Saturday, June 16, 2007

Chapel of the Primacy (St Peter's Church)



Justa short way along the road towards Capernaum from the Church of the Multiplication a footpath leads off on the right towards the lake and, passing a Byzantine structure enclosing a spring, runs down to the shore of the Lake and the Chapel of peter's Primacy.

A chapel built here in the 4th century was destroyed in 1263: the present chapel, in black basalt, was built by the Francisacns in 1933> This very simole aisless building commemorates the appearance of the risen Christ ti=o His disciples on the shore of the lake, when he gave Peter primacy over the church with the thrice repeated injunction: 'Feed My lambs ... Feed My sheep ... Feed My sheep' (John 21, 15-16).

The rock at the east end of the chapel is believed to have been used as the table at which Jesus dined with the disciples. The rock-cut steps leading down to the lake on the south side of the chapel were described by the pilgrim Aetheria about 400 as 'the steps on which the Lord stood'.

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