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Additional information about the distruction of the Nea Church
The [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Jerusalem)|Church of the Holy Sepulchre]], the other major church in Jerusalem at the time, was located further north along the Cardo on its other side. These two churches are displayed most prominently in the famous Madaba mosaic map of Jerusalem that was discovered in the ruins of a Byzantine church in Madaba, Jordan, in 1884. This map is the oldest pictoral view of Jerusalem and vividly shows the two churches between which processions were conducted.
The date of the destruction of the Nea Church is not known precisely. It According to accounts preserved in ''The Capture of Jerusalem (Expugnationis Hierosolymae)'' the conquering Persians and their Jewish allies destroyed the church and killed the [[clergy]] in 614. The extent of the damage is conjectured that unclear as Patriarch Sophronius delivered his Nativity sermon in the Nea Church in 634. Further damage to the church may have occurred from an earthquake in 746. In 808, a reference to the church appeared in the ''Commemoratorium de casis Dei'' and, in 870, it was destroyed mentioned by an earthquake Bernard the Monk who stayed in a hospice next to the church. In the late 6th tenth century or during , Eutychius, the conquest Melkite Patriarch of Jerusalem Alexandria, noted the Nea Church ruins. The damage by the Persians , in 614 A.D. The destruction of , may have been severe as the Persians may have searched for treasure believed stored within the church was so complete with as speculated from Procopius' report of the area over-built that it was reEmperor Justinian sending sacred items to Jerusalem.<ref>Taylor, J: "The Nea Church", ''Biblical Archaeology Review'', Jan/Feb 2008, Vol 34, No 1, pp 51-discovered only in the 1980s during excavations.59</ref>
==References==
*''Ancient Churches Revealed''. Yoram Tsafrir, ed. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1993. (ISBN 965-221-016-1)
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==External links==