Emperor Justinian and Attendants, apse of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, 548 CE

Christianity is based on a belief that Jesus Christ fulfilled the Jewish prophecy that a Messiah would come to save the Mankind. Christians gather to commemorate the last meal of Christ before the Romans crucified him (after which time he rose from the dead). This mosaic shows the Holy Roman Emperor, who is also the patriarch of the Christian Church, holding a loaf of bread that would have been used to commemorate Christ’s last meal.