Jerusalem (Mt. Sion) - HOLY SION

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Church Name, type, function

Site Name:

Jerusalem (Mt. Sion)

Identification:

Built on the site where, according to the tradition, the Holy Spirit had descended at Pentecost and the Last Supper was held. In the later fifth and sixth centuries the church of Sion also came to be identified with the house of the Apostle John, in which the Virgin Mary had lived after the Crucifixion (cf. John 19.27) and had died. In another literary source it is referred to as The Mother of all Churches.

Church name:

HOLY SION

Functional Type:

Memorial

Church type:

Basilical - Annex\es on the south

Location

Coordinates, ITM system:

221.83

631.02

Coordinates, ICS system:

171.83

1,131.00

Location:

Urban

Geographical region:

Jerusalem (extra-mural)

Topographical location:

Located on Mount Zion, just south of modern days Old City walls.

Provincial affiliation:

Palaestina I

Bishopric:

Jerusalem

Source of knowledge

HideLiterary sources

Text number	Summary
1	Mention of the place where David's palace stood, from an itinerary of ca. AD 333.
2	Easter season at Holy Sion, from an itinerary of AD 381-384.
3	Description of the church of Holy Sion, presumably from a passage lost in the MS of It. Eg., as recorded in a guidebook compiled AD 1137.
4	Mention of the church of Holy Sion, from an itinerary of AD 385-386, composed 404.
5	Mention of the church on Mount Sion and the monastic cells around it, from a mid-5th cent. literary description of the Holy Land.
6	Description of Holy Sion and of the various relics kept in it, from a pilgrim's guide to Jerusalem from the beginning of the 6th cent.
7	Description of the church of Holy Sion which also contains the pillar of Flagellation, from an itinerary of ca. AD 518-530.
8	Description of the basilica of Holy Sion and of the many relics kept in it, from an itinerary of ca. AD 570.
9	Description of the large church on Mount Sion, from an itinerary of ca. AD 681-684, composed ca. 698.
10	Description of the church based on Eucherius and Adamnan, from a geographical work compiled AD 702-703.
11	Description of the church of Holy Sion, from an 8th cent. guidebook for pilgrims.
12	Mention of the Holy Sion among the churches of Jerusalem, from an official report ordered in AD 808.
13	Measurements of the Church of Holy Sion.
14	Traditions connected with Mount Sion, from a guidebook compiled AD 1137.

Archaeological remains

Excavated site

Excavators:

Name	Date
Palmer and Renard	1898-1899
Eisenberg	1983

History:

According to van Esbroeck (1975), followed by Pixner (1990), the first Christian site there was a Judeo-Christian Synagogue called after the Apostles. Then, under emperor Theodosius the Great (379-395), an octagonal Gentile-Christian monument depicted on the apse mosaic of Santa Pudentiana in Rome, dated to ca. 400 CE, was erected next to the Judeo-Christian Synagogue. The building of Theodosius the Great is mentioned in a Georgian manuscript found in a monastery in Russia. According to Pixner it formed a kind of vestibule to the ancient structure. Paula was shown there a column which supports the portico of the church (Jerome, Ep. 108, 9). Later on a large basilical church replaced the octagonal structure, incorporating the Judeo-Christian Synagogue at its SE corner. This is the large basilica mentioned in the Breviarius 4 (see under Literary Texts section) and described more than a century later by Arculf. On the Madaba mosaic map it is depicted with a double portal on its west and with an annex on the south. An Upper Room, where the Lord taught his disciples when he had had the Supper is also mentioned in the Breviarius. Pixner maintains that according to the liturgy held there as described by Egeria (381-84), there was a double sanctuary on Mt. Sion at her time - the old Church of the Apostles and the Theodosian Church in front of it. He also maintains that few years letter John II bishop of Jerusalem (387–419 CE), erected the vast basilica of Holy Sion and placed in its diakonikon (on December 26, 415 CE) the relics of St. Stephen invented in the village of Kafar Gamala by Lucian, the local priest (Pixner, ibid.). In the 6th c. many relics were shown there to pilgrims, some of them held in a sacrarium.

Bibliograpy:

Bain, R. N., 1896	347
Renard, M., 1900
Vincent, L. H. and Abel, F. M., 1922
Avi-Yonah, M., 1970
Milik, J. T., 1960-1961	142-145
Ovadiah, A., 1970
Briand, J., 1973
van Esbroeck, M., 1975	314–315
Wilkinson, J., 1977	171-72
Ovadiah, A. and de Silva, C. G., 1982
van Esbroeck, M., 1984
Pixner, B., 1990
Geva, H., 1991
Pixner, B., 2005
Pringle, D. and Leach, P. E., 2007	no. 336, pp. 261-263.

Abbreviation for Journals and Series

General description

State of preservation/which parts were uncovered:

Almost the entire plan is reconstructed on basis of few remains that were excavated at the western part of the church. The reconstructed measurements of the church are approx. 55 m from east to west and about half of this from north to south. According to the reconstructed plan, the church was triapsidal.

Description

Illustrative material:

Illustrative_material

Figures

Façade and entries:

In front of the church there was a portico, flanked by two rectangular rooms.

Aisles:

Two aisles at either side of the nave. The aisles were separated from the nave and one from another by 4 rows of 8 columns, supported on stylobates. Two inner aisles had ended with apses.

Bema, chancel screen and apse:

The recent investigations point to the likelihood that there were three apses.

