Tabgha: Church of the Multiplication

In the Bible

Jesus had the crowd sit on the green grass, blessed five loaves and two fish, and all ate and were satisfied; twelve baskets of pieces were left over.

Mark 6:39–44Then Jesus directed them to have the people sit in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, Jesus spoke a blessing and broke the loaves. Then He gave them to His disciples to set before the people. And He divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. And there were five thousand men who had eaten the loaves.

Tradition

The Gospels do not name the spot; by a tradition recorded by early pilgrims, it was here at the Seven Springs (Heptapegon, now Tabgha), near Capernaum.

Here today

A Benedictine church of 1982 in Byzantine style, over a 5th-century mosaic of a basket of loaves between two fish before the altar.

Through the eyes of old pilgrims

And that place is level and grassy, and in that place Christ fed the crowds, 5 thousand, with 5 loaves, besides women and children, and 12 baskets of fragments were left over.Abbot Daniel, 1106–1108 · our translation

Official site

Before you travel, check your country’s travel advice. Opening hours and the rules of the sites change — see their official pages.

Land outlines: Natural Earth (public domain).