of her returning to the bosom of the Roman Church. «  Rome or chaos  », such was his catchphrase, Rome whose anagram is not a matter of chance, but a providential sign, a definition: ROMA , AMOR . Led by this incomparable guide, we would like « to anticipate in our thoughts, our hearts and our prayers this consecration, this long-awaited conversion, which must mark the beginning of a time of sacred peace throughout the world, the beginning of the universal reign of the Most Blessed and Immaculate Heart of Mary, and through Her, of God’s Kingdom » (English CRC, December 1982, p. 23).

A PERSONAL CONVERSION

Through the example of his life, Soloviev recalls the indispensable means of this immense work: self-renunciation, personal and collective sacrifice, in Russian the podwig , the only way in which the Church, nations, saints and heroes can become the instruments of God’s designs. If he managed to surpass his master Dostoyevsky by his « truly universal Catholicism and far superior mystical vision », this was not without without a conversion of mind and heart on his part.

Our Father summarises the principal stages of his life as follows: « Born of an honourable Muscovite family, of part Kievian ancestry, Vladimir Soloviev began, in a world where only Germany counted, by being a victim of all the poisons of the West. He himself relates how he was a zealous materialist at the age of thirteen, had read Renan’s Life of Jesus at fifteen, and had become an evolutionist and therefore (!) an atheist and a nihilist at eighteen, in « It was Spinoza and then Schopenhauer who pulled him out of this bottomless void. Whereupon in 1872 a mysterious encounter with “  Wisdom  ” suddenly shook him out of the scientific naturalism in which he had been vegetating and made him aware, as he says, of invisible Beauty, the “  Sophia tou théou  ”, the daughter of God. He thus became the fervent witness of Wisdom’s indwelling in the world and of Her desire for total incarnation and universal queenship. His quest for wisdom, scientific, aesthetic and mystical, had commenced. He was nineteen years old. The quest would never end for this new style Russian pilgrim ; it would be of an unparalleled fruitfulness despite its touching brevity. He died of exhaustion in 1900, at the age ! » (English CRC, December 1982, p. 35)

We will limit ourselves in this article to his prophetic insights on the Union of the Churches. In his Lessons on Theandry (1878) – he was then twenty-five ! – our philosopher applies himself to contemplating the Wisdom of God at work in history, perfectly incarnated in Jesus and His virginal Mother, as well as in the Church as she awaits her eschatological transfiguration. The most serious sin, throughout this history, has been that of schism. Who is responsible for this vast Vladimir Soloviev began by throwing all responsibility for it on the Catholic Church, so much so that he provided the inspiration for Dostoyevsky’s famous “ myth of the Grand Inquisitor ” in The Brothers Karamazov . But, at the beginning of the 1880’s, through studying the question more closely, he understood that the sin of schism was in fact that of the East. This was a stroke of genius on his part for which our Father commends him greatly:

« I must beg pardon of my master Msgr. Jean Rupp, of Solzhenitsyn, Volkoff and so many others, but it seems obvious to to me, as it did to Soloviev in the end, that the schism of Moscow in setting itself up as the third Rome was the beginning of all the ills suffered by these admirable Christian peoples of European Russia . And I must say so because this rupture still weighs heavily on the world of today and because it is precisely of this rupture that Our Lady of Fatima speaks when She foretells “  the conversion of Russia  ”. (English CRC, December 1982, p. 24)

Let us follow Soloviev in his commendable mystical conversion which has opened up a path of light for his people, allowing a spring of grace and mercy to gush forth.

AN EVANGELICAL DISCOURSE

In 1881, Soloviev published a long article, still very antipapist, entitled Spiritual power in Russia . There the pope was presented as Antichrist institutionalised ! Our theorist placed all his hope in the regenerative mission of Holy Russia and in the Tsar who was to be her « divine figure, religious guide and animating wisdom ». But were the Russian people still capable of accomplishing such One particular event was to shake Soloviev’s patriotic faith. On March 1, 1881, Alexander II was assassinated by revolutionaries. A few days later, Soloviev gave a Discourse in which he recommended that his successor, Alexander III, show mercy to the regicides. Certainly not as a matter of weakness or abdication before the Revolution, even less out of the spirit of non-violence that a certain Tolstoy was already preaching, but « as an example of Russian piety », that famous podwig « which lies at the heart of the Russian people’s evangelical soul, of which the tsar is the living icon ». Alas, Soloviev was not understood... This was a painful stage in his life, the first step he had taken beyond his master Dostoyevsky.

The following year, he published another article entitled “  Schism in the Russian people and society  ”. Delving deep into the past, he accused Metropolitan Nikon of having broken, at the time of Peter the Great, the communion, the Sobornost , so beloved of the Russian people, by excommunicating Raskol, the fierce guardian of traditional popular religion... Ever since then, the Orthodox hierarchy, enslaved to the imperial power, had proved powerless to govern and sanctify Orthodoxy. It was nothing now but a shrunken, secularized “ local Church ” which, if it were to be restored and revived, would need to open itself up to “ the universal Church ”.

