Nazareth - Church of St. Joseph

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Church Name, type, function

Site Name:

Nazareth

Identification:

Known also as the Church of the Nutrition. Arculf II, xxvi (670), mentions that the church in the center of Nazareth over the House in which Christ was brought up, was resting on two vaults under which a spring emerges. But no spring issues under this church. It seems that he confused between it and St. Gabriel - where the first Annunciation occurred. No vaults were uncovered in Viaud's 1892 excavations in the ruined Mediaeval church of St. Joseph, set over a Byzantine one of which a small segment of a mosaic floor was uncovered over the bedrock. Bagatti's 1970 excavations took place in a narrow strip to the north of the present church. In spite of the meager finds Bagatti LA 21 (1971), 32 concluded that the declined topography on which the present "House of Joseph" church rests befits Arculf's description that the church was built over vaults.

Church name:

Church of St. Joseph

Functional Type:

Memorial

Church type:

Basilical - Free standing basilica

Location

Coordinates, ITM system:

178,258.00

1,234,298.00

Coordinates, ICS system:

228,262.00

734,298.00

Location:

Village/Town

Geographical region:

Lower Galilee

Provincial affiliation:

Palaestina II

Bishopric:

Sepphoris

Source of knowledge

HideLiterary sources

Text number	Summary
1	Mention of the garden of the Lord's infancy, presumably from a passage lost in the MS of Egeria's itinerary of AD 381-384, as recorded in a guidebook compiled 1137.
2	Confused description of the church where the Lord was brought up, from an itinerary of ca. AD 681-684, composed ca. 698.
3	Description of the church based on Adamnan, from a geographical work compiled AD 702-703.
4	Mention of the church of the house of Saint Joseph, from an official report ordered in AD 808.

Archaeological remains

Excavated site

Excavators:

Name	Date
Viaud, P.	1892
Bagatti, B.	1970

Bibliograpy:

Séjourné‎, P. M., 1893
Viaud, P., 1910
Baldi, D. and Bagatti, B., 1937
Baldi, D., 1963
Bagatti, B., 1969
Bagatti, B., 1970
Bagatti, B., 1971
Langlamet, F., 1971
Ovadiah, A. and De Silva, C. G., 1981
Tsafrir, Y., Di Segni, L. and Green, J., 1994
Schick, R., 1995
Bagatti, B., 2002	143-148.

Abbreviation for Journals and Series

General description

State of preservation/which parts were uncovered:

Evidence of a nave and two aisles were idetified under the Medieval church. Viaud's 1892 concluded that the ruined Mediaeval church was set over a Byzantine one of which a small segment of a mosaic floor was uncovered over the bedrock. Other finds were several pre-Christian caves and silos interconnected by underground corridors, a graded basin (that resembles a miqveh), with a mosaic floor depicting six squares marked in black tesserae and a pier-shaped water cistern. Bagatti 1970 excavations took place in a narrow strip to the north of the present church.

Description

Small finds

Small finds:

Category	Description
Pottery	Byzantine, Arab and Medieval pottery found not in context.

Detailed description

Structure

Architectural Evolution

Phase 1
Abandonment

Phase date

Century:

Early Christian / Byzantine

Dating material:

The church was built over by the Crusaders.

Phase date

Century:

Unknown

Post conquest history comments:

The church is mentioned by Arculf 26 in 670 CE (unless he meant the church of Annunciation).