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"The Shepherd's Field"
Beit Sahour, Bethlehem