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The Christmas city

Chapter 4: I THE WELCOME TO BETHLEHEM
By Lewis Gaston Leary
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About This Book

The book traces the long religious and cultural history of the Palestinian town associated with the nativity, weaving together biblical episodes, medieval pilgrim accounts, and modern observations to portray its sacred sites, rituals, and local life. It describes legendary landmarks such as a roadside tomb and the church built over the traditional birthplace, recounts stories of devotion and sacrifice, and surveys architectural details, art, and liturgical practices. Emphasis falls on the role of women, communal memory, and the town's enduring function as a center for pilgrimage and seasonal commemoration of the holy birth.

THE CHRISTMAS CITY

I
THE WELCOME TO BETHLEHEM

St. Paula, A. D. 386

“With what expressions and what language shall we set before you the cave of the Saviour? The stall where He cried as a babe can best be honored by silence; words are inadequate to speak its praise. Where are the spacious porticoes? Where are the gilded ceilings? Where are the mansions furnished by the miserable toil of doomed wretches? Where are the costly halls raised by untitled opulence for man’s vile body to walk in? Where are the roofs that intercept the sky, as if anything could be finer than the expanse of heaven? Behold, in this poor crevice of the earth the Creator of the heavens was born; here He was wrapped in swaddling clothes; here He was seen by the shepherds; here He was pointed out by the star; here He was adored by the wise men....

“In our excitement we are already hurrying to meet you.... Will the day never come when we shall together enter the Saviour’s cave?

“Hail, Bethlehem, house of bread, wherein was born that Bread that came down from heaven! Hail, Ephrathah, land of fruitfulness and fertility, whose Fruit is the Lord himself.”