Lateral spaces:

According to Epiphanius the Monk (8th c.), to the right side of the altar is the Upper Room, where Christ had the Supper with his Disciples. According to other sources, this might have been an attached chapel, not lateral to the chancel.

Small finds

Comments, discussion and summary:

The column of the Flagellation shown in the church of Holy Sion, is first mentioned on Mount Sion by the Bordeau Pilgrim (333 CE), together with the house of Caiaphas. Later sources place it in the Basilica of Holy Sion. Many other sacred relics were shown there to pilgrims. The Upper Chamber of the Last Supper was shown to the right of the basilica. The church was burnt by the Persians in 614 and restored, seemingly to its original shape, by Modestus. Finally it was destroyed by the Arabs in 966.

Detailed description

Structure

Orientation:

Facing east

Materials applied (walls):

Limestone

Atrium:

Narthex:

Aisles:

Number of nave columns in a row:

Total
8

Number of aisle columns in a row:

Total
8

East end:

External apses, round

Church Head/Chevet:

tri-apsidal

Central Apse Category:

apsidal

Apse shape:

Hemispherical

Attached structures

Annex/es on the south:

On the Madaba mosaic map a quadrangular structure with red tiles is depicted annexed to the church on the right. This might have been the diakonikon in which the relics of St. Stephen were deposited on Dec. 26 or 27 415. An Armenian Pilgrim Guide dated to the 7th c. mentions that the 'Upper Room of the Sacrament' lay on the righthand side of the church. It had a wooden dome where the Holy Supper of the Lord was represented; in it was an altar at which the liturgy was celebrated. This chapel appears to have been at ground level, however, for the guide repeats that there was no gallery (Pringle 2007, 262; Baldi, Enchiridon Locorum Sanctorum, 490. no. 747; Bain 1896, 347).

Prothesis chapel / Diakonikon:

Quadrangular chapel

Prothesis chapel / Diakonikon description:

See supra under Annex/es on the south, diakonikon. A description of the church as restored after 614 is also given in an anonymous Life of Constantine (dated to the 9th c, see also infra, Architectural Evolution, Phase 2). According to it inside the rear of the sanctuary and on the right of her building Helena included the House of the Holy Disciples and on the right side of the chancel is the holy Font and the Descent of the Holy Spirit on Holy Penetcost and to the left of the diaconicon, containing the tomb of the Prophet David the blessed Helena made the Proskomide of the holy Anaphora (Vita Constantini anonyma, trans. Wilkinson 1977, 204). It cannot be known if this diakonikon is the same as that of the early 5th c in which the relics of St. Stephen were placed.

Architectural Evolution

Phase 1
Phase 2
Abandonment

General outline:

Large, basilical, triapsidal church with four aisles.

Dating material:

According to literary sources, the church was constructed by emperor Theodosius the Great (378-395) at the end of the 4th century and by John II bishop of Jerusalem. It was destroyed during the Persian invasion at 614 and rebuilt by Modestus.

According to van Esbroeck (1975) and Pixner (1990), the church built by emperor Theodosius the Great (378-395), mentioned in a Georgian manuscript, was an octagonal structure depicted on the apse mosaic of Santa Pudentiana in Rome (ca. 400 CE). This was replaced shortly thereafter, under bishop John II of Jerusalem (387–419 CE) by a vast basilical church in the diakonikon of which he had placed in 415 CE the relics of St. Stephen. The question remains to what extent this single octagonal work of art should be trusted. The construction of Holy Sion as a basilical church should be rather attributed to emperor Theodosius, being built during the episcopacy of John II.

Phase date

Century:

4th c.

Within century:

Late

General outline:

In 614 CE the church was burnt by the Persians. The restored building of Modestus seemingly resembled that of Phase 1. According to the sketches that accompany Arculf's itinerary as dictated to A, it was a rectangular complex with two annexes. The dimensions given to this restored structure, as given in the Comm. de casis Dei II. 56-57(ed. McCormick, 216-17), it was 39 dexters long and 26 dexters wide (the Nativity church of Bethlehem was 38 dexters long). These dimensions are equal to 57.91x38.61m according to Vincent and Abel (1914; 456). According to an Armenian [Pilgrim] Guide (7, 166), dated to the 7th c, the church was 100 ells long and 70 wide and had 80 (var. 90) columns supporting its arcades, suggesting perhaps four rows of 20 each (McCormick, ibid., 96-98, with references). There was no gallery, but only a wooden screen on which the Crown of Thorns was hung (Pringle 2007, 262; Bain 1896, 347). According to a anonymous Life of Constantine, dated to the 9th c., the empress Helena founded a long and broad and immense church, and roofed it not with tiles but with lead. Inside the rear of the sanctuary and on the right of her building she included the House of the Holy Disciples. And on the left she included the porphyry column to which Christ our God was bound when he was scourged by the Jews (Vita Constantini anonyma, trans. Wilkinson 1977, 204).

Dating material:

The church of Phase 2 was the one restored by Modestus, seemingly according to the original plan of Phase 1.

Phase date

Century:

7th c.

Within century:

First half

General outline:

The church was finally burnt by the Muslims in 966 (Yahya Ibn Sa'id (PO. XVIII. 801- 2); Vincent and Abel 1914; 245, 459; Wilkinson 1977, 171).

Phase date

Century:

10th c.

Within century:

Second half

Post Arab conquest history:

Unmodified