The Catalog of Good Deeds

On August 15 (August 28), the Dormition of the Mother of God is celebrated by most Christians in the world. The Church year begins on September 1, and the first Great Feast of the year is the Nativity of the Theotokos, making the Dormition of the Theotokos the last great feast of the year. It is entirely fitting that these two feasts – celebrating the birth and falling-asleep of Mary respectively – should buttress the entire church calendar. The Church calendar tells us the story of our Salvation in the traditional way, with the climax of the story coming in the middle, which is when Easter is celebrated, before ending in a way which is somewhat symmetrical and complimentary to the beginning. Therefore, the final “scene” in our story of Salvation is the Dormition of Mary, the Mother of God.

The Icon of the feast depicts various strands of the story in one single frame. The story is this:

At the time of Her blessed Falling Asleep, the Most Holy Virgin Mary was again at Jerusalem. Her fame as the Mother of God had already spread throughout the land and had aroused many of the envious and the spiteful against Her. They wanted to make attempts on Her life; but God preserved Her from enemies.

Day and night She spent her time in prayer. The Most Holy Theotokos went often to the Holy Sepulchre of the Lord, and here She offered up fervent prayer.

In one such visit to Golgotha, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Her and announced Her approaching departure from this life to eternal life. In pledge of this, the Archangel gave Her a palm branch. With these heavenly tidings the Mother of God returned to Bethlehem with the three girls attending Her (Sepphora, Abigail, and Jael). She summoned Righteous Joseph of Arimathea and other disciples of the Lord, and told them of Her impending Repose.

The Most Holy Virgin prayed also that the Lord would have the Apostle John come to Her. The Holy Spirit transported him from Ephesus, setting him in that very place where the Mother of God lay. After the prayer, the Most Holy Virgin offered incense, and John heard a voice from Heaven, closing Her prayer with the word “Amen.” The Mother of God took it that the voice meant the speedy arrival of the Apostles and the Disciples and the holy Bodiless Powers.

The faithful, whose number by then was impossible to count, gathered together, says St John of Damascus, like clouds and eagles, to listen to the Mother of God. Seeing one another, the Disciples rejoiced, but in their confusion they asked each other why the Lord had gathered them together in one place. St John the Theologian, greeting them with tears of joy, said that the time of the Virgin’s repose was at hand.

Going in to the Mother of God, they beheld Her lying upon the bed, and filled with spiritual joy. The Disciples greeted Her, and then they told her how they had been carried miraculously from their places of preaching. The Most Holy Virgin Mary glorified God, because He had heard Her prayer and fulfilled Her heart’s desire, and She began speaking about Her imminent end.

During this conversation the Apostle Paul also appeared in a miraculous manner together with his disciples Dionysius the Areopagite, St Hierotheus, St Timothy and others of the Seventy Apostles. The Holy Spirit had gathered them all together so that they might be granted the blessing of the All-Pure Virgin Mary, and more fittingly to see to the burial of the Mother of the Lord. She called each of them to Herself by name, She blessed them and extolled them for their faith and the hardships they endured in preaching the Gospel of Christ. To each She wished eternal bliss, and prayed with them for the peace and welfare of the whole world.

Then came the third hour (9 A.M.), when the Dormition of the Mother of God was to occur. A number of candles were burning. The holy Disciples surrounded her beautifully adorned bed, offering praise to God. She prayed in anticipation of Her demise and of the arrival of Her longed-for Son and Lord. Suddenly, the inexpressible Light of Divine Glory shone forth, before which the blazing candles paled in comparison. All who it saw took fright. Descending from Heaven was Christ, the King of Glory, surrounded by hosts of Angels and Archangels and other Heavenly Powers, together with the souls of the Forefathers and the Prophets, who had prophesied in ages past concerning the Most Holy Virgin Mary.

Seeing Her Son, the Mother of God exclaimed: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God My Savior, for He hath regarded the low estate of His Handmaiden” (Luke 1:46-48) and, rising from Her bed to meet the Lord, She bowed down to Him, and the Lord bid Her enter into Life Eternal. Without any bodily suffering, as though in a happy sleep, the Most Holy Virgin Mary gave Her soul into the hands of Her Son and God.

