Church of the Multiplication | |
---|---|
Religion | |
Affiliation | Roman Catholic |
Leadership | Benedictines |
Year consecrated | 1982 |
Location | |
Location | Tabgha, Israel |
Architecture | |
Completed | 1982 |
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 in Israel. The modern church rests on the site of two earlier churches.
The church is maintained and overseen by the Benedictine Order.
The first church, built alongside the important road that passes by, was erected around 350 AD by Joseph of Tiberias. It was first mentioned by Egeria in 380. [1]
The church was significantly enlarged around the year 480, with floor mosaics also added at this time. These renovations are attributed to the Patriarch Martyrius of Jerusalem. In AD 614 Persians destroyed the Byzantine church. [2]
After the AD 614 destruction, the exact site of the shrine was lost for some 1,300 years. In 1888 the site was acquired by the German Catholic Society for Palestine (Palästina-Verein der Katholiken Deutschlands) which was associated with the Archdiocese of Cologne. An initial archaeological 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.
Since 1939 the property has been administered by the Benedictine order as a daughter-house of the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem. The current church, inaugurated in 1984, was built to the same floor plan as the 5th-century Byzantine church, some of the ancient black basalt walls have survived and remain visible. The Cologne-based architects Anton Goergen and Fritz designed a simple, modest building in a somewhat neo-Byzantine style. The windows are fitted with alabaster panels. The bright limestone blocks were brought from a quarry near Taybeh (between Jericho and Ramallah), the red bricks from Italy and the roof timbering from Germany. [3] The portal is a work by the German sculptor Elmar Hillebrand. [4] [5]
On 17 June 2015, an auxiliary building next to the church was significantly damaged by an arson attack committed by Jewish extremists. [6] Hebrew graffiti, with the words "false idols will be smashed", taken from the Jewish prayer Aleinu, was sprayed on the walls of the adjacent dormitory. This incident followed a series of arson and graffiti attacks by Jewish extremists against Christian sites. [7] [8] Israeli officials have labeled the attack as "terrorism". [9] "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." [10]
In late July 2015, four Israeli Jews age 18 to 24 and an unnamed minor were arrested by the Israel police and indicted for the arson. The suspects are reportedly associated with the Jewish extremist, ultra-nationalist Hilltop Youth. [11] [12] [13] [14]
The media coverage at the time of the arson largely distorted the fact that the church building itself had been unharmed. In February 2017, new media reports suggested that the church itself had been closed for nearly two years as a result for the arson attack, although it was open throughout the time. [15] [16]
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 are the earliest known examples of figurative floor mosaics 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 mosaic found in front of the altar depicts two fish flanking a basket containing four 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.
A basalt-made oil press is displayed in the courtyard, as is a baptismal font outside of it.
Capernaum was a fishing village established during the time of the Hasmoneans, located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It had a population of about 1500. Archaeological excavations have revealed two ancient synagogues built one over the other. A house turned into a church by the Byzantines is believed to have been the home of Saint Peter.
The Church of All Nations, also known as the Church or Basilica of the Agony, is a Roman Catholic church located on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, next to the Garden of Gethsemane. It enshrines a section of bedrock where Jesus is said to have prayed before his arrest.
Bethsaida, also known as Julias, is a place mentioned in the New Testament. Julias lay in an administrative district known as Gaulonitis. Historians have suggested that the name is also referenced in rabbinic literature under the epithet Ṣaidan.
Tabgha is an area situated on the north-western shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel and a depopulated Palestinian village. It is traditionally accepted as the place of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes and the fourth resurrection appearance of Jesus after his Crucifixion. The village population was expelled in 1948 during Operation Broom.
The Church of the Beatitudes is a Roman Catholic church located on the Mount of Beatitudes by the Sea of Galilee near Tabgha and Capernaum in Israel.
Tuba-Zangariyye or Tuba az-Zanghariyya is a Bedouin town in the Northern District of Israel. Located in the Korazim Plateau, it achieved local council status in 1988. It was formed by the merger of two villages, Tuba and az-Zangariyye. Populated by the Bedouin tribe of El Heib, Tuba is situated near Kfar Hanassi, overlooking the Jordan River, and sits 250 meters above sea level. In 2021 it had a population of 7,011.
Abbey of the Dormition is a Catholic abbey belonging to the Benedictine Order in Jerusalem, on Mount Zion just outside the walls of the Old City near the Zion Gate. The Abbey is said to mark the spot where Mary, mother of Jesus, died.
