MARYROCK

By Jackie Fitzwell
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) Ñ Archeologists have discovered the rock revered by early Christians as the place where the pregnant virgin Mary rested on her way to Bethlahem, officials said yesterday.

The craggy limestone rock protrudes from the remnants of the floor of a 5th Century, octagonal Byzantine church, the largest of its kind in the Holy Land. The rock was unearthed after construction workers that were laying pipe for the controversial Har Homa Jewish housing project accidentally damaged the churchs foundation, spurring an excavation to make repairs.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Deodorus 1, hailed the find yesterday as a "great discovery with historical, religious and ethnic significance.

Gideon Avni, Jerusalem District Archaeologist at Isreal's Antiquities Authority, said Christians made pilgrimmages to a rock on the five-mile Jerusalem to Bethlehem road, at least 1,700 years ago, believing it was the place where the Virgin Mary rested on her way to Bethlehem, where she gave birth to Jesus.

Avni said the Church of the Kathisma Ñ"the seat" in Greek Ñ was built around the rock. Excavations show the church was destroyed and rebuilt at least once before it was finally destroyed in the 8th or 9th century and largely forgotten.

Israeli archaeologists discovered the Church almost by accident during the widening of the Jerusalem-Bethlehem highway 6 years ago. The Antiquities Authority dig uncovered the octagonal foundations of the church Ñ which is 173 feet long and 143 feet wide.

Rina Avner, the archaeologist in charge of the dig, said the church was far larger than two other octagonal churches in the Holy Land. "It struck me that since the legend says there is a rock here, and we had established that the church was octogonal, I felt sure that the rock must be in the middle," Rivna said.

She dug in the church's center, uncovering the tip of the rock, which she surmised was Mary's rock. But excavations were suspended without digging down to floor level to confirm the theory she put forth.

The dig was only resumed this summer, after construction workers bull-dozed a trench for a water pipe and damaged the church's foundation In the past month, archeologists dug down to the base of the rock, which is about six feet across and protrudes a few inches above the floor.

The fact that the rock is above floor level, surrounded by a low wall and cleared area, indicate the rock was revered by pilgrims.

The Antiquities Authority plans to continue excavations in the wake of the rock's discovery. The Rev Jerome Murphy O'Connor, a Roman Catholic biblical scholar, yesterday said the site was "architectually important." But he stressed that since it pertained just to Mary, Roman Catholics would consider it less significant than sites in Israel connected to Jesus.