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A Brief Description of the Holy Sepulchre Jerusalem and Other Christian Churches in the Holy City Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2011
CŒNACULUM.—This very venerable shrine, known in the Middle Ages as “Mater Ecclesiarum” on account of its being considered the house of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the place wherein the first Eucharist was celebrated by Christ Himself, is doubtless a “Holy Site” of the primitive period, if not of the Apostolic age. It is mentioned by Theodosius, De Terra Sancta, of the sixth century. Also at the end of the seventh century:—
On Mount Sion Arculf saw a square church, which included the site of the Lord's Supper, the place where the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles, the marble column to which our Lord was bound when He was scourged, and the spot where the Virgin Mary died.
(Travels of Bp Arculf, 700. Bonn's ed. p. 5.)Bernard the Wise (867) speaks of the church on Sion where the Virgin died as being called the Church of St Simeon, where our Lord washed the feet of the disciples, and where was suspended His crown of thorns.
Benjamin of Tudela's famous story of the discovery of the treasure caves or tomb of King David somewhere on the slopes of Mount Sion is, in all probability, associated with the church in question. A restoration of the building seems to have been in progress, and we have a contemporary description of this building by John of Wurzburg.
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