Then began a joyous angelic song. Accompanying the pure soul of the God-betrothed and with reverent awe for the Queen of Heaven, the angels exclaimed: “Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee, blessed art Thou among women! For lo, the Queen, God’s Maiden comes, lift up the gates, and with the Ever-Existing One, take up the Mother of Light; for through Her salvation has come to all the human race. It is impossible to gaze upon Her, and it is impossible to render Her due honor” (Stikherion on “Lord, I Have Cried”). The Heavenly gates were raised, and meeting the soul of the Most Holy Mother of God, the Cherubim and the Seraphim glorified Her with joy. The face of the Mother of God was radiant with the glory of Divine virginity, and from Her body there came a sweet fragrance.

Kissing the all-pure body with reverence and in awe, the Disciples in turn were blessed by it and filled with grace and spiritual joy. Through the great glorification of the Most Holy Theotokos, the almighty power of God healed the sick, who with faith and love touched the holy bed.

Bewailing their separation from the Mother of God, the Apostles prepared to bury Her all-pure body. The holy Apostles Peter, Paul, James and others of the Twelve Apostles carried the funeral bier upon their shoulders, and upon it lay the body of the Ever-Virgin Mary. St John the Theologian went at the head with the resplendent palm-branch from Paradise. The other saints and a multitude of the faithful accompanied the funeral bier with candles and censers, singing sacred songs. This solemn procession went from Sion through Jerusalem to the Garden of Gethsemane.

With the start of the procession there suddenly appeared over the all-pure body of the Mother of God and all those accompanying Her a resplendent circular cloud, like a crown. There was heard the singing of the Heavenly Powers, glorifying the Mother of God, which echoed that of the worldly voices. This circle of Heavenly singers and radiance accompanied the procession to the very place of burial.

Unbelieving inhabitants of Jerusalem, taken aback by the extraordinarily grand funeral procession and vexed at the honor accorded the Mother of Jesus, complained of this to the High Priest and scribes. The Jewish priest Athonios, out of spite and hatred for the Mother of Jesus of Nazareth, wanted to topple the funeral bier on which lay the body of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, but an angel of God invisibly cut off his hands, which had touched the bier. Seeing such a wonder, Athonios repented and with faith confessed the majesty of the Mother of God. He received healing and joined the crowd accompanying the body of the Mother of God, and he became a zealous follower of Christ.

When the procession reached the Garden of Gethsemane, then amidst the weeping and the wailing began the last kiss to the all-pure body. Only towards evening were the Apostles able to place it in the tomb and seal the entrance to the cave with a large stone.

For three days they did not depart from the place of burial, praying and chanting Psalms. Through the wise providence of God, the Apostle Thomas was not to be present at the burial of the Mother of God. Arriving late on the third day at Gethsemane, he lay down at the tomb and with bitter tears asked that l he might be permitted to look once more upon the Mother of God and bid her farewell. The Apostles out of heartfelt pity for him decided to open the grave and permit him the comfort of venerating the holy relics of the Ever-Virgin Mary. Having opened the grave, they found in it only the grave wrappings and were thus convinced of the bodily ascent of the Most Holy Virgin Mary to Heaven.

***

The miraculous transportation of the Apostles is shown in the top of the Icon, though the main scene depicted within the icon is the funeral procession itself. The Apostles are shown reverencing the body of the Mother of God: St. Paul at her feet; St Peter at the head with censer in hand.

Archangel Michael severs the impious hands of Athonios

Together with the Apostles are several bishops – indicated by their white sashes with crosses embroided upon them – and women. The bishops traditionally represented are James, the brother of the Lord, Timothy, Heirotheus, and Dionysius the Areopagite, who first recorded the story of the Dormition in the 2nd century AD. The women are Sepphora, Abigail, and Jael, along with other members of the church in Jerusalem.

The account of the impious Jewish priest is not shown in the icon above, but is usually shown, as it is in this Dormition Icon. At the top centre of the icon, the unwitnessed assumption of Mary’s resurrected body into the open gates of Heaven.

Yet the main aspect of the Icon – to which all eyes are inevitably drawn – is the image of Christ in Glory holding the pure soul of Mary in His arms, shown as an infant. The parallel between the image of the God-Man Jesus holding the child-like soul of Mary and the image of the Mother Mary holding the Christ-child in her own arms is, of course, deliberate. The title of “God-bearer” is given to other Saints, such as St. Ignatius. To carry the Word of God, Jesus Christ, within us is the calling of all Christians: to bear Him spiritually within us during our lives, and shine with His glory. The “reward” for this in our earthly life is suffering at the hands of enemies, even to the point of martyrdom, as in the case of St. Ignatius. Yet the reward after our repose is that God bears our soul into His own hands and carries us into eternity, as we carried Him, for just a short time.

