In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.). And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (Lk 2,1-6)

「那時凱撒奧古斯都出了一道上諭，叫天下的人都要登記：這是在季黎諾作敘利亞總督時，初次行的登記。於是，眾人各去本城登記。若瑟因為是達味家族的人，也從加里肋亞納匝肋城，上猶大名叫白冷的達味城去，好同自己已懷孕的聘妻瑪利亞去登記。他們在那裡的時候，她分娩的日期滿了，便生了她的頭胎男兒，用襁褓裡起，放在馬槽裡，因為在客棧中為他們沒有地方。」（路二1-7）

The decree of Caesar Augustus ordering a census of all the provinces subject to the Roman Empire brought Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to their native city. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophet Micah 750 years before the event. The Gospels do not mention the birthplace of Jesus after the event itself and we might be tempted to believe that the "memory" of the place was lost! But how can such a place be forgotten? How can the first Christians have ever given up such a memory? To do so would have been against human nature itself! And in fact we know that one of the earliest Popes, St. Evaristus, Pope from 100 to 109, and a martyr under Trajan, was born in Antioch of a Jew named Judah, a native of Bethlehem.

由於凱撒奧古斯都發出諭令，要羅馬帝國所有行省統計人口，使得瑪利亞和若瑟由納匝肋回到他們的故鄉。而實現了米該亞先知在此之前750年前所預言的。福音並沒有提及耶穌的誕生地點，而我們也「傾向」認為關於這地方的記憶已經消失！但是這樣的一個地方怎麼能被遺忘？最初的基督徒怎麼會放棄這樣的記憶？這根本不符合人的本性！而且事實上我們知道，最早的幾位教宗中有一位聖Evaristus ─ AD100到109年間擔任教宗，並在Trajan皇帝時致命 ─ 他出生於安提約基一個名叫猶大、祖籍白冷的猶太人家中。

We have witness that Emperor Hadrian profaned the town, after the second Jewish revolt, with a precise political stratagem to eradicate all places of worship of the Jewish nation (including with them even the judaeo-christian sites). In Bethlehem he planted a sacred garden dedicated to Adonis on the holy grotto. St. Jerome, in 396 A.D., wrote: "From Hadrian's time until the reign of Constantine, for about 180 years, the Gentiles used to worship an image of Jupiter set up in the place of the Resurrection and on the rock of the Cross a marble statue of Venus. For the authors of the persecution supposed that by polluting the Holy Places with idols they would do away with our faith in the Resurrection and the Cross. Bethlehem, now ours, and the earth's most sacred spot... was overshadowed by a grove of Thammuz, which is Adonis, and in the cave where the infant Messiah once cried, the paramour of Venus was bewailed." But the site of the birth of Jesus remained visible as witnesses Origen: ""even amongst those who are strangers to the faith it is known that inside that grotto he who is adored and glorified by the Christians was born ."

我們認為在第二次猶太叛亂之後，Hadrian皇帝褻瀆了此城，他政策性的摧毀猶太境內所有的宗教據點（包括猶太基督徒的）。在白冷的神聖地窟上他建立了一個Adonis的花園。西元396年St. Jerome寫道：「從Hadrian到Constantine約180年中，異教徒在基督復活的地方崇拜Jupiter的像，而在十字架矗立過的那塊石頭上立著Venus的大理石雕像。那些壓迫者認為用這些偶像污染聖地，可以讓我們遠離復活及十字架的信仰。現在白冷，我們的，也是世界的最神聖的地方…在Thammuz也就是Adonis的樹叢的陰影下，而那嬰孩默西亞曾經嚎哭的洞穴，是Venus的情人在嘆息。」但耶穌誕生的地方仍然可見，如Origen所述：「甚至為那些對信仰陌生的人也知道，基督徒朝拜光榮的那位，就是在那洞穴中誕生。」

Since the Jews were at this time excluded from Bethlehem, it seems that a considerable pagan population still remained in the district to carry on a cult that had been popular among agricultural communities in the east. In the year 325 the Bishop of Jerusalem, St. Macarius, took the opportunity, offered by the general council of the church at Nicaea, of acquainting the Emperor Constantine of the neglected condition of the Holy Places in his diocese. The Emperor ordered the construction, at the public charge, of monumental churches to commemorate the three principal events of Jesus' life. One of these was to be a church enshrining the scene of the Nativity.

