Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish in Tabgha

Monday, 25 January 2016 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, Union for the Mediterranean
Reading Time:  6 minutes

Mosaic in the church © Berthold Werner

Mosaic in the church © Berthold Werner

The Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish, shortened to The Church of the Multiplication, is a Roman Catholic church located at Tabgha, on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. The modern church rests on the site of two earlier churches. The church is maintained and overseen by the Benedictine Order. Nearby are other Christian sites, especially the Mount of Beatitudes north, Capernaum and Bethsaida east and Magdala to the south of Tabgha.

The earliest recording of a church commemorating Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand is by the Spanish pilgrim Egeria circa AD 380.

“Not far away from there (Capernaum) are some stone steps where the Lord stood. And in the same place by the sea is a grassy field with plenty of hay and many palm trees. By them are seven springs, each flowing strongly. And this is the field where the Lord fed the people with the five loaves and two fishes. In fact the stone on which the Lord placed the bread has now been made into an altar. Past the walls of this church goes the public highway on which the Apostle Matthew had his place of custom. Near there on a mountain is a cave to which the Savior climbed and spoke the Beatitudes.”

Mosaic in the church © Berthold Werner Exterior of the church © David Shankbone/cc-by-sa-3.0 Interior of the church © Berthold Werner Church of the Multiplication © Berthold Werner Courtyard © David Shankbone/cc-by-sa-3.0
<
>
Exterior of the church © David Shankbone/cc-by-sa-3.0
The church was significantly enlarged around the year 480 with floor mosaics also added at this time. These renovations are attributed to the patriarch Matryrios. In AD 614 Persians destroyed the original Byzantine church, and the exact site of the shrine was lost for some 1,300 years. In 1888 the site was acquired by the German Catholic society (Deutsche Katholische Palaestinamission) which was associated with the Archdiocese of Cologne. An initial archeological survey was conducted in 1892, with full excavations beginning in 1932. These excavations resulted in the discovery of mosaic floors from the 5th-century church, which was also found to be built on the foundations of a much smaller 4th-century chapel. The current church was built to the same floor plan as the 5th-century Byzantine church. Since 1939 it has been administered by the Benedictine order as a daughter-house of the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem.

The interior of the church has a central nave and two aisles. The sanctuary is backed by an apse with transepts on either side. Under the altar is a block of limestone found during excavation, that is venerated as the stone on which the miraculous meal was laid. One of the main highlights of the church are its restored 5th century mosaics. These mosaics are the earliest known examples of figured pavement in Christian art in the Holy Land. The mosaics in the two transepts depict various wetland birds and plants, with a prominent place given to the lotus flower. This flower, which is not indigenous to the area, suggests the artist’s use of a Nilotic landscape popular in Roman and early-Byzantine art. All the other motifs depict plants and animals from the Galilee. The mosaics found in front of the altar depict two fish flanking a basket containing loaves of bread. Also preserved in the modern church are the sill of the left entrance to the atrium, basalt paving stones, and part of the apse frieze. The foundations of the original 4th-century church can also be seen under a glass panel to the right of the altar. Basalt presses and a font are also displayed in the courtyard.

On 17 June 2015, the church was significantly damaged by an arson attack committed by Jewish settlers (Price tag policy). Hebrew graffiti, with the words “false idols will be smashed”, was sprayed on the church walls and follows a history of Jewish extremist arson and graffiti attacks against Christian and Muslim sites since 2013 in Israel and Palestine. Israeli officials have labelled the attack as “terrorism”. “Whatever repairs are not covered by insurance must be paid for by the Israeli government,” said Wadie Abunassar, media spokesman for the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land. “We believe this attack was tantamount to a terror attack, and when there is a terror attack the state is responsible for paying for compensation and prosecutes the perpetrators.” In late July 2015, four Israeli Jews age 18 to 24 and an unnamed minor from the extremist stronghold Yitzhar settlement in the West Bank were arrested by the Israel police and indicted for the arson. The suspects are reportedly associated with the Jewish extremist, ultra-nationalist Hilltop Youth. In the course of 20 months of renovation work, the damage caused could be remedied.

Read more on Sacred-Destinations.com – Church of the Multiplication and Wikipedia Church of the Multiplication (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.




Recommended posts:

Share this post: (Please note data protection regulations before using buttons)

Gainesville in Florida

Gainesville in Florida

[caption id="attachment_238027" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Hippodrome State Theatre © soulbust/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, which had a population of 339,247 in 2020. Gainesville is home to the University of Florida, the fourth-largest public university campus by enrollment in the United States as of the 2021...

