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S i d e b a r
The Church of Jubail
By Tarcisius
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This Rock
Volume 9, Number 11
 November 1998 
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In 1986, people on a desert picnic discovered the ruins of a church near the city of Jubail, Saudi Arabia, while digging one of their trucks out of the sand. The church is believed to have been built prior to A.D. 400, making it older than most churches in Europe. It was likely associated with one of five bishoprics existing on the shores of the Arabian Sea during the term of Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople and founder of the heresy that bears his name.
Anyone familiar with contemporary Latin and Eastern Rite Catholic church buildings will recognize the basic design. The foundation marks for roof support columns in the main room easily identify it as the nave of a church. Probably, the roof was a thatch of palm branches supported by risers and crossbeams about a foot above the walls for sunlight and ventilation.
The congregation would have entered through the main doorway at the west side of the nave and assembled, women standing to the right and men to the left, facing east toward the sanctuary (the middle of the three smaller chambers") where the altar would have been.
In the sanctuary, there are half-columns still visible at the rear of each side wall, which would have flanked a tapestry. Above the half-columns are sockets for a large beam to suspend the tapestry. The altar would have been a high wooden table placed in the middle of the sanctuary allowing the celebrants to pass around it with incense. As in the other rooms, there are niches in the walls for statues or icons. A veil would have covered the doorway to the sanctuary. At the front left side of the sanctuary door lies a flat stone that probably elevated a lectern.
To the left of the sanctuary is the sacristy. The side door in the north wall allowed the priests to enter the sacristy without passing through the assembly, to prepare for the liturgy and appear before the congregation fully vested.
The room to the right of the sanctuary is a small chapel for the daily storage of Viaticum and for Masses when only a few people were present. The niche in the south wall of this room looks about right for the location of the tabernacle. A side door in the south wall provided access to this Blessed Sacrament chapel and for discreet exit and reentry for nursing mothers.
At the doorways to the sacristy, sanctuary, chapel, and the main entrance, stone crosses were attached to the wall. These four crosses, in place during the early excavation, disappeared in late 1986 or early 1987. Over the years since the discovery, the desert has erased even the marks left when the crosses were removed.
Nestorius studied theology at Antioch but he had more political than spiritual ambition. It eventually paid off when the emperor appointed him Patriarch of Constantinople, thus in control of all the churches of the east. He had it preached in his churches that Jesus had two natures; human and divine. At the moment of birth God the Father infused the divine nature into the little boy which Mary had provided. According to his thinking, Mary, was only the mother of Jesus’ human nature. Therefore, Mary could not be called the Mother of God.
The laity, who had for three hundred years revered Mary as the Mother of God, were insulted for her. They wrote letters to Rome. In response, Pope Celestine I appointed (St) Cyril of Alexandria to straighten Nestorius out. Nestorius’ intransigence led to a Council of Rome to denounce him as a heretic and to the Third Council of Ephesus where the doctrine of Hypostatic Union was formalized. Hypostatic Union means that Jesus was born, lived, died, and rose from the dead as a complete unit. Body, blood, soul, and divinity are one in him. Mary as the mother of the complete Jesus, must be the Mother of God (Theotokos).
The Church of Jubail symbolizes, for me, this time of victory for the people of God who stood up for Mary and could not be made to swallow a heresy, even when commanded by its local hierarchy. It symbolizes also how ancient is the acceptance of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome. The familiar floor plan and design tell me of the continuity of faith and worship handed down from these early congregations. The laity are still active in continuing the faith in Arabia today—as I learned for myself.
"Tarcisius" is the pen name of an American who recently returned from two years in Saudi Arabia, working with the blessing of the local Church to minister to secret Catholics. There, Christianity is a punishable offense, and conversion from Islam to Christianity earns the death penalty.
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