In the spring of 1882, Soloviev was powerfully affected by an unusual dream. In his dream he met a high-ranking Catholic ecclesiastic and entreated him to give him his blessing. The priest refused, so Soloviev insisted, declaring, « The separation of the Churches is the most disastrous thing possible. » Finally, the ecclesiastic agreed to give him his blessing.

This premonitory dream was to awaken in Vladimir Soloviev a burning desire for reconciliation with Catholicism, and to stimulate him to write a series of articles to be published every month in his friend Aksakov’s slavophile newspaper Rouss and then to be collected together in a work with the resonant title: The Great Controversy and Christian Politics . One particular maxim constantly reappeared under the Russian writer’s pen:

«  FIRST AND FOREMOST WE MUST WORK TO RESTORE THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH, AND TO MAKE THE FIRE OF LOVE BURN IN THE HEART OF CHRIST’S SPOUSE . »

By an irony of fate, the term “ Controversy ”, which for Soloviev referred to the conflict between Rome and the East, was going to give place to a bitter controversy between himself and his Orthodox and slavophile friends.

A MARVELLOUS AND ADORABLE WISDOM

T HE world’s beauty appeared to Soloviev as a living figure, a real existence, changing and yet immortal. He saw her and held her as the queen of his spiritual universe under her venerable name of Sancta Sophia . At the end of his life, in 1898, he celebrated the Three Encounters he had had with this Beauty which for him was Wisdom.

“ Three times in his life he had been overwhelmed by the radiant visit of Wisdom who appeared to him in the form of an absolutely heavenly female being, dazzling him and enlightening him profoundly. Not without reason certain authors think that all his religious and even philosophical works derive from this illumination. ”

And let us immediately point out, in order to acclimatize the Western reader who is highly likely to be disconcerted by these accounts, that trustworthy interpreters of Soloviev have attributed a marian character to these visions. For them, the whole of the Philosopher’s work derives from the AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA . “ It is a marvellous perspective ”, adds Msgr. Rupp. “ Wisdom is closely allied to the Immaculate who is its seat. ” ( Le message ecclésial de Soloviev , p. 340)...

What I am going to say next will perhaps surprise my reader. Nothing is more biblical than this vision, and I am astonished at the astonishment of theologians and their impatient criticisms. This Sophia was already well known, hymned and even boldly adored by the scribes of the Old Testament under this very name of Wisdom. Far from being “ pantheist ”, this idea, this vision touches the essence of created beings, and is clearly poles apart from the Platonic idea and far more profound than Aristotle’s substance; it lies at the very heart of being, there where nothing exists except relationship to God, the term of a will and a wisdom that are infinite, there where exists a pure reflection, a fragment of the image of God’s beauty.

George de Nantes , A mysticism for our time , French CRC no. 133, p. 7.

THE GREAT CONTROVERSY

In January 1883, he fired the opening shots with an open letter to Aksakov: « As I reflected on the means of curing this interior disease (of Christianity), I became convinced that the origin of all these evils lies in the general weakening of the earthly organisation of the visible Church, following her division into two disunited parts. » He demonstrated that, in order to establish herself on earth and to endure throughout history, the Christian religion had need of a higher authority, and he explained that it was therefore essential to restore « the union of all Christian and ecclesiastical forces under the standard and under the power of one central ecclesiastical authority ».

On February 19, Soloviev gave a talk in homage to his master Dostoyevsky. It was almost a panegyric of the Roman Church ! He declared his ardent hope for the reconciliation of the two Churches, for the two parts of the universal Church which should never have been separated and whose centre lay in... Rome . As a result of this speech, he saw himself banned from speaking in public. The newspapers made no mention of his speech. For the first time, and it would not be the last, Soloviev was the victim of the censure of Constantin Petrowitch Pobiedonostev, Russia’s Grand Inquisitor and the Tsar’s adviser on religious matters. Pobiedonostev championed a sacral conception of political power, akin to that of the French legitimists of the time, but he was fiercely Orthodox, and any opening towards the Catholic religion was pitilessly censured.

Soloviev responded to this censure with a smile. So his speech had been described as « infantile chattering » ? « If we are not converted », he said to his friends, « and become like little children again, we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. » He went on: « When I was a pretentious little boy [teaching German philosophy: Kant, Hegel, Fichte, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche], people listened with great respect to my “ truly infantile ” prattling. And now it is fitting that the only way I can attain the perfection of humility is by everyone ! »

At the same time, he wrote to Aksakov: « It is necessary to defend Catholicism against the false accusations being brought against it... Consequently, in advocating a reconciliation with Catholicism, I assume that Catholicism is not in principle erroneous, for one cannot be reconciled with error . » Now there we have a true ecumenism ! The life of Soloviev, writes our Father, « was ».

