### MULTIPLICATION OF THE LOAVES
The representation of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes narrated by the four Evangelists (Mt 14:13–21; Mk 6:32–44; Lk 9:10–17; Jn 6:1–13) was soon depicted in early Christian funerary art.
The act of the multiplication is found on the back wall of Cubiculum A.3 in the Catacomb of Callisto, dating to the early 3rd century; the tripod with
MULTIPLICATION OF THE LOAVES – MOSAIC (6th century) – Ravenna, Church of S. Apollinare Nuovo.
The bread and fish flanked by seven baskets filled with bread appears in the adjacent Cubiculum A.2 (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. 38); the chests filled with various loaves vary in number, mostly seven; in one case, twelve (ibid., pl. 15, 2). There is then a series of representations of symbolic banquets, mostly with seven people seated at table, with fish on the plates and chests with bread, from as early as the mid-2nd century in the Catacomb of Priscilla, and in Cubicula A.2, A.3, and A.6 in Callisto. Christ performs the miracle either by touching the loaves with the virga virtutis, mostly in funerary frescoes, or by laying His hands on the loaves collected in baskets presented to Him by the Apostles, as is common in sarcophagi and in a fresco of the Cubiculum, called “of the Sheep,” in Callisto, from the end of the 4th century (ibid., pp. 276–77, pl. 237, 1). In many sarcophagi, Christ lays His hands on one side on the basket of loaves and on the other on the dish with the fish presented to Him by two disciples (ibid., Sarcofagi, pl. 96 and 218, 1); in others, the Redeemer holds in His right hand the true instrument of wonder-working and with it touches the baskets at His feet, while with His left He blesses the dish of fish presented by a disciple (ibid., ibid., pl. 104, 6; 111, 1; 128, 2; 180, 2). In other sarcophagi, He touches with the wonder-working rod the baskets of loaves at His feet (ibid., ibid., pl. 127, 2).
The crowd gathered for the banquet in the desert is depicted in the polychrome fragments of the Terme Museum; there are six baskets filled with loaves and six guests, among them two young men, one in the act of drinking, the other receiving a loaf from Christ, who lays His hand upon it, blessing it; on this loaf, part is incised and part painted the monogram of Christ (G. Wilpert, I due frammenti di sculture policrome del Museo delle Terme, in Römische Quartalschrift, 35 [1927], pp. 273–85; id., Sarcofagi, p. 343, pl. 220, 1). In non-funerary art, the multiplication is represented at Ravenna in one of the mosaic cycles in S. Martino in caelo aureo, now S. Apollinare Nuovo, ca. 520 (Wilpert, Mosaiken, pl. 98).
As early as 1911, P. Karge had begun archaeological research, later suspended, on the very site where, according to tradition, Christ performed the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes near the Lake of Gennesaret, designated by the name el-Tabgha from the Greek ἐπτάσχηγον (χωρίον), i.e., the region of the seven springs. In 1932, a complete excavation brought to light a singular basilica with three naves and a transept, 56 meters long, 33 meters wide to the west, and only 24.30 meters to the east, due to the natural impediment of the terrain and the great road of Capernaum. The site corresponds exactly to the description by Paul the Deacon (12th century), derived from the now-lost Peregrinatio Etheriae of the late 4th century; there it was indicated that the stone “super quem dominus panem posuit” had become an altar and that pilgrims detached fragments from it as relics and objects of veneration. The excavation uncovered this stone, which shows signs of removals and has four holes at the corners for fixing the feet of the altar.
The mosaic pavement depicts a basket with loaves and a fish on each side; the rest of the decoration is ornamental. The construction material and mosaic technique have been dated to the end of the 4th century, with restorations from the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th century; the church was destroyed as early as the wars of 614 (A. M. Schneider, Die Brotvermehrungskirche von el-Tabga am Genesarethsee und ihre Mosaiken [Collectanea Hierosolymitana, 4], Paderborn 1934). Enrico Joni