Jesus Christ in Glory, holding the soul of Mary

Elsewhere I wrote that no human being resembled Jesus Christ – the Son of God – more than His Mother, Mary. And yet this does not make the Theotokos the great exception to the human race, but the great exemplar. Jesus Christ Himself corrected the woman who shouted that Mary was blessed because she had the honour of being the Mother of God: “yea, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” This is why Mary is blessed – because more than any other person she heard the words of her Lord and kept them. This path toward Heavenly joy is open to us all.

And just as we look to Mary’s life for an example, we look to her bodily death – in this Icon – for hope as to where such an example leads us. The hope is in the bodily Resurrection and the life of the age to come. Both are shown in the Icon: the bodily assumption of Mary into Heaven, as well as the commendation of her soul into the hands of Jesus Christ.

Like those who gathered around the body of the Virgin Mary, we gather around our departed loved ones and commend their souls into the hands of Christ. As we remember those who have reposed in the faith before us and have passed on into the communion of the Saints, we prepare ourselves to one day be received into the new life of the age to come.

A few examples of the Icon:

Sources: https://iconreader.wordpress.com/2010/08/15/the-dormition-icon-of-hope/

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/foto/set650.htm

On August 15/28 the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates its final major feast of the Church year–the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos. When my husband and I were in the process of converting, I literally had no idea of what those words meant!

The word Dormition means “falling asleep,” or in other words, the death. In Orthodoxy, we refer to Mary as the Theotokos, a term that comes from two Greek words. “Theos” means God, and “tokos” means bearer. We refer to Mary as the “God-bearer” because she carried Jesus in her womb. So the Feast of the Dormition could also be called the Falling Asleep of the God-bearer.

The Church fathers, after some debate, decided that the term Theotokos was the proper term to use for Mary because it demonstrated a correct understanding of the Incarnation–that God became Man. By referring to Mary as the God-bearer, we are demonstrating our complete belief in a real Incarnation.

The Story of the Feast

According to Church tradition, when the Theotokos was near death, all of the apostles (except Thomas) were miraculously brought to her bedside. They were able to be with her, pray with her, and receive her blessing before she died. Then they buried her in the Garden of Gethsemane in her family tomb.

Three days later Thomas arrived. When they went to show him her tomb, they found that her body was no longer in it. An angel confirmed that she had been taken bodily up to Heaven by her Son.

Orthodox Christians see in this feast an important teaching of the faith–namely the general resurrection of the body. We have hope in the resurrection and in eternal life, and the Dormition of the Theotokos helps us get a glimpse and a foretaste of our own.

1. Attend Divine Liturgy as a Family

If at all possible, make an effort to attend Divine Liturgy for the feast as a family. Some churches have Liturgy in the evening on feast days to better accommodate the work schedules of parishioners. If you are unable to attend the Liturgy, perhaps you can go to Vespers the evening before the feast.

When you are in church, you will be able to hear the Scripture readings for the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos and meditate upon them, sing the hymns for the feast and learn them to use in your home, and receive the Eucharist as the ultimate celebration of thanksgiving for the work of God in the world.

2. Read or Tell the Story of the Feast

In order to prepare your children for the feast, it is a good idea to read or tell the story of the Dormition of the Theotokos to them. There are a few excellent options for this:

1) Ancient Faith’s The Saint of the Day podcast Ancient Faith radio has a fantastic podcast called The Saint of the Day that tells the story of that day’s saint. Each episode is only around five minutes. As a sidenote, this would make a wonderful addition to the daily family routine. Perhaps your family could listen to the episode immediately after dinner each evening or at breakfast in the morning. What a lovely way to learn more about the saints of the Church!

2) Retell the story in your own words. You can also retell the story using your own words and knowledge of the feast. This could be done in the car on the way to Liturgy as a reminder to the children of why you are going to Church.

3) The book Heaven Meets Earth One excellent resource for the entire Church year is a children’s book entitled Heaven Meets Earth: Celebrating Pascha and the Twelve Feasts by John Kosmas Skinas. The book has a section for each feast with the story, Scripture readings, facts, a bit of Church history, and an explanation of the festal icon. I highly recommend it!

