Cenacle

The Cenacle in the building on Mount Zion

Cenacle has a modern and a biblical meaning:

1. After the 19th century Cenacle is used for a small gathering of specialists (esp. writers etc); a clique
2. Traditionally Cenacle (from Latin cenaculum) is the term for the Upper Room, or the site of The Last Supper. This word is a derivative of the Latin word "cena," which means dinner.

Some Christians believe it lies in the second floor of a building on Mount Zion, in Jerusalem, just outside the Dormition Church behind the Franciscan house on Sion, and south of the Zion Gate in the Old City walls. In the basement of the building is what is supposed by Jewish leaders as King David's Tomb, although the Bible says David was buried in the city of David, which is south of Mount Moriah.

History

In Christian tradition, this was the site where the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples of Jesus on the day of Pentecost. The building was spared during the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus (AD 70) and became the site of the first Christian church. It was later destroyed by Persian invaders and rebuilt by a monk called Modestus. During the Crusades, the building was razed to the ground by Muslims and replaced by the Crusaders with a basilica. Franciscan monks cared for the Cenacle from 1333 to 1552 when the Turks captured Jerusalem and banished all Christians.

After the Franciscan friars' eviction, this room was transformed into a mosque, as evidenced by the mihrab in the direction of Mecca and an Arabic inscription prohibiting public prayer at the site. Christians were not allowed to return until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Following a visit by Pope John Paul II, the Israeli government arranged for its ownership to be transferred to the Catholic Church in return for a church in Toledo, Spain which had originally been a synagogue.

Architecture

The Cenacle is divided by three pillars into three naves. The pillars and the arches, windows and other Gothic style architectural elements, a clear indication the room was built by the Crusaders in the early 13th century, on top of a much older structure. The older structure, according to the archaeological research, was the church-synagogue of the early Christian community of Jerusalem.

External links

• "Church of the Apostles found on Mt. Zion" - article from the May/June 1990 issue of Biblical Archaeological Review
• The Development of the Judeo-Christian Synagogue