To the charge of “ papism ” levelled against him, Soloviev responded in March 1883 with an admirable profession of faith, already Catholic:

« It seems to to me that you concentrate only on “ papism ” whereas I focus first and foremost on the great, holy and eternal Rome, a fundamental and integral part of the universal Church. I believe in this Rome, I bow before it, I love it with all my heart, and with all the strength of my soul I desire its rehabilitation for the unity and integrality of the universal Church. And may I be accursed as a parricide should I ever utter one word of condemnation against the Holy Church of Rome . »

THE REALISATION OF THE DREAM

In May 1883, on the occasion of the coronation of the Emperor Alexander III, the Moscow press complained that too many concessions were being made to restore diplomatic relations with the Vatican broken in 1866, but Soloviev protested: such an agreement was necessary, were it only to improve relations with the Catholics of Poland. The Pope was represented at the ceremony by his special envoy Msgr. Vincenzo Vanutelli. Had not Alexander III written to Leo XIII shortly beforehand: « Never has unity between all Churches and all States been so necessary, in order to realise the wish expressed by Your Holiness of seeing the peoples abandoning the disastrous errors responsible for the social malaise and returning to the holy laws of the Gospel... »

A few days after the ceremony, Soloviev was crossing Moscow in a hired car. Suddenly, he recognized the route he had followed in his dream the previous year. Soon he came to a stop in front of a house from which a Catholic prelate was just leaving: it was Msgr. Vanutelli in person... There was the same hesitation of this latter to give his blessing to a schismatic, and the same entreaties of Soloviev, who finally !

In the summer of 1883, our author wrote two articles on The Catholic Question . According to Soloviev, it was for Russia to take the first step towards the Catholic Church. Imagine !

His articles were not of the sort to leave his readers indifferent. On the Orthodox side, there was an increasing irritation, while on the Catholic side, surprise soon gave way to enthusiasm. The news crossed the borders, spreading to Poland and even to Croatia, where Msgr. Strossmayer was finally seeing his desires realised. The jurisdiction of his diocese of Djakovo extended into Bosnia and Serbia, that is into Orthodox territory. Endowed with a superior intelligence and animated by great apostolic zeal, this Croatian bishop keenly felt the need for a true, intelligent and benevolent ecumenism. He wrote in 1883 to one of his friends, Father Martynov:

« In my opinion, the principal task of the Catholic Church and of the Holy See this century is to draw as closely as possible to the Slav nation, principally the Russian nation . By winning it over to the divine unity of the Catholic Church, we would at the same time win over everyone in the world who still possess a positive faith. »

IN THE RADIANCE OF THE IMMACULATE

In the summer of 1883, Soloviev wrote five long letters to a Russian Uniate priest on the subject of The Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary . At the same time he translated Petrarch’s “ Praise and prayer to the Most Blessed Virgin ”, wherein he contemplated Her “ clothed in the Sun, crowned with stars... Her glance radiating infinity ! ” It is highly significant that Soloviev was simultaneously attracted by the mystery of the Catholic Church and the mystery of the Immaculate Virgin. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception was the first Catholic dogma which he embraced, and his favourite painting was the Immaculate Conception by Murillo.

In The Foundations of the Spiritual Life (1884), he exalted the « All Holy and Immaculate » Virgin Mary. In Russia and the Church Universal (1889), he would praise Pope Pius IX for having quoted, in support of his dogmatic definition, the Old Testament texts referring to Wisdom, the “  Sophia  ” of his personal intuitions:

« If, by the substantial Wisdom of God, we were exclusively meant to understand the Person of Jesus Christ, how could we apply to the Blessed Virgin all those texts in the Wisdom books which speak of this Wisdom ? However, this application, which has existed from the very earliest times in the offices of both the Latin and Greek Churches, has today received doctrinal confirmation in the bull of Pius IX on the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin. » (quoted by Msgr. Rupp, Le message ecclésial de Soloviev, p. 338)

In September 1883, when the sixth chapter of The Great Controversy was published, a rumour spread through Moscow that Soloviev had “ passed over ” to Catholicism, but there was no truth in it. Moreover, curious though this may seem to us, he was not looking “ to pass over to Catholicism ”, but only to open Orthodoxy up to the universality of the Roman Church.

