Archaeological excavations revealed possible remains of a small shrine from the first half of the 5th century, but mainly a large and lavish
octagonal church and its monastery, originally built around 456 by the widow Ikelia, and substantially restored sometime between 531–538. The southern doorway was turned into a
mihrab in the first half of the 8th century, while the rest of the structure is thought to have still been used as a church. Other structural changes include the blocking of the eastern
apse and a remodelling of the mosaic floors. Scholars hold that the church was abandoned during the 10th century and slowly carried off for its building materials.
New Marian cult The Kathisma was the earliest church strictly dedicated to
Mary in Jerusalem and the surrounding area. It was dedicated to the
Theotokos, "Birth Giver of God", much in accordance with the decisions taken at the
First Council of Ephesus in regard to
Christian dogma in AD 431, and was built by Ikelia under the guidance of the bishop of Jerusalem,
Juvenal, a participant in the Ephesus Council. The church is connected to the introduction of the earliest strictly Marian feast, the celebration of the Theotokos, which was inaugurated by Juvenal at the Kathisma. At first it was set on 15 August, but had to be moved backward by two days, to 13 August, to make place for another Marian feast, the
Assumption. The church was built in 456, five years after the
Council of Chalcedon, which reaffirmed the decisions from Ephesus and finally granted Juvenal, as the bishop of Jerusalem,
ecclesiastical independence, on the same footing with
Rome,
Constantinople,
Alexandria and
Antioch.
Candle procession Ikelia introduced at Kathisma a new custom: a candle procession to mark the
purification of the Virgin Mary at the
Temple in Jerusalem forty days after the
birth of Jesus. This custom then first spread to much of the Eastern Church, and later to the Western Church where it is known as '
Candlemas'.
An architectural model The Old Kathisma was built as an octagonal
martyrium. It has been noticed that the significant 5th-century octagonal churches built on
Mount Gerizim and at
Capernaum, as well as the late-7th-century Muslim
Dome of the Rock, are all based on the same architectural pattern as the earlier Kathisma church, which might indicate that it served as the model for those buildings.
Fate The church was converted into a
mosque in the 8th century, destroyed after the
Crusader period, and forgotten until its accidental discovery in 1992.
Rediscovery The remains of the church were discovered accidentally during construction work of
Highway 60 in 1992 near
Mar Elias Monastery. The of the highway was shifted to avoid damage to the site, so that the ruins are now just off the road, at the once municipal border between
Jerusalem and
Bethlehem before 1967. The site was excavated in 1997. ==Description==