In Christian Culture
Honoring the Jewish tradition (see above) and inspired by apocryphal accounts of the life of the virgin Mary, medieval Christian artists depicted the relationship of Jesus' maternal grandparents Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate. The couple came to represent the Christian ideal of chastity in conjugal relations within marriage. The pious custom of a bridegroom carrying his bride across the threshold of their marital home may be based in the traditional symbolism of the Golden Gate to the Christian faithful.
The metaphor features heavily in the personalist phenomenology of the late Pope John Paul II, his Theology of the Body, a collection of reflections on this theme Crossing the Threshold of Hope were written to encourage the Roman Catholic faithful facing the challenges of materialism and increasing secularism and published on the cusp of the new millennium in 1998. The threshold between the earthly and heavenly realms symbolized by the Golden Gate represents the Mystical Body of the Church, the bride of the bridegroom Jesus Christ.
In Christian escatology, sunrise at east refers to Christ's resurrection at dawn on Easter Sunday. Christian sanctuaries are often oriented for congregational worship at an altar facing East. City gates in Christian urban centers often contain religious artifacts intended to guard the city from attacks and to bless travelers. Vilnius' Ostra Brama (Lithuania) contains an icon of Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn venerated by both Roman Catholic and Orthodox inhabitants.
Read more about this topic: Golden Gate (Jerusalem)
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