[ read more ]

Große Freiheit in Hamburg

Große Freiheit in Hamburg

[caption id="attachment_196634" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © flickr.com - IKs World Trip/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Große Freiheit (German for: "Great Freedom") is a cross street on the North Side to Hamburg's Reeperbahn road in the St. Pauli quarter. It is part of the red-light district. The street was named in 1610 after the fact that Count Ernest of Schaumburg and Holstein-Pinneberg had granted religious freedom to non-Lutherans such as Mennonites and Roman Catholics to practise their faith here and comme...

[ read more ]

Symi in the southern Aegean

Symi in the southern Aegean

[caption id="attachment_150692" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Karelj/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Symi is a Greek island and municipality. It is mountainous and includes the harbor town of Symi and its adjacent upper town Ano Symi, as well as several smaller localities, beaches, and areas of significance in history and mythology. Symi is part of the Rhodes regional unit. The shipbuilding and sponge industries were substantial on the island and, while at their peak near the end of the 19th century, the population ...

[ read more ]

Yale University in New Haven

Yale University in New Haven

[caption id="attachment_222737" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Benjamin Franklin College courtyard © Helpfullguy99/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine Colonial Colleges chartered before the American Revolution. The Collegiate School was renamed Yale College in 1718 to honor the school's largest private...

[ read more ]

The Hanseatic city of Lüneburg

The Hanseatic city of Lüneburg

[caption id="attachment_161048" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Am Sande Street © Frank Vincentz[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Lüneburg is a town in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is located about 45 km (28 mi) southeast of fellow Hanseatic city Hamburg. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, and one of Hamburg's inner suburbs. Lüneburg has a population of around 72 000. The district of Lüneburg, which includes the surrounding communities like Adendorf, Bardowick, and Reppenstedt, has a population of around 103 00...

[ read more ]

St Paul's Cathedral in London

St Paul's Cathedral in London

[caption id="attachment_27078" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © flickr.com - Mark Fosh/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]St Paul's Cathedral, London, is an Anglican cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of London and the mother church of the Diocese of London. It sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. The present church, dating from the late 17th century, was designed in the English Baroque st...

[ read more ]

Portrait: Ludwig von Mises, Austrian School economist, historian, logician, and sociologist

Portrait: Ludwig von Mises, Austrian School economist, historian, logician, and sociologist

[caption id="attachment_227596" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Krapulat/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian School economist, historian, logician, and sociologist. Mises wrote and lectured extensively on the societal contributions of classical liberalism. He is best known for his work on praxeology studies comparing communism and capitalism. He is considered one of the most influential economic and political thinkers of the 20th century. Mises emigrated from Austria to the ...

[ read more ]

Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks

Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks

[caption id="attachment_150974" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Kitty Hawk Airfield © Wusel007/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Kitty Hawk is a town in Dare County, North Carolina, and is a part of what is known as North Carolina's Outer Banks. The population is at 3,300. It was established in the early 18th century as Chickahawk. The Kitty Hawk Life-Saving Station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. Kitty Hawk became world-famous after the Wright brothers made the first controlled pow...

[ read more ]

Miami Beach

Miami Beach

[caption id="attachment_152307" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Biscayne Island © Averette/cc-by-3.0-en[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County in Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on a series of natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter which separates the Beach from Miami city proper. The neighborhood of South Beach, comprising the southernmost 2.5 square miles (6.5 km2) of Miami Beach, alo...

[ read more ]

Karytaina in the highlands of Arcadia

Karytaina in the highlands of Arcadia

[caption id="attachment_150977" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Nochoje/cc-by-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Karytaina is a village and a community in Arcadia. Karytaina is situated on a hill on the right bank of the river Alpheios, near its confluence with the Lousios. Karytaina is 54 km (34 mi) from the capital of Arcadia, Tripoli, 20 km (12 mi) from Megalopoli and 17 km (11 mi) from Stemnitsa, built on the slopes of the hill of Achreiovouni, some 550 m above sea level. The village dates back to the Middle Ages, but its his...

[ read more ]

Return to TopReturn to Top
Nilov Monastery from Lake Seliger © Just/cc0
Stolobny Island in Lake Seliger

Stolobny Island is an island on Lake Seliger in the Tver Oblast of Russia, about 10 km (6.2 mi) north...

Riyadh Skyline © Muhaidib
The Kingdom Centre in Riyadh

Kingdom Centre is a 65-storey, 302.3 m (992 ft) skyscraper in Riyadh. It is the third tallest skyscraper in the...

Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv © Degser/cc-by-sa-3.0
Theme Week Tel Aviv – The Rothschild Boulevard

Rothschild Boulevard is one of the principal streets in the center of Tel Aviv, beginning in Neve Tzedek at its...

Schließen