Miraculous Draught of Fishes

MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES. - The miracle took place
at the lake of Gennesaret, where the Lord, after
having taught the crowds from one of the two boats of
his disciples, told Peter to put out into the deep and
to let down the nets to fish; the Apostle replied that he had
fished in vain all night, but that, at the
word of the Lord, he would cast the net. Indeed
they caught such a quantity of fish that the net
was breaking and they were forced to call for help the companions
of the other boat (Lk. 5, 1-11). John (21, 1-14) then describes another miraculous catch that occurred after the Resurrection of Christ.

Ancient Christian art has represented the miracle
of the first miraculous catch on some sarcophagi, especially in the fragments
of St. Sebastian and of the Museum of Cagliari (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, I, p. 158 and pls. 141, 2; 142, 1); it is also found in mosaics, as in the baptistery of Naples
(id., Mosaiken, pl. 30) and in St. Martin "in
caelo aureo," now St. Apollinaris New in
Ravenna (6th century).

It is found later, fragmentary, in St. Sabas
on the Aventine (8th century), then in St. John
at the Latin Gate, in the ceiling of Monreale, and in the
Greek ms. 501 of the National Library of
Paris.

Enrico Josi