His seventh and final chapter aroused a lively debate, one that is ever topical. The question turned on the attitude of the Byzantine Greeks in conflict with the Crusaders of the West. Soloviev wrote: « On the day that Constantinople fell, seeing the Turkish armies poised to attack, the final spontaneously expressed cry of the Greeks was, “ Better Islamic slavery than any agreement with the Latins. ” I do not mention this as a reproach to the unfortunate Greeks. If, in this cry of implacable hatred, there was nothing Christian, then neither has there been anything especially Christian in all the formal and artificial attempts to reunite the Churches… »

Aksakov, his Orthodox pride deeply irritated by this remark, retorted: « What does he mean, nothing Christian ? May the Greeks be blessed a hundred times over for having preferred a foreign yoke and bodily torture to the abandonment of the purity of their faith in Christ and for having thus preserved us from the distortions of papism at the precise moment [ the beginning of the 13th century ! ] when it had reached the height of its deformity. May they win eternal glory for this ! »

Nonetheless, Soloviev continued his search for truth, surmounting every obstacle. His article “  Nine Questions to Father Ivantsov-Platonov  ” published in December 1883, created a deep stir even in the West. Here he put nine questions to his former master in Orthodoxy on those points of controversy which set the Church of the East against the Church of Rome. Here is the setting:

« How is it that the countries of the East are separated from the Roman Church ? Did the latter proclaim an heretical proposition ? One would be hard pushed to maintain this, for the addition of the Filioque to the Creed, which is put forward to justify the separation, does not have the character of a heresy. Furthermore, it is absurd to say that the Roman Church is in a state of schism with regard to the Eastern Churches. Thus, the latter’s separation from the former has no basis. Let us acknowledge this and, putting aside all human viewpoints, let us work towards Unity or rather let us work so that Unity, which already has a virtual existence, may become a reality. »

THE THREAD OF AN ANCIENT TRADITION

During 1884, the Russian philosopher studied Catholic dogmatics. He read the works of Perrone, the theologian of Gregory XVI and Pius IX, as well as the texts of the Councils. He was particularly interested in Popes Gregory VII and Innocent III, whom he read in the original text.

At the same time he had a great enthusiasm for the Croatian priest George Krijanich who « had come from Zagreb to Moscow in the 17th century to spread the ideal of the Holy Kingdom of God, Roman Catholic and panslavic, gathering together under the sceptre of the tsars and the crook of the Pope all the Slav peoples who would thereby be freed and protected from the twofold burden pressing them on both sides like a vice, the Germanic powers and the Turks. Thus the Croats would work to free themselves from Austrian control and at the same time they would assist the Serbs, their Orthodox brothers, to shake off Moslem domination.

« To realise this grand design, capable at one blow of powerfully advancing the Kingdom of God on earth, Krijanich came to Moscow and preached on the subject of Russia’s reconciliation with Rome . This should not be difficult, he said, because the Russians had only fallen into schism through ignorance and not through heresy or malice. He himself was already preaching that everyone should recognise their own individual faults, be they unconscious or involuntary, and the need for expiation. God’s blessings would follow as a result, immense and eternal blessings. Sergius Mikhailovich Soloviev, our great man’s father, a historian and the author of a monumental history of Russia, admired Krijanich as “ the first of the Slavophiles ” and also, in his eyes, “ the most paradoxical ”, so alien did Catholicism then appear to the Russian consciousness. » (English CRC, December 1982, p. 32)

Soloviev intended to prove the contrary. And it was just at this time that he entered into friendly relations with the Croatian Bishop Strossmayer, thereby resuming the thread of an ancient tradition, one which was apparently marginal but which in reality was pregnant with a splendid future. Early in December 1885, Soloviev for the first time received a letter from the Croatian bishop. He replied to him on December 8, “  the blessed Day of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin  ”:

« On the reunion of the Churches », he wrote, « depends the fate of Russia, the Slavs and the whole world. We Russian Orthodox, and indeed the whole of the East, are incapable of achieving anything before we have expiated the ecclesiastical sin of schism and rendered papal authority its due . » And he ended with these words: « My heart burns with joy at the thought that I have a guide like you. May God long preserve your precious leadership for the good of the Church and the Slav people. » In his pastoral letter of January 1886, the bishop of Djakovo quoted large extracts from this letter.

Encouraged by such support, in 1886 Soloviev undertook a study on Dogmatic development and the question of the reunion of the Churches , which provoked the fury of Orthodoxy. However, at a conference given at the ecclesiastical Academy of Saint Petersburg, Soloviev attempted to justify himself: « I can assure you that I will never pass over to Latinism. » He thereby sought to register his attachment to the Eastern rite. No question for him of adopting the Latin rite ! After that, he set out on a journey to Europe.

FIRST STAY IN ZAGREB (1886)

At the beginning of July, he was the guest of the honourable Canon Racki, President of the Yugoslav Academy of Zagreb, founded by Msgr. Strossmayer, and a personal friend of the latter. Every morning the Orthodox Soloviev assisted at the Catholic Mass with great enthusiasm. He made the sign of the cross in the Catholic manner, but prayed in the Greek manner, crossing his arms on his chest. He willingly admitted to his host – and this was not due to any desire to please on his part – that Croatian Catholics, like the Ukrainians, were more religious than his Orthodox compatriots !

Following an article published in the Croatian journal Katolicki List , Soloviev for the first time encountered opposition from a Catholic priest.

