Peter Restores Tabitha to Life

12th century
Mosaic
Palatine Chapel, Palermo, Sicily

This episode is in the Acts of the Apostles, 9:36-43. In Joppa Peter brings Tabitha, also called Dorcas, back to life. Behind her are the widows who "came to him weeping and showing him the tunics and cloaks that Dorcas had made while she was with them" (9:39). Perhaps the cloth on the racks between Tabitha and the widows represents those tunics and cloaks.

The passage in Acts says disciples in Joppa had sent two of their number to bring Peter from Lydda; presumably the tonsured man on the left is one of them.

The inscription above the scene says HIC IN IOPPEM SUSCITAVIT TABITAM DICENS TABITA SURGE, "Here in Joppa he revives Tabitha, saying, 'Tabitha, Arise.'"

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Photographed at the chapel by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.