3. Learn the Hymn of the Feast

Each feast day has a troparion, or special hymn, that is sung on that day. The hymns of the Church pass on important theology and the rich stories of the faith through music. Since children (and many adults!) remember things that are sung, they are a perfect way to bring the feast into your daily lives.

In our house, we try to sing the hymns of the feast during morning and evening prayers and occasionally at the dinner table. Through this repetition, even our youngest children are able to learn them–belting the hymns out at church (sometimes a bit too loudly!).

Here is the troparion for the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos:

“In giving birth you preserved your virginity.

In falling asleep you did not forsake the world, O Theotokos!

You were translated to life, O Mother of Life,

And by your prayers you deliver our souls from death.”

You can listen to some examples of this here and here and here. If you listen to all three, you will hear the beautiful diversity of musical traditions in the Orthodox Church.

4. Make a Special Meal

Feasting often implies eating, so make a special meal to enjoy as a family! It can be easy to “go all out” for Pascha and Nativity, and forget to celebrate the other feasts of the year. However, celebrating with special foods can help remind us of the importance of those days. Particularly after the Dormition Fast, it can be nice to enjoy some of the foods we have been abstaining from for the past couple of weeks.

5. Display the Icon of the Dormition

If your family has an icon of the Dormition, place it in a prominent location in your house during the festal period. In our family, we place the festal icon so that it is the first thing you see walking into our house. This helps remind us to praise the Lord and pray to Him as we enter and leave our house.

If you do not have an icon of the feast, perhaps you can print an image off from the Internet or have your children color one and display it.

6. Bring Flowers to Church to be Blessed

In some traditions, flowers are brought to Liturgy on this feast to be blessed. If your church practices this, bring in some as a family. Go to the store, the farmer’s market, or your own garden to pick out a beautiful bouquet to give in honor of the Theotokos. Once the flowers are blessed, you can bring them home and place them next to the icon of the Dormition.

7. Decorate Your Home with Flowers

In keeping with this theme, a lovely way to honor the death of the Birth-giver is to fill your house with flowers. You can explain to your children that flowers are often given at funerals to show honor and respect to the loved one. However, we do not mourn as “those who have no hope.” The assumption of the Theotokos shows us that death is not the end.

8. Wear Blue

Finally, the liturgical color for feasts honoring the Theotokos is blue. If you attend Liturgy on this day, you will see the priest wearing blue vestments. Your family can also show their love for the Theotokos by wearing blue to Liturgy and throughout the day.

These simple ways of celebrating the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos can profoundly show our children that our family follows a different path, listens to a different rhythm in life. That we follow Christ and live our lives in His life and in His Church.

Source: http://www.orthodoxmotherhood.com/ways-celebrate-feast-dormition/

By John Sanidopoulos

The origin of the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos is closely connected with her public veneration in the early fourth century, when Christmas began to be celebrated in Rome, and peaked at the Third Ecumenical Synod of Ephesus in 431, when controversy arose over the title "Theotokos". A few years later, in the Armenian Lectionary of 434, which preserves the ancient liturgical practices of the Jerusalem Church between 417 and 439, it says that a feast of Mary the Theotokos was celebrated on August 15th, "at the second mile from Bethlehem," with Scripture readings that focused on the Nativity of Christ and the Mary as the Mother of God. In Egypt, this same feast was celebrated on January 18th under the influence of the Holy Patriarch Cyril of Alexandria (+ 444), who presided over the Third Ecumenical Synod. In Constantinople, the veneration of the Theotokos was promoted by Holy Patriarch Anatolios (+ 458), who also composed the first liturgical hymns to the Theotokos.

At the beginning of the sixth century, a magnificent basilica was erected over the tomb of the Virgin Mary in Gethsemane. With this, the feast of Mary the Theotokos celebrated on August 15th took on a new meaning and became the solemn celebration of Mary’s dormition and translocation into heaven under the name of the Feast of the Dormition. In some liturgical calendars of the East, the feast was referred to as the "Journey of the Theotokos into Heaven", or the "Deposition of Mary", i.e. the interment of Mary into her grave.

In Constantinople, the Holy Empress Pulcheria (+ 453) promoted devotion to the Theotokos and built three churches in her honor. Being present at the sixth session of the Fourth Ecumenical Synod of Chalcedon (451), she asked the Holy Patriarch Juvenal of Jerusalem (+ 458) for some relics of the Theotokos to be enshrined in the Church of the Theotokos at Blachernae, in Constantinople.

