"Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all." (Mark 6:41)
When the Persians destroyed the Byzantine church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and the Fishes in 614, the exact site of the shrine was lost. It was only rediscovered some 1,300 years later.
The site was acquired in 1888 by a German catholic society (Deutsche Katholische Palaestinamission) associated with the Archdiocese of Cologne. Since 1939, it has been served by the Benedictine fathers and is administered as a daughter-house of the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem.
An initial archeological survey was conducted in 1892. Full excavations, begun in 1932, resulted in the discovery of the mosaic floor of the 5th-century church (which was found to be built on the foundations of an earlier, and much smaller 4th-century chapel).
The mosaic pavements in the two transepts depict in free-flowing design various wetland birds and plants in a Nilotic landscape popular in Roman and early-Byzantine art.
The most famous of the Tabgha pavements is the restored mosaic found immediately in front of the altar. This depicts two fish flanking a basket containing loaves of bread.
The present church, consecrated in 1982, was built to the same plan as the 5th century Byzantine church. Entrance is through a colonnaded atrium (courtyard) and a narthex (vestibule). The church itself has a central nave, flanked by two aisles. The sanctuary (the area around the altar) is backed by an apse (a half-domed, semi-circular recess), with a transept on each side.
According to the Lady Egeria, the 4th-century church also contained the stone on which Jesus placed the bread. The block of undressed limestone displayed beneath the present altar was found during archeological excavations.
Tabgha: The site
The Chapel of the Primacy
The Shrine of the Beatitudes
- Map of the Galilee