The scene of the Mission
"And, left Nazaret, he came to live to Cafarnao, near the sea, in the territory of Ząbulon and Nčftali, this was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet Isaiah: The country of Ząbulon and the country of Nčftali, along the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the peoples; the people immersed in the darkness has seen a great light; a light has risen on those who reside on earth and shadow of death" (Mt 4,13-16).
According to the testimony of Mattew, Capernaum is the village of Jesus, the place of his preaching. Today Capernaum doesn't exist any more. In the locality where were the town, there're only some ruined stones and vestiges immersed in the variously wavy country placed to north-east of the lake of Tiberias.
When brother Giuseppe Baldi of Naples, getting over some difficulties, buys by the bedouins the ipothetical place of Cafarnao, the land is full of scrub, while, at intervals, carved stones emerge from the soil. Even some archaeologists doubt this can be the place of the town in which Jesus lived.
But the excavations executed in diverse times, by the German Kohl e Watzinger co-ordinated by the franciscan archaeologists friars Vendelin von Benden and then Gaudenzio Orfali, shows two important constructions: the synagogue of the IV century, and an octagonal construction.
Since 1968 the excavations resume under the management of the franciscan archaeologists Father Virgilio Corbo and Father Stanislao Loffreda (italian both) .
But wether this is Capernaum, as now appears by the excavations executed, what is Peter's house, the house that gives hospitality to Jesus in the beginning of the preaching? We find the response in an octagonal building, very loved by the population of the first centuries. "This octagonal construction has jealously preserved, under its structures, the grids of walls in basalt of the ancient houses. And exactly in the center of this grid, only one, among all the houses, is in the center of an octagon. On the walls appear plasters with symbolical decorations and fragmets of graffiti in greek language, aramaic one and other ancient languages. There're many Peter's name and biblical citations. There're also small oil-lamps and liturgical style cruets, which evidence the religious liturgies celebrated in this place. Among the objects discovered here during the excavations, there are some fish-hooks for the fishing, of archaing making!…
These objects were under a mosaic represented a peafowl, places in the center of the octagon exactly. Over a wall of this house, among so many invocations and short prayers, there's a prayer, graffito, in greek language, written by a pilgrim probablely: (My Lord Jesus Christ, help me)" (Cfr. Sui passi di Dio, Guida, Elle di ci Leumann, pag. 79).
THIS IS THE LAST PROOF, WHAT ALL THE ARCHAEOLOGISTS SEARCHED. THIS IS PETER'S HOUSE. THE HOUSE WHERE LIVED JESUS.
TO THE DISCOVERY OF JESUS OF NAZARETH
| We ask, heartily, to the Government of
Israel to prevent the construction of the mosque near the Basilica of Annunciation to
Nazareth, in the Galilea. The place is particularly dear to the whole Christianity and the vicinity of an islamic mosque, could cause dangerous frictions between the pilgrims of diverse religions, besides to discourage christian pilgrimage every year |