The Holy Patriarch replied: “We have received from ancient and the most reliable tradition that at the time of the glorious dormition (falling asleep) of the Mother of God, the whole company of the Apostles were brought together in Jerusalem. So, amid divine and heavenly praises, they commended her holy soul to the hands of God and, taking her God-conceiving body, they carried it in procession to Gethsemane and there placed it in a little tomb. For three days a choir of Angels continued to sing above Her tomb. After the third day, when finally Saint Thomas arrived, (he had been absent and desired to venerate the body that had borne Christ God), they (the Apostles) opened the tomb and found no trace of her blessed body. Thus, taking the winding sheets, which were filled with fragrance, the Apostles closed the tomb. Wondering at this mystery, they could only think that He, Whom it had pleased to be born of her in the flesh, the Lord of Glory, desired that after her departure from this life, her immaculate and all-pure body would be honored by incorruptibility, being translocated (to heaven) before the universal resurrection of the dead” (cf. Cyril of Scythopolis, Life of Euthymios, 3, 40, written about 515).

On July 2, the Orthodox Church commemorates the Deposition of the Venerable Robe of Our Lady the Mother of God at Blachernae. It seems that, instead of the holy relics requested, the imperial city had received Mary’s vestments which were found in Nazareth and brought to Constantinople in 474, i.e. after the death of Juvenal and Pulcheria.

The solemn celebration of the Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos was extended to the entire East during the sixth century. Since the feast was celebrated on different days, it was decreed by Emperor Maurice (582-602) that, in the entire Roman Empire, the feast will be celebrated on August 15th under the name of Dormition which, literally translated, means “the falling asleep” (1 Thess. 4:14). St. Modestos of Jerusalem (+ 634), to whom the oldest extant homily of the Feast of the Dormition is ascribed, fully accepted the Jerusalem tradition concerning Mary’s wondrous departure and the translocation of her most pure body to heaven (cf. Migne, P.G. 86, 3277 ff.).

In the middle of the seventh century, the Feast of the Dormition was introduced in Rome from where it gradually spread to the entire West. However, at the end of the eighth century, the Western Church changed the name of the feast to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven. The Assumption of Mary was celebrated in the West under Pope Sergius I in the eighth century and Pope Leo IV then confirmed the feast as official. The Dogma of the Assumption of Mary was introduced into the Roman Catholic Church in 1950, when Pope Pius XII defined it ex cathedra in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus.

In the East, the celebration of the feast was enhanced by the famous homilies of St. Andrew of Crete (c. + 720) , St. Germanos of Constantinople (+ 733) and especially St. John of Damascus (+ 749). According to his testimony, the tomb, which harbored the purest body of the Mother of God for only a short time, became an object of public veneration and the source of numerous miracles and special graces (cf. Hom. on Dorm. 1, 13). St. John of Damascus, in the homily he delivered at the Basilica of the Dormition in Jerusalem, pointed to Mary’s tomb and said: “Her immaculate body was placed here, in this renowned and all-glorious tomb, from whence after three days it was taken up to the heavenly mansion” (cf. Hom. on Dorm. 11, 14).

The liturgical hymns extolling the wondrous dormition of the Theotokos, for the most part, were composed during the eighth and ninth centuries by such renowned hymnographers as St. Germanos of Constantinople (+ 733), St. John of Damascus (+ 749), St. Kosmas of Maiuma (+ 760), St. Theophanes Graptos (+ 845) and others.

The Feast of the Dormition is one of the Twelve Major Feasts of the Orthodox Church and is celebrated with uncommon solemnity. In preparation for the feast, a two week period of fasting is prescribed for the faithful, called the Fast of the Dormition, which begins on the first day of August. Since the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Savior falls within this time on August 6th, some refer to the fast up to this time as the Savior’s Fast. Historically, the Fast of the Dormition can be traced to the ninth century, which coincided with the two week procession of the Holy Cross throughout Constantinople during this same time to sanctify the air and buildings and drive away the diseases of the summer. It was officially introduced into the Orthodox discipline by the Synod of Constantinople in 1166.

