Religion: Loaves & Fishes

“And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.”—St. Matthew: 14.19-21.

Thus went one of Jesus Christ’s most noted miracles, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee which was variously called Tiberias or Gennesaret. The loaves were of barley. The fish may have been bream, sheatfish, carp or perch, all of which abounded in Galilee.

According to church tradition, a basilica was built on the spot of the miracle of loaves & fishes. Long buried under seven feet of clay, this basilica was unearthed last week by Rev. Evarist Andrea Mader, director of the German Oriental Institute (Roman Catholic) of Jerusalem. The ruin is 170 ft. long, with a 66-ft. transept. Under the altar is a stone which apparently marks the spot of the miracle. In front are mosaics of serpents, sea birds, plants and lotus flowers. Behind are shown the loaves & fishes, with a sort of basket which is presumably one of the twelve in which the leftovers were gathered.