During his stay in Zagreb, he also published a letter in the Russian newspaper Novoie Vremia , wherein he refuted the widespread opinion in Russia that the Croats were the instruments of the Austro-Hungarian government’s attempt to Latinize the Eastern Slavs.

In August, he joined Msgr. Strossmayer in the Styrian Alps, and spent ten marvellous days with him. These two minds were truly made to get along. The mutual admiration they felt for one another reinforced their spiritual friendship. But Soloviev continued to receive Holy Communion at the hands of the Orthodox priest of the Serb parish of Zagreb... Rising above the inevitable criticisms, he then wrote a letter to Msgr. Strossmayer, summarising their initial conversations:

«  The reunion of the Churches would be advantageous to both sides . Rome would gain a devout people enthusiastic for the religious idea, she would gain a faithful and powerful defender. Russia for her part, she who through the will of God holds in her hands the destinies of the East, would not only rid herself of the involuntary sin of schism but, what is more, she would thereby become free to fulfil her great universal mission of uniting around herself all the Slav nations and of founding a new and truly Christian civilisation, a civilisation uniting the characteristics of the one truth and of religious liberty in the supreme principle of charity, encompassing everything in its unity and distributing to everyone the plenitude of the one unique good. »

Such was his transcription of the well known Catholic principle: «  In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas : unity in essentials, liberty in matters of doubt, and in all things charity . Such must be the Charter of Catholic ecumenism under the crook of the one Shepherd. From the start of this crisis, such has been the invitation we have made to our bishops and to our brothers. Today, it is also the will of the Holy Father », wrote our Father in his editorial for September 1978, dedicated to John Paul I, another Saint Pius X without knowing it (English CRC no. 102, p. 6).

When he informed his friends of Soloviev’s letter, Msgr. Strossmayer presented its author as « a candid and truly holy soul ».

Msgr. Strossmayer and Soloviev had agreed to meet again in Rome for the jubilee pilgrimage of 1888. The Croatian bishop decided to pave the way in Rome by writing to Leo XIII’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Rampolla. He presented his Russian friend as «  toto corde et animo catholicus  ». The Pope at first took a personal interest in the affair: « Here is a sheep », he said, « who will soon be clearing the gate of the sheepfold. » But curiously, there was to be no follow-up. It seems that Leo XIII failed to appreciate Soloviev’s genius... However, things were different in France, where an unassuming and ardent rural parish priest latched on to everything that his apostolic zeal could extract from the lightning advances made by the Russian thinker ( see inset , p. 19).

Soloviev returned to Russia at the beginning of October 1886, rather discouraged by the criticisms directed against him on all sides: there were the Orthodox, some of whom had accused him of bringing Orthodoxy into disrepute abroad... and certain Catholics, like Fr. Guettée in France, a modernist priest with little to commend him, whom he had met in Paris in 1876 and who had recently published an article of rare violence against him !

THE “ RETURN OF THE DISSIDENTS ”

June 18, 1887: a young Capuchin, Leopold Mandic, from Herzeg Novi in Bosnia, under the jurisdiction of Msgr. Strossmayer, and studying at the friary in Padua, heard the voice of God inviting him to pray for and promote the return of the Orthodox to the bosom of the one Church of Christ. «  The goal of my life , he would later say, must be the return of the Eastern dissidents to Catholic unity; I must therefore employ all my energies, as far as my littleness allows, to co-operate in such a task through the sacrifice of my life . » Fifty years later, he would still remember this grace: «  June 18, for the record: 1887-1937. Today, I offered the Holy Sacrifice for the Eastern dissidents, for their return to Catholic unity . » Thus the Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate united, in this one same “ ecumenical ” work, the ardent heart of a young Capuchin destined for the altars, the apostolic wisdom of a bishop and the brilliant intuitions of a great thinker.

In January 1887, from the Monastery of Saint Sergius where he had celebrated Christmas, Soloviev wrote an article in which he provided philosophic justification for the three Catholic dogmas which the Orthodox reject, namely the Filioque, the Immaculate Conception and papal infallibility . Here is a « basis for working towards the reunion of the Churches », he explained. A few months later, he published in Zagreb (on account of the censure directed against him in Russia) his book The History and Future of Theocracy .

There he retraced the vast movement of history towards the establishment of the Kingdom of God. Universal Theocracy, the successor of Jewish Theocracy, cannot be conceived, he explained, without an integrally Christian politics, and he concluded with a splendid anthem to Christ Pantocrator receiving from His Father all power on earth and in Heaven and acting through His emissaries, the Apostles and their successors. Soloviev always believed in the privileged vocation of Russia within the Catholic community of Christian nations, even if he stigmatized what he called “ the sin of Russia ”, which was to oppress and hate all those it dominated, in particular Polish Catholics, Greek Uniates, Ruthenians and Jews !