Liturgically speaking, the Feast has one day of pre-festivity and eight days (octave) of post-festivity during which time the mysteries of Mary’s wondrous death and her glorious translocation to heaven are celebrated. The leavetaking (apodosis) of the feast on August 23rd is celebrated almost as solemnly and festively as on August 15th.

According to an old custom, flowers and medicinal herbs are blessed after the Divine Liturgy on the Feast of the Dormition. This custom most probably originated from the traditional belief that after Mary’s glorious translocation into heaven, her holy tomb was filled with a “heavenly fragrance” and flowers" (cf. St. Germanos, I Hom. on Dorm.) The herbs, used by people as natural medicine, are blessed in commemoration of the numerous healings and extraordinary graces bestowed on the pilgrims at Mary’s tomb (cf. St. John of Damascus, Hom. on Dorm. 1, 13). The blessing of the herbs on the Feast of Dormition may have been introduced as a replacement of the procession of the Holy Cross during this time to banish summer diseases.

Preaching at the tomb of Mary, St. John of Damascus reminded the people: “Divine power is not circumscribed by any place and neither is the inexhaustible goodness of the Mother of God. For if the graces were restricted only to her tomb, only a few people would gain them. Now her graces are poured out in every place throughout the world” (cf. Hom. on Dorm. 2, 19).

In his Homily on the Dormition, St. John of Damascus makes the Tomb of Mary speak:

“Why do you seek in the tomb what has been translocated into heaven? Why do you exact from me an account of her dissolution? I had no power to go against the divine command. Leaving the winding sheet, that holy and sacred body, which filled me with myrrh, sweet fragrance and holiness, has been caught up and has departed with all the powers of heaven accompanying it. Now the Angels keep watch over me. Now the divine grace dwells in me. I have become a well of healing for the sick, a defense against demons, a refuge to those who flee to me. Draw near in faith, you people, and you will receive grace in streams” (cf. Hom. on Dorm. 2, 17).

Source: johnsanidopoulos.com/2017/08/history-of-feast-of-dormition-of.html

Archaeologists think they may have found the lost Roman city of Julias, the home of three apostles of Jesus: Peter, Andrew and Philip (John 1:44; 12:21). A multi-layered site discovered on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, in the Bethsaida Valley Nature Reserve, is the spot, the team believes.

The key discovery is of an advanced Roman-style bathhouse. That in and of itself indicates that there had been a city there, not just a fishing village, Dr. Mordechai Aviam of Kinneret College told Haaretz.

None other than the Jewish historian Josephus Flavius – in fact the only source describing this city's existence – wrote that the Jewish monarch King Philip Herod, son of the great vassal King Herod, transformed Bethsaida, which had been a Jewish fishing village, into a real Roman polis. Philip flatteringly renamed the city "Julias" after Livia Drusilla, who after marriage would become known as Julia Augusta, the mother of the Roman Emperor Tiberius.

"Josephus reported that the king had upgraded Bethsaida from a village into a polis, a proper city," Aviam says meticulously. "He didn't say it had been built on or beside or underneath it. And indeed, all this time, we have not known where it was. But the bathhouse attests to the existence of urban culture."

Josephus himself would take over fortifying Bethsaida's defenses (as reported by himself) ahead of the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome that began in 67 C.E., and would end in disaster for the Jews in 70 C.E. Josephus himself claims to have been hurt in battle in the swamp near Julias (Life 399-403).

There are actually three candidates for Julias: this one, called el-Araj; and two nearby sites by the lake. After unexpectedly finding the bathhouse and other Roman-era remains below the (previously known) Byzantine ruins at the site, the archaeologists think this site, at the delta of the River Jordan on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, is the strongest candidate.

What the archaeologists found at el-Araj is an older layer dating from the late Roman period, the 1st to 3rd centuries C.E., two meters below the Byzantine level. That Roman layer contained pottery sherds from the 1st to the 3rd centuries B.C.E., a mosaic, and the remains of the bathhouse. Two coins were found, a bronze coin from the late 2nd century and a silver denarius featuring the Emperor Nero from the year 65-66 C.E.

And has a major missing church been found too? The excavators found walls with gilded glass tesserae for a mosaic, an indication of a wealthy and important church. Willibald, the bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria, visited the Holy Land in 725 C.E., and in his itinerary, he describes his visit to a church at Bethsaida that was built over the house of Peter and Andrew. It may well be that the current excavations have unearthed evidence for that church, say the archaeologists.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/1.805402