Footage of an attack on a Catholic nun in Jerusalem shocked the world when it went viral last week, but for worshipers attending Sunday mass at Saint Stephen’s Basilica, it was just the latest example of mounting religious hostility.

The attack on Tuesday was captured by CCTV and shared widely, showing a Jewish extremist shoving the nun to the ground and leaving, before returning to resume his attack on her, at which point by-passers intervened.

As the congregation poured out of the Sunday service, the story was still on everyone’s lips, as many offered words and tokens of support for the French nun, who was not in attendance.

“She still has pains,” but she is “surrounded by support,” said the priest who led the service, Olivier Catel.

When Catel arrived in Jerusalem over a decade ago, such incidents were rare. Roughly once a year, he said, “when I went out in my habit, people — usually ultra-Orthodox Jews — would spit behind our back.”

“We never paid attention because they were isolated incidents,” he said. But for the past three or four years, it has become something of a daily occurrence.

“When we go out, people spit next to us.”

The Rossing Center, a Jerusalem-based association for interreligious dialogue, has documented “growing harassment” of Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem, according to a study released in March.

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© The Times of Israel