Like a true prophet, he was vigorous in preaching repentance to his people . In order that they might be faithful to their vocation within the great Slav family, Soloviev asked them to give up their inordinate ambitions, to return to a truer and more Christian conception of their destiny, and to accomplish this within the only international organization which could direct its course, Catholicism, that is to say Roman universalism.

«  One of my theses is that the cause of the Reunion of the Churches in Russia demands a podwig (sacrifice) even heavier to bear than that which, already demanding great self-denial, was needed to ensure Russia’s receptivity to Western culture, an event truly disagreeable to the national sentiment of our ancestors .

«  Well ! this sacrifice consists in drawing closer to Rome and it must be attained at all costs. In this lies the remedy for the Russian sin . »

It goes without saying that Soloviev earned himself new enemies with his book. It cost him great personal suffering, but he could not fail the Truth, which he contemplated with ever greater clarity... What greatness of soul this universal genius possessed !

SAINT VLADIMIR AND THE CHRISTIAN STATE

1888 marked the ninth centenary of the baptism of Saint Vladimir, the first prince of Kiev, whose kingdom after his conversion became « the model of Christian States, with evangelical morals », writes our Father (English CRC, December 1982, p. 23). Soloviev used the occasion to give a conference in Moscow, where he reaffirmed that Russia’s destiny was to turn towards Rome, as King Vladimir had ! However, having hardened itself in its schism, the Muscovite hierarchy was no longer animated by the spirit of St. Vladimir. Hence the fury of the Orthodox hierarchs !

At the same time, Msgr. Strossmayer had gone to Rome for the Jubilee. In vain did he wait for Soloviev there. The latter, fearing perhaps that he had made a definitive break with the Orthodox world which he dreamed on the contrary of winning for the Union, had given up the idea of making this journey. It must also be said that Vatican diplomacy hardly inspired more confidence in him. Leo XIII was revealing himself less and less slavophile, reserving his favours for the Germany of old Bismarck and the young William II ! Msgr. Strossmayer lamented this in a letter to Fr. Martynov: «  The Pope is acting against the Slavs. The Roman prelates are like people insane and think only of temporal power !  »

What a difference between Leo XIII and his successor, St. Pius X, who was, in the words of Msgr. Rupp and our Father, the greatest slavophile pope of our times !

Early in May 1888, Soloviev was on a visit to Paris. To explain his thinking to the French public, he gave a conference on the Russian Idea , « the true national idea eternally fixed in the design of God », who longs to spread His light over the whole world. However, Soloviev remained lucid about his own Church: « If the unity of the universal Church founded by Christ only exists among us in a latent state, it is because the official institution represented by our ecclesiastical government and our theological school is not a living part of the universal Church. »

In passing, he described the destruction of the Greek-Uniate Church by the Orthodox as a «  veritable national sin weighing on Russia and paralysing her moral strength  ». That is still the case today...

In July, Kiev celebrated the feast of the baptism of St. Vladimir. From Zagreb Msgr. Strossmayer sent a telegram in which he exalted Russia’s future role in the manner of his friend Soloviev. Scandal ! His remarks were universally reported by the press. Cardinal Rampolla informed the Croatian bishop that Leo XIII was seriously displeased ! The bishop of Djakovo also earned himself the bitter reproaches of Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria, which is more understandable given the rivalry existing between the two Empires.

In the summer of 1887, Soloviev published in the Universe , the newspaper of Louis Veuillot, three articles on St. Vladimir and the Christian State which caused a great stir. Then he journeyed to Croatia where he remained for one whole month with Msgr. Strossmayer. This meeting was rather sad, for the two friends were increasingly aware that their attempt to reunite the Churches would not succeed, at least in their lifetime.

It was in Djakovo that Soloviev finished the immense prologue to his magisterial book, Russia and the Church Universal , in which one can already glimpse signs of the discouragement that would overwhelm the thinker in the latter part of his life. We know from Fatima that the work of the conversion of Russia, something humanly impossible, has been entrusted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary who has a particular love for this Nation such as to inspire jealousy in others. But this only makes it all the more extraordinary that our prophet should have traced out the course of this conversion, like a true Precursor !

« RUSSIA AND THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL »

Soloviev does not hesitate to delve deep, extremely deep, into the past. To realise its designs in the world, divine Wisdom wished to become incarnate, and the Verb to take flesh like our own. As that was not enough, He also wished to unite to Himself a social and historical body, one that could reach the universality of mankind and communicate to all men His own divine Life. In this magnificent perspective, Soloviev compares the formation of that Body through which God wishes to be united with humanity to that effected in the womb of the Virgin Mary at the time of the Incarnation, and to that which operates every day in the Eucharistic mystery... What was needed for this work was a solid foundation, a Rock:

« This bedrock has been found », he writes, « it is Rome. It is only on the Rock [of Peter and his successors] that the Church is founded. This is not an opinion, it is an imposing historical reality . »