Christianity is the third largest religion in Israel, after Judaism and Islam. At the end of 2022, Christians made up 1.9% of the Israeli population, numbering approximately 185,000. 75.8% of the Christians in Israel are Arab Christians. Christians make up 6.9% of the Arab citizens of Israel.
Lehava is a far-right and Jewish supremacist organization based in Israel that strictly opposes Jewish assimilation, objecting to most personal relationships between Jews and non-Jews. It is opposed to the Christian presence in Israel. It has an anti-miscegenation focus, denouncing marriages between Jews and non-Jews forbidden by Orthodox Jewish law. The group has over 10,000 members.
The price tag attack policy, also sometimes referred to as "mutual responsibility", is the name originally given to the attacks and acts of vandalism committed primarily in the occupied West Bank by Israeli Jewish fundamentalist settler youths against Palestinian Arabs, left-wing Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs, Christians, and Israeli security forces. The youths officially claim that the acts are committed to "exact a price from local Palestinians or from the Israeli security forces for any action taken against their settlement enterprise".
Huqoq or Hukkok was an ancient Jewish village, located 12.5 km north of Tiberias. The area had been settled since ancient times and is mentioned in the Book of Joshua. The Palestinian village Yaquq was built at Huqoq's location, and a kibbutz named Hukok was established near the site on 11 July 1945.
Israeli settler violence refers to acts of violence committed by Jewish Israeli settlers and their supporters against Palestinians and Israeli security forces, predominantly in the West Bank. In November 2021, Defense Minister Benny Gantz discussed the steep rise in the number of incidents between settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank, many of which result from attacks by residents of illegal settler outposts on Palestinians from neighboring villages.
The Duma village arson attack refers to the firebombing of a Palestinian family home in late July 2015 in the village of Duma, which resulted in the death of three people; 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh was burned alive in the fire, while both his parents died from their injuries within weeks. On 3 January 2016, 21 year old Israeli settler Amiram Ben-Uliel was indicted for the murder, along with an Israeli minor, for participation in planning the murder. In addition, along with two others, they were both charged with one count of membership in a terrorist organization.
On 1 January 2016, an Israeli Arab gunman opened fire on several businesses on Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv, Israel, killing two and injuring seven civilians. He also killed a taxi driver while fleeing. The attack was believed to be inspired by ISIS. The event took place in parallel with the 2015-16 Palestinian unrest.
In November 2016, a wave of fires spread across Israel from south of the Beersheva region to the north, in Nahariya. Some of the fires occurred naturally; others were arson attacks. On 28 November, after 8 days, the firefighting services announced that the emergency condition was over. Firefighters fought 1,773 fires, at least 39 were reported as major fires that required at least ten crews or more. The largest fire occurred in Haifa, where 527 apartments were destroyed among 77 buildings, leaving 1,600 people homeless. 75,000 residents, about a quarter of the city's population, were evacuated from 11 neighborhoods. Other major fires occurred in Zikhron Ya'akov and in the Jerusalem area, as well as smaller fires all across Israel and the West Bank. Israel's Nature and Parks Authority reported that more than 20,000 dunams of forests, brushland and open space were burnt, the largest amount since the Mount Carmel forest fire (2010).
Meir Ettinger is an Israeli Kahanist activist and extremist who is known for leading the Hilltop Youth, a group that pursues the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, conducts punitive price tag attacks on Palestinian villages, and targets Muslim and Christian sites. Ettinger has called for the demolition of the secular state of Israel, and its replacement by a religious society based on Biblical principles.
The German Association of the Holy Land, German: Deutscher Verein vom Heiligen Lande (DVHL), is a Roman Catholic organisation, which aims to strengthen the relationship between Christians in Germany and the Holy Land. DHVL was founded in 1895 in Rhenish Prussia as a legal entity under state protection. The Association's main office is in Cologne.
The Revolt is an Israeli Jewish far-right terror group responsible for the Duma arson attack. The group is opposed to Zionism, and instead advocates for dismantling the State of Israel in order to establish a Kingdom of Israel that follows Jewish Law. The group's membership numbers in the range of 30-40 people. Between the founding of the ideological origin of the group in 2013, and the Duma arson attack, the group was responsible for 11 other arson attacks. Other important attack of the group was the arson in the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes in Tabgha, Northern district. The arson left important material damages in the church. In December of 2017, Eyal Reuveni was sentenced to 4 years in prision for the attack.
Timeline of attacks against synagogues in Israel documents anti-Semitic attacks and vandalism against synagogue buildings and property in Israel. Vandalism of synagogues is not uncommon in Israel.