Church of the Seat of Mary

By the Editors of the Madain Project

The Church of the Seat of Mary, also called the Kathisma Church, Church of the Kathisma or the Old Kathisma, was a mid-fifth-century CE Byzantine church in the Israel/Palestine, located between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, on what is today known as Hebron Road.

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Overview

It is believed to have been built on the purported resting place of Mary on the road to Bethlehem mentioned in the apocryphal Proto-Gospel of James. The Kathisma Church was built when Marian devotion (veneration and reverence directed towards the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, within the Christian tradition) first rose to great importance in the early half of the fifth century CE, following the First Council of Ephesus of 431 CE. It is one of the earliest churches known to have been dedicated to the Theotokos (literally meaning Mary the God-bearer) in the entire Byzantine Empire.

Architecture

circa 400 CE

The structure of the Kathisma Church featured an octagonal layout, measuring 43 by 52 meters (141 by 171 feet), similar in design to the fourth-century CE Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and other Byzantine churches. This architectural style influenced the construction of the Dome of the Rock in the late 7th century. The Kathisma rock was positioned at the center of the building. Most of the church's rooms were adorned with colored mosaics featuring floral and geometric patterns, with some of these mosaics being added in the 8th century.

References

Avner, Rina; Ariel, Donald T.; Berman, Ariel; Di Segni, L.; Finkielsztejn, Gérald; Gorin-Rosen, Yael; Winter, Tamar (2022). The Kathisma church and monastery of Mary Theotokos on the Jerusalem-Bethlehem road : final report of the 1992, 1997, 1999 and 2000 excavation seasons. Jerusalem. ISBN 978-965-406-753-9. OCLC 1331773739.
Avner, Rina (2016). Leslie Brubaker; Mary B. Cunningham (eds.). The Initial Tradition of the Theotokos at the Kathisma: Earliest Celebrations and the Calendar. Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies. Routledge. ISBN 9781351891974. Retrieved 2019-01-08.
Rina Avner, The Kathisma - a Christian and Muslim pilgrimage site, ARAM 18-19 (2007), pp. 541–57.
Avni, Gideon (2014). "A Tale of Two Cities". The Byzantine-Islamic Transition in Palestine: An Archaeological Approach. Oxford Studies in Byzantium. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 150–151. ISBN 9780199684335. Retrieved 2019-01-08.
Avni, Gideon (2022). "Chapter 2: The Octagonal Church—Architecture and Stratigraphy". The Kathisma Church and Monastery of Mary Theotokos on the Jerusalem – Bethlehem Road: Final Report of the 1992, 1997, 1999 and 2000 Excavation Seasons. Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority. p. 76. ISBN 978-965-406-754-6. Retrieved 2024-01-29.
Avner, Rina (2010). "The Dome of the Rock in Light of the Development of Concentric Martyria in Jerusalem: Architecture and Architectural Iconography". Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World. 27. Leiden & Boston: Brill: 43f. (from 31–49). JSTOR 25769691.
Pixner, Bargil. (2013). Sulle strade del Messia: luoghi della Chiesa primitiva alla luce delle nuove scoperte archeologiche. Riesner, Rainer. Padova: EMP. pp. 52–64. ISBN 978-88-250-2965-9. OCLC 898674852.
Johann Gildemeister, ed. (1882). Theodosius: De situ Terrae Sanctae im ächten Text und der Breviarius de Hierosolyma vervollständigt. Bonn: Adolph Markus. p. 28. Retrieved 2020-01-04.

Church of the Seat of Mary

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