It is also an evangelical truth: «  You are Peter, and on this Rock I will build my Church . » Here Soloviev addresses the Protestants who seek to outbid each other in their attacks against the Primacy of Peter by quoting Jesus’ own words to His Apostle when he was obstructing the Master’s path: «  Get behind me, Satan !  » Soloviev’s response once again shows the clarity of his intelligence and his perfect knowledge of Catholic dogma:

«  There is only one way of harmonising these texts which the inspired Evangelist did not juxtapose without reason. Simon Peter, as supreme pastor and doctor of the universal Church , assisted by God and speaking for all, is, in this capacity, the unshakeable foundation of the House of God and the holder of the keys of the heavenly Kingdom. The same Simon Peter, as a private person, speaking and acting through his own natural forces and an understanding that is purely human , can say and do things that are unworthy, scandalous and even satanic. But personal defects and sins are passing, whereas the social function of the ecclesiastical monarch is permanent. “ Satan ” and the scandal have disappeared, but Peter has remained.  »

Soloviev’s doctrine agrees with that of Vatican Council I and with that of our Father who, at the same time as he makes us venerate Peter’s magisterium, magnificently illustrated by Blessed Pius IX, St. Pius X and John Paul I, accuses John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II of being instruments of “ Satan ” for the ruin of the Church.

However, Christ wished that it should be around Peter that the unity of faith and charity should be formed: «  Since the unity of the faith does not presently exist in the totality of believers, seeing that not all of them are unanimous in matters of religion, it must lie in the legal authority of a single head, an authority assured by divine assistance and the trust of all the faithful . This is the ROCK on which Christ founded His Church and against which the gates of hell will never prevail.  »

Why did this ROCK settle in Rome, and not in Jerusalem, Constantinople or Moscow ? Here we have a further brilliant response from Soloviev: historically Rome represented the order, civilization and terrestrial Empire that would best allow the Church to become the universal spiritual Empire desired by Christ. In a mystical view of the history of Salvation – we would say divine “ orthodromy ” – Soloviev shows how God, wishing to extend salvation to the whole world,  decided one day that His Kingdom should leave Israel for Rome, so that the capital of the pagan Empire should become “ the conjoint instrument ” of His designs:

« The universal monarchy was to stay put; the centre of unity was not to move. But central power itself, its character, its source and its sanction were to be renewed... Instead of an Empire of Might, there was to be a Church of Love. » One thinks of Constantine’s conversion and his imposition throughout the Roman Empire of laws favouring Christianity, and of Theodosius declaring the Christian religion the religion of State. What decisive support for the Gospel ! The remarkable Roman civilization, already the heir of Greece, was put at the service of the Cross of Christ !

Soloviev had some wonderful expressions to describe this, as for example the following: «  Jesus unthroned Caesar... By unthroning the false and impious absolutism of the pagan Caesars, Jesus confirmed and immortalised the universal monarchy of Rome and gave it its true theocratic foundation . »

« Let us not think », comments our Father, « that our theosophist loses his way in a contemplation of evangelical love and freedom. Fully aware of the frailty and shortcomings of humanity, he declares that it is essential, for its effective salvation, that supreme divine power be joined to the firmest social structure, to the virile principle , and not as formerly to the female principle of a virginal flesh for the Incarnation. This firm principle is the imperial monarchical institution which is Rome and Caesar. Converted, elevated and unabolished, the Power of Rome continues in the Pope for the service of the universal community.

« It is only this divino-human pontifical paternity that is capable of forming the basis of the universal fraternity of the peoples, not only through its spiritual influence but also through its authority and its supranational organization. In this monarchy, sacred but popular, the Pope, the Universal Emperor, clearly remains the servant of the servants of God and is, for that very reason, the sovereign Head of the Nations. Opposed to any kind of papolatry, antagonistic to all the encroachments of papism, and quite capable of denouncing such a Pope as Satan, Soloviev raised an imperishable monument to the glory of Rome and pointed out – him, a member of the Orthodox Church – the path of the world’s salvation, which lay in one place only, in the universal Christian order of a restored Roman Catholic Church ... » (French CRC no. 131, July 1978, p. 6)

In his lifetime, Soloviev ran up against a wall of hostility and incomprehension: « I am not so naive », he said, « to seek to convince minds whose private interests are greater than their desire for religious truth. In presenting the general evidence for the permanent primacy of Peter as the basis of the universal Church, I have simply wanted to assist those who are opposed to this truth, not because of their interests and passions, but merely because of their unwitting errors and hereditary prejudices. »

The final period of his life might seem to some like a decline and a renunciation of his prophetic insights, but our Father writes: « Soloviev was too great a mind to be discouraged or to modify his ideas in accordance with the fluctuations of his worldly success. What is certainly true is that his bitter experiences gave him a better knowledge of the Evil that was at work in the world, throwing up formidable obstacles to God’s designs and going so far as to erect a kind of caricature of them. This he denounced as the power of the Antichrist, the Prince of this world, announced in the Scriptures. » (French CRC no. 132, August 1978, p. 12)

