Fodor's Expert Review Church of the Primacy of St. Peter

The austere, black basalt church, just east of the Church of the Multiplication, is built on the water's edge, over a flat rock known as Mensa Christi (the Table of Christ). After his resurrection, the New Testament relates, Jesus appeared to his disciples by the Sea of Galilee and presented them a miraculous catch of fish. Three times Jesus asked his disciple Peter if he loved him, and after his reply of "You know that I love you," Jesus commanded him to "feed my sheep" (John 21:17). Some scholars see this affirmation as Peter's atonement for having thrice denied Jesus in Jerusalem. The episode is seen as establishing Peter's "primacy."