雖然現今猶太人被排拒在白冷外，而當地有可觀的異教徒人口，在東邊的農村中仍然有一群有名的信友。西元325年耶路撒冷主教St. Macarius藉尼西亞大公會議的機會，讓Constantine皇帝瞭解到他忽略了聖地的情況，皇帝於是下令撥公款建築紀念性的教堂為紀念耶穌生活中根本的三個事件，其中一個就是為了紀念耶穌的誕生。

An established local tradition enabled the architects to begin work at once in 326. The local people knew that at the end of the village among the trees was the cave in which was born Jesus Christ. The trees were felled and the superfluous rock quarried away.

最早的建築工程自西元326年開始，當地居民指出在村落盡頭的樹林間是耶穌基督誕生的洞窟，於是樹叢被砍伐，多餘的石塊被移走。

The magnificent building had a spacious outer atrium to the West paved with large slabs of stone and an inner mosaiced one. On the eastern portico three doors opened onto the five naves basilica with a mosaiced floor the aisles of which were divided by rows of monolithic columns. This mosaic had elaborate colourful geometric designs. The shape of the cave was adapted to architectural and devotional requirements. Above it a raised enclosed octagonal platform, a "holy area". At the centre of the sacred area a canopy of precious metals raised on an octagonal three-stepped structure. It is still dubious whether at the centre of this canopy there was an opening to peer down at the underneath grotto or an altar. This holy area was very finely mosaiced. An L shaped stairway at the centre of the façade of the raised platform led from the Basilica to the Holy Grotto. At the entrance of this stairway a mosaic inscription in greek bearing the christological acrostic for "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour". The Grotto too was transformed and the venerated manger (surely hewn out of the grotto's rock) was replaced by one of precious metal. In fact St. Jerome himself complained that "we, as if this was to honour Christ, have removed the one made of clay and have substituted it with a silver one; but for me the removed one was more precious". . Fourth and fifth century writers describe the richness of its marbles, mosaics, frescoes, and the silver manger. This basilica, constructed under the supervision of the emperor's mother, St. Helen, survived till the first destruction occurred during the Samaritan revolt (529).

這是一座華麗的建築，西面有寬敞，以大塊石板鋪成的中庭，嵌有馬賽克。從中庭東面的三個大門進入分為五進nave的大殿，地板上有馬賽克相嵌的過道區分的區域，馬賽克充滿細緻多彩的幾何構思。洞穴的形狀融入了建築及信仰的要求，上方構築了八角形的平台，「聖所」。在聖所的中心升起了由貴重金屬構築的八角形三層天頂，由天頂中心的開口，可以向下看見地窟及祭台。整個聖所也為馬賽克裝飾。L形的階梯由平台正中連接大殿及地窟，在階梯的入口用馬賽克相嵌了希臘文基督名號的縮寫「耶穌基督，天主子，救世主」。地窟也被改裝（當然除了地窟的石頭外），而馬槽也被換成了一個貴重金屬製成的。實際上St. Jerome曾抱怨道「當我們移除泥土做的而換上一個銀製的，這是否是對基督的的尊敬；對我來說，那被移去的是更珍貴的」…第四、第五世紀的作家們描述她充滿大理石、馬賽克、壁畫及銀製馬槽。這大殿是在皇帝的母親St. Helen的資助下興建，但隨後在西元529年Samaritan叛變期間被第一次摧毀。

This was also a time when monastic life around the Holy Land was given a great impetus. Bethlehem and Jerusalem were two centres around which "Latin" monks and nuns lived their ascetic lives. About 360 St. Athanasius wrote the Life of St. Anthony, which was destined to have such a great influence on the world at large. In Rome the monastic life appealed to the aristocracy and Melania, a widow at 22, leaving her daughter behind, set out for Palestine, accompanied by the monk Rufinus of Aquila. After some time in Egypt, they arrived in Jerusalem in 376. Melania built a convent on Mt. Olivet where she housed 60 nuns. Rufinus also lived on Mt. Olivet where there were already several monasteries of monks and nuns. Eleven years later (in 382) there came from Rome another group: Paula, a descendent of the Gracchi and Scipio families, a widow, and her daughter Eustochium together with St. Jerome then 46. Paula founded two monasteries, one for herself and her nuns, divided into three groups according to social status, another for St. Jerome and his monks. Between the monasteries of Jerusalem and Bethlehem there was much contact and friendship. While Rufinus occupied himself in the historic-ascetic works of his monks, St. Jerome gave himself up, with the help of the Jews, to the study of the Bible and ancient tongues.

聖地的修道生活也在這一時期受到很大的鼓舞，白冷和耶路撒冷是「拉丁」修士、修女度他們宗教生活的兩個中心。約西元360年時，St. Athanasius寫到St. Anthony的生活注定要給世界帶來遠大的影響。在羅馬，修道生活如同貴族一般。而Melania，一個22歲的寡婦，離開她的女兒隨同修士Rufinus of Aquila前往巴勒斯坦。在埃及待了一段時日，西元376年他們抵達耶路撒冷。Melania在橄欖山建了一個女修院，住了六十位修女。Rufinus也住在橄欖山，那兒已有七間男女修院。十一年後（西元382年），又來了另一個團體：Paula，Gracchi和 Scipio家族的後裔，一個寡婦，和她的女兒Eustochium與St. Jerome一起，持續了四十六年。Paula建立了兩個修院，一個為她及修女們，依照社會階級分成三個團體，另一個為St. Jerome 及他的修士們。在白冷及耶路撒冷的修會間，有很多交流與友誼。當Rufinus 忙碌於他的修士的歷史-苦修工作時，St. Jerome放棄他自己獨修，而在猶太人的協助下開始研究聖經及古老的口傳。

Here he produced his great literary works, among them his Latin translation from the original Hebrew of the Old Testament, now known as the Vulgate (Biblia Vulgata), which was to help so much in the diffusion of the Bible. The defence of the less orthodox opinions of Origen resulted in breaking the good relation between the two communities, and the bishop of Jerusalem, John II (386-417) with whom Rufinus sided, excommunicated the monastery of Bethlehem and tried to send St. Jerome away. In 397 peace was re-established. And in this year Melania and Rufinus left Palestine, the latter for good, the former for only a short time. A battle of words continued between Jerome and Rufinus. In 404 St. Paula died, and ten years later arrived her niece Paula the younger. In 417 arrived from Rome Melania the younger with her husband Pionius, both living in chastity, intending to lead a monastic life in Jerusalem.

在這兒他開始了龐大的文學工作，其中他自原希伯來文舊約翻譯成拉丁文，現今知道的Vulgate（Biblia Vulgata），為聖經的傳播有很大的幫助。為了預防Origen的一些東方的意見，導致了這兩個團體間良好關係的破裂，而耶路撒冷主教John II（西元386-417年）站在Rufinus這邊，將白冷修會逐出教會，並企圖將St. Jerome趕走。西元397年，和平重新建立，這一年Melania及Rufinus離開巴勒斯坦，後者真的離開而前者只一段短時間，但一場文字戰爭仍在Jerome及Rufinus間延續。西元404年St. Paula過世，十年後他的姪女Paula the younger抵達。西元417年Melania the younger及其夫婿Pionius自羅馬抵達，兩人都過著禁欲生活並希望領導耶路撒冷的修會生活。

A new storm arose. A Celtic monk Pelagius, responsible for Pelagianism, came to Palestine and Jerome immediately attacked the heresy. The followers of Pelagianism struck back and burned the monastery, and Jerome and the nuns would have been massacred if they had not withdrawn to the strong tower. Shortly after St. Eustochium died and three years later St. Jerome in 420, thus putting an end to the Latin monastic life in Bethlehem. In 431 Melania the younger built a nunnery on Mt. Olivet in which she collected 90 sisters. On the death of Pionius she built a monastery for monks beside his tomb. When she died in 489 on Mt. Olivet, the Latin monastic colony came to an end.

一個新的風暴又起，Pelagius，一位提倡Pelagianism的Celtic修士，來到巴勒斯坦。Jerome直斥其為異端，而Pelagianism的追隨者反擊，燒毀了修道院，若不是禁聲躲在堅固的塔內，Jerome及修女們可能會被屠殺。但很快的，在St. Eustochium死後三年，即西元420年，St. Jerome也過世了，至此白冷的拉丁修道生活畫下了一個句點。西元431年Melania the younger在橄欖山建立了女修院，有九十位修女。在Pionius死後，他在其墓旁建立了男修院。但當她西元489年死在橄欖山後，拉丁修院也隨之結束。

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