At the beginning of the 1890’s, relations between Soloviev and the Orthodox Church deteriorated. «  Given the papaphobia reigning among us , he wrote to a friend, sometimes revealing its underhand character and at other times its stupidity, and always in any event unchristian, I considered and I continue to consider that it is necessary to draw people’s attention to the Rock of the Church laid by Christ Himself and to its positive significance . »

As he persisted in his criticisms, even going so far as to compare the Greco-Russian Church with « the Synagogue », the Orthodox hierarchy, in the person of Pobiedonostev, the Holy Synod’s prosecutor, employed the ultimate weapon at its disposal: it deprived him of the sacraments. One day in 1894, being seriously ill, Soloviev asked to receive the sacraments. His Orthodox confessor refused to give him absolution unless he renounced his Catholic views. Soloviev refused to yield, preferring to forego confession and Holy Communion.

AN AUTHENTIC CONVERSION

The moment had come. On February 18, 1896, he went to see Fr. Nicholas Alexeyevich Tolstoy, a Catholic priest of the Eastern rite exercising his ministry in Moscow. This priest, a former officer, owed him his vocation, his formation (Soloviev having been his teacher) and his conversion to Catholicism. That February 18 was the feast day of Pope St. Leo so dear to Soloviev. Before Mass, he read on his knees the Tridentine symbol of the faith containing the Filioque and a formula declaring that the Church of Rome must be regarded as the head of all the particular Churches. Then he received the Body of Christ at the hands of the Catholic priest.

On the following day, Fr. Tolstoy was denounced and arrested. He managed to escape and to reach Rome first, then France. It was only in 1910 that he would give an account in the Universe of the authentic conversion of Soloviev, and in 1917 that the two witnesses present at the scene would confirm the celebrated Russian’s profession of the Catholic faith. Nevertheless, this conversion was disputed not only by the Orthodox but also by Catholics imbued with a false ecumenism like Msgr. d’Herbigny of sinister memory. But in this matter the facts are indubitable. His entry into the Catholic Church did not, however, in Soloviev’s mind, exclude him from what he called « the true and authentic Eastern or Greco-Russian Church ». Never did he embrace the Latin rite. After the exile of Fr. Tolstoy, as there were no longer any Catholic priests in Moscow apart from those belonging to the Latin rite, Soloviev decided to refrain from receiving the sacraments...

In 1897, a census of the whole of Russia was carried out in which a question was asked about religion. «  I am both Catholic and Orthodox; let the police work that out !  » Soloviev answered.

« Self-important people from Rome and Moscow declared themselves scandalized », writes our Father. « The hour had not yet come for the podwig , for self-renunciation and reconciliation in truth and justice ( pravda ), and for the restoration of the wholly divine unity of communion in love ( sobornost ). Msgr. Rupp thinks that we achieved it with Vatican II. Alas, no ! I hope for and expect it to come with Vatican III... but only after the trial, after conversion and expiation... and after Our Lady’s humble requests have been met. » (English CRC, December 1982, p. 36)

UNDER THE SIGN OF MARY

«  This glow from Heaven emanates from Mary, And vain remains the attraction of the serpent’s venom.  »

On July 17, 1900, sensing death approaching, Soloviev sent for a priest. He was most insistent about this: « Will it be morning soon ? When will the priest come ? » The next day, he made his confession and received Holy Communion at the hands of an Orthodox priest. He died peacefully a few days later, on July 31, «  in the communion of Russian Orthodoxy to which he had ever been faithful, without however disowning the Catholicism of his heart, assured by the example of the Fathers of Russian Christianity, Saints Cyril and Methodius, Saint Vladimir, and so many strastoterptsi , innocents who had suffered the passion , and startsi , slavophiles and romanophiles at the same time, without schism or constraint, in the love of Holy Church and Holy Russia, the Kingdom of God to come !  »

But all this is too beautiful for us not to revisit it, so our Father has decided that we will study in more depth the work of this great Russian thinker, in three parts to appear in subsequent editions of Resurrection , Deo volente:

The vocation of Russia in the designs of God and the concert of the Christian nations: up to and including Putin ?

The Immaculate Virgin Mary , throne of Wisdom, essential beauty of the created world, our ultimate recourse !

The Antichrist unmasked by Soloviev . This was the last service the “ inspired prophet ” rendered to his beloved Russia: that of putting her on her guard against the seductions of the Antichrist. In Rome, at the same time, St. Pius X was also announcing his advent in his encyclical E supremi Apostolatus of October 4, 1903: « The Antichrist is present among us. The Evil shaking the world should not affright us, it will only last a short while. What must fall will fall, and the Church will be reborn from the trial, assisted by her Saviour and ready for extraordinary developments. »

Brother Thomas of Our Lady of Perpetual Help He is risen ! n° 8, August 2001, pp. 13-22

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