The Abbey of Mount Tabor was a

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

monastery on the

shrine A shrine ( "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred space">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...: ''escri ...

of Christ's Transfiguration on

Mount Tabor Mount Tabor ( ; ; ), sometimes spelled Mount Thabor, is a large hill of biblical significance in Lower Galilee, Northern District (Israel), northern Israel, at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, west of the Sea of Galilee. In the Hebrew Bi ...

in the

Kingdom of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as the Crusader Kingdom, was one of the Crusader states established in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade. It lasted for almost two hundred years, from the accession of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1 ...

Background

Christian tradition has identified

Galilee Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ). ''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...

as the site of the miraculous

Transfiguration of Jesus The Transfiguration of Jesus is an event described in the New Testament where Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is Transfiguration (religion), transfigured and becomes radiant in Glory (religion), glory upon a mountain. The Synoptic Gospels (, , ) r ...

. The historians Bernard Hamilton and Andrew Jotischky assumes that the first Christian church on the mountain was likely built during the reign of the first Christian Roman emperor

Constantine the Great Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

. According to the three

Synoptic Gospels The gospels of Gospel of Matthew, Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Mark, and Gospel of Luke, Luke are referred to as the synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in a similar sequence and in similar or sometimes identical ...

Peter the Apostle Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the early Christian Church. He appears repe ...

suggested that three

tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle (), also known as the Tent of the Congregation (, also Tent of Meeting), was the portable earthly dwelling of God used by the Israelites from the Exodus until the conquest of Canaan. Moses was instru ...

s were to be built at the site to commemorate the miracle, thus early medieval Christian literature often claimed that three churches had been built in the monastery. However, the pilgrim

Willibald Willibald (; c. 700 – c.787) was an 8th-century bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria. Information about his life is largely drawn from the ''Hodoeporicon of Willibald'', a text written in the 8th century by Huneberc, an Anglo-Saxon nun from Hei ...

says that he found a single church when he visited Mount Tabor. Archaeological research also indicates the existence of one church, with the

high altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

dedicated to the Transfiguration, and two chapels to the prophets Moses and Elias.

Establishment

Galilee was conquered by the

Italo-Norman The Italo-Normans (), or Siculo-Normans (''Siculo-Normanni'') when referring to Sicily and Southern Italy, are the Italian-born descendants of the first Norman conquerors to travel to Southern Italy in the first half of the eleventh century. ...

crusader Tancred after the crusaders captured Jerusalem during the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the Middle Ages. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Muslim conquest ...

. The late 12th-century historian

William of Tyre William of Tyre (; 29 September 1186) was a Middle Ages, medieval prelate and chronicler. As Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tyre, archbishop of Tyre, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from his predecessor, William I of Tyr ...

writes that Tancred established churches at the towns of Nazareth and Tiberias, and on Mount Tabor, and made magnanimous grants to them. Modern scholars, such as Hamilton and Denys Pringle say that the original Greek Orthodox monastery was seized by Roman Catholic monks with Tancred's support, and the Orthodox monks built a new monastery, dedicated to Saint Elias. As no bishoprics were established in Galilee, the new monastery's abbot was the highest-ranking prelate in the region. In 1109, the first abbot, Gerald received archiepiscopal authority over Galilee from

Pope Paschal II Pope Paschal II (; 1050 1055 – 21 January 1118), born Raniero Raineri di Bleda, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 August 1099 to his death in 1118. A monk of the Abbey of Cluny, he was creat ...

who also exempted the abbey from all other prelates' jurisdiction.

Abbots

*Gerald (1099–) *Peter () *William () *Pons () *Bernard (–1169) *Garin (1169–) *John (–) *Andrew () *P. ()

References

Sources

* * * Benedictine monasteries in the Kingdom of Jerusalem {{improve categories, date=January 2025