The Cenacle (Upper Room)
The traditional site of the Last Supper and of Pentecost, on Mount Zion.
Blessed Virgin Mary → Plan a trip hereThe Story
The Cenacle, or Upper Room, on Mount Zion in Jerusalem is honored by Christian tradition as the room of the Last Supper — where Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, instituted the Eucharist and the priesthood on the night before he died — and as the place where the apostles gathered with Mary in prayer and received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The Gospels describe a 'large upper room, furnished and ready' (Mark 14:15), and the Acts of the Apostles places the community's prayer and the descent of the Spirit in an upper room in the city. From early centuries Christians venerated this site on Mount Zion, remembered as 'the mother of all churches'; the great Byzantine basilica of Hagia Sion rose beside it, and the Crusaders rebuilt the shrine. The Gothic hall pilgrims enter today dates from the Franciscan rebuilding of the fourteenth century, when the friars of the Custody of the Holy Land made their first home beside it — the Custody's formal seat was the convent 'Ad Coenaculum.' Under Ottoman rule the Franciscans were expelled in the sixteenth century and the hall was converted to a mosque; a prayer niche and Arabic inscriptions remain. Today the Cenacle is administered by the State of Israel, with the traditional Tomb of David venerated on the level below. Mass is not regularly celebrated in the room, though popes have prayed and celebrated the liturgy there on solemn occasions — St. John Paul II in 2000 and Pope Francis in 2014. However the archaeology of Mount Zion is finally judged, the Upper Room remains for Catholics a place of extraordinary resonance: the room of the first Eucharist and the birthplace of the Church at Pentecost. Pilgrims stand in the quiet Gothic hall and remember that everything the Church is — her sacraments, her priesthood, her mission — traces back to what tradition locates within these walls.
Church Recognition
The Church has venerated the Cenacle as the traditional site of the Last Supper and Pentecost since the early centuries; though the hall is not under Church custody today, St. John Paul II celebrated Mass there during the Great Jubilee in 2000, as did Pope Francis in 2014, and the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land maintains its convent beside it.
Catholic Teaching
The Upper Room is bound to the heart of Catholic faith: the institution of the Eucharist and of the priesthood at the Last Supper (CCC 1337-1340; 1544-1545) and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, when the Church was manifested to the world (CCC 731-732; 767).
Plan Your Visit
Practical
Additional Information
The Upper Room on Mount Zion is venerated as the place of the Last Supper and the descent of the Holy Spirit.
Go Deeper
See the Custody of the Holy Land's resources at https://www.custodia.org, read the Last Supper accounts in the Gospels and Acts 1-2, St. John Paul II's encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, and the Catechism on the institution of the Eucharist (CCC 1337-1344).
Location
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In the Area
Other sacred sites within 40 miles.