Cana is situated in central Galilee, ten miles north of Nazareth and ten miles west of the Sea of Galilee. According to the Gospel of John (2:1-2), it was here that Jesus performed his first miracle—turning water into wine: "There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited." The host ran out of wine, and Mary instructed the servants to follow whatever instructions Jesus gave them. Although Jesus expressed dismay that Mary was making this demand of him, he had the servants fill six large jars with water, and take the steward a cup from each jar. What the steward drank turned out to be wine, and he remarked (John 2:10) "People generally serve the best wine first, and keep the cheaper sort till the guests have had plenty to drink; but you have kept the best wine till now."

According to John (4:53), Jesus performed a second miracle at Cana by healing the son of a court official. Jesus told the boy’s father that the son would be cured, but the boy was more than twenty miles away in Capernaum and the father was apprehensive. But when the official returned home, he learned that his son had been cured and when it had happened. In the words of John, "The father realized that this had happened when Jesus had said, ‘Your son will live,’ and he and all his household believed."