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But the city being crowded with strangers who had come for the enrolment, they could not obtain lodging in the inn, and were forced to seek shelter in a stable[1] outside the city. “And it came to pass that, when they were there, Mary brought forth her first-born Son, and wrapped Him up in swaddling clothes,
- ↑ A stable. When Mary and Joseph arrived at Bethlehem, the only public inn in the place was quite full; so they went to a cave or grotto outside the town, which in bad weather was used as a stable by shepherds, and which was therefore fitted with a manger. The emperor Constantine and his mother, St. Helena, built a splendid church, which still exists (Fig. 64), over the grotto in which our Lord was born. In the grotto of the Nativity (Fig. 65, p. 400) thirty-two lamps are always kept burning.
