Entry to Church House of St. Peter

On the south side of Capernaum stands the large modern church of  The House of St. Peter. It hovers over the ruins of the 5th century octagonal church, also known by the same name. This church had been built over the remains of even earlier buildings.

To begin with the earliest from the first century. Remains of the insula can still be seen beneath the later buildings. According to some archaeologists one room or courtyard within this insula received special status in the latter parts of the first century, becoming a place of assembly. The floor was covered with plaster, and the wall reworked, some even say with inscriptions. This is contested by other archeologists. No household ceramics were found in this room, only a very large amount of oil lamps.

This late 1st century structure may have been used as a domus-ecclesia or house church by the early Christians of Capernaum.

Across insula to House of St. Peter

In the 4th century this structure underwent a major transformation. Walls were added as well as archways  to support the roof and new entrances. It is possible that the remainder of the insula continued in its original function, as living quarters.

In the 5th century the whole insula was dismantled as well as the early house of prayer. On top was built a large octagonal church, to become known as the Church of the House of St. Peter. The Byzantines took great care to locate this church directly above the early house. Mosaics covered the floors of plants and animals. The mosaic in the central octagon in addition had schools of fish and in the center a circle with a peacock, an early Christian symbol for immortality.

Although there are only ruins to be seen today, the place may hold special significance for the Christian visitor.

Is this really the House of St. Peter?

There is no doubt about the identification of Capernaum. There is however debate on whether the House of St. Peter really is that.

Jesus chose Capernaum as the place of his ministry. (Mtt. 4: 13) Many of his disciples were from Capernaum. Simon, later known as Peter, lived in Capernaum with his family, worked as a fisherman (Matt. 4:18) and was one of the first to be  chosen by Jesus.

Peter and his house is mentioned a number of times in the gospels. In fact one of the first healings is of Peter’s mother-in-law (Mark 1:30). This means that Peter was married, as was the norm of those days. There is no information on Peter’s family, except that he also had a brother, Andrew, who most likely lived in the same insula as Peter.

Whenever considering if a 5th century church was really built over Peter’s house, a number of things should be taken into consideration.

1. The insula at the time would house extended families
2. Oral tradition

Is it possible that the family of Peter would remember where he lived? Is it possible even that he had descendants, children? Quite likely, as he was married. Would they have followed in his footsteps and followed Jesus, and became the foundation for the Christian community in Capernaum.

There is an additional question to consider. Where did Jesus stay while in Capernaum? He would not have slept outside in the open. If we take the stand that he was not married, he most likely did not have his own household. Is it possible that he would stay with Simon Peter, his best friend?
At least some of the time?

Sculpture of St. Peter

After the death of Jesus, Peter, together with the disciples, returned to the Galilee, to their homes in Capernaum. They would have come back and told all that had happened in Jerusalem. They would have continued to stay there, especially Peter, until he fully began his apostolic work.

Taking all of the above into consideration there is a very high likelihood that the church is truly built over the house of Peter.

I have told you the way I see it. It is up to you now to consider this. But maybe when you visit Capernaum you will actually walk where Jesus and the disciples lived, worked and walked.

But the reason it seems this way is that most of the churches a visitor will encounter are not community churches, but rather memorial churches. What I mean by this is that these churches have been built and are maintained to commemorate an event in the life of Jesus, or a teaching, or a miracle performed by Jesus.

These monumental churches often do not have communities attached to them, but simply belong to a group within a larger denomination, and this group has the responsibility for that site to maintain it and to keep it open to visitors.

Most of these commemorative churches are big, and have a lively flow of visitors. A few of  them charge a small entrance fee. Most of them have been re-built within the last 150 years, but are generally built on top of earlier churches from the Byzantine or Crusader periods, often
incorporating architectural features of these earlier buildings.

Crowds in Gethsemane

Denominational, and without a congregation, but services may still take place. Many of these churches are under the autonomous responsibility of the Fransiscans, therefore Catholic. They are places of great importance to the Christian visitor, and Catholic pilgrim groups will often hold their daily mass in one of these churches.

The mass is conducted, while the other visitors throng around, taking photos and videos of the building as well as of the mass. For many non-catholic visitors this is the first time they may be seeing and hearing a mass being performed.

There are exceptions to this, such as The Catholic Church of the Annunciation and the Greek Orthodox Church of Mary’s Well in Nazareth. They both have communities attached to them. So they should not be visited on a Sunday morning.

There are a few other churches that will be closed off to other visitors, while mass in going on. But usually there is plenty of space on the ground around to get an impression of the place, and with some luck the mass will end, and the church can then also be visited. But there are no guarantees.

El-Aqsa Mosque

So what about synagogues and mosques? There are plenty of these around as well.

The mosques are quite obvious within the Arab towns and villages. They are easy to recognize with their tall minarets from where the muezzin will call the faithful to prayer. These mosques are obviously serving their community, and never open to visitors.

The most famous mosques, The Dome of the Rock and the El-Aqsa Mosque are completely off limit to all non-moslem visitors. Temple Mount, as it is known by Jews and Christians, and Haram El-Sharif,  The Holy Enclosure, by the Moslems, is open to visitors.

Synagogues are the most abundant house of worship in Israel, for obvious reasons. However, most visitors will not notice them. Even the larger ones are tucked away in the neighborhoods, they serve. In addition there are very few distinguishing features to mark them as a synagogue to the visitor. The congregation, and the general Israeli public, will have no problem identifying them.

The only truly holy place to Jews, The Western Wall, is treated as a synagogue by the rabbis running the place. This means that though there is no building, one has to behave as if one is in an orthodox synagogue.

Dominus Flevit – direct translation The Lord Cried – is also known as The Tear Drop Church. The present church was built in 1952 according to the plans of the Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi. It stands over the site where tradition has it that Jesus prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem.

Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them “You see all these, do you not? Truly I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down”
Luke 24:1-2

The tradition that the site of modern Dominus Flevit is the site of the prophesy of the destruction of Jerusalem dates back to the Byzantine period (324-636 CE). This can be seen by the remains of the mosaic floor, to be found adjoining the entrance to the modern church.

Barluzzi managed to express architecturally the events. When standing inside the church one is supposed to get the feeling of standing inside a tear drop. Since Jesus is prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem, the single large window causes the visitor to look out onto Jerusalem.
Through special dispensation this is the only Catholic church to face west, allowing the view to be the altar picture.

Outside on top of each corner Barluzzi placed huge stone replicas of tear bottles. In Roman times there was a tradition of collecting tears in glass vials and pour them out on the grave of the deceased.

Dominus Flevit, though small, is clearly seen, when viewing the Mount of Olives from the West. One of the tell-tale signs are the thousand of visitors thronging this small area, pointing to the importance of the tradition surrounding the site.