The Chapel of the Primacy
"The third time he said to
him: ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’." (John 21:17)
A chapel on the lake shore - a short
distance from the Church of the
Multiplication of the Loaves and the Fishes - marks
the site where, according to Christian tradition, Jesus appeared to his
disciples for the third time and confirmed the spiritual primacy of the
Apostle Peter.
The present chapel, built of black
basalt stones, was erected by the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land in 1933
on the ruins of earlier shrines. Elements of the 4th-century church can be
seen along the outside base of three of the walls.
The section of flat rock in front of
the altar inside the present chapel is popularly identified as Mensa
Christi (Lat., the table of Christ), the assumed place where Jesus offered
breakfast to the disciples.
On the lakeside of the chapel are
twelve rock-cut steps, quite possibly those described by the 4th-century
Spanish pilgrim, the Lady Egeria.
Pope Paul VI visited the chapel on 5
January 1964, during his historic pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Sources: Israeli
Foreign Ministry |