Church of the Nativity

He arrived in Bethlehem, where he would spend the rest of his life.

He became a hermit in the caves near the Church of the Nativity and continued his prayer, study, translations, and numerous other writings.

He formed a monastery for men, and the women who accompanied him established a convent nearby.

In Bethlehem, Jerome continued his work of translating the Bible into Latin.

The Ottoman government intervened and issued a decree allocating control of the principal Christian holy sites.

The Greek Orthodox received greatly strengthened rights inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as well as important rights in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Tomb of the Virgin Mary.

The Armenian Church also retained substantial rights, while the Franciscans lost some of the privileged position that they had previously enjoyed.

It was at least 30 years before the Palm Sunday event that the latter first appeared.

In theory, this entire war was all about a Christmas ornament.

In the Church of the Nativity, in modern-day Palestine-Israel area, okay, that area, but in that time, it was under Ottoman rule.

But the Church of the Nativity was a Catholic church.

But you've also got Russian Orthodox getting involved.

And so you have this tension between Orthodox priests, in other words, beholden to the Russian Empire, and you've got Catholic priests, in theory, beholden to the French Empire.