THE CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY IN BETHLEHEM

Dr G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville

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Early Christian Period to 529

Early Christian Period 
post 529

Crusader Period

The Grotto

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Early Christian Period to AD529 

Christianity was declared a lawful religion by the Roman emperor, Constantine in AD 313.  After the Council of Nicaea in 325, Constantine ordered Bishop Makarios of Jerusalem to build three churches of the greatest magnificence, one at Bethlehem honouring the Nativity of Jesus Christ, a second in Jerusalem marking the Resurrection and the third on the Mount of Olives to commemorate the Ascension of Jesus.  A superb mosaic in the church of Sta. Pudenziana in Rome, dating from c. 380 depicts two of the newly-built churches, the Holy Sepulchre on the left and the Church of the Nativity on the right.
Constantine’s church was burnt down in the Samaritan revolt of 529.  Excavations in 1932-34 revealed parts of the floor mosaic of that building, which has geometrical decoration.  The reconstructed plan shows an octagonal sanctuary above the Grotto of the Nativity.
	An early Christian mosaic of the Adoration of the Magi in the Church of Sta. Maria Maggiore in Rome, dating from c. 432, shows the Magi in their splendid Persian costumes adoring the Christ-Child, who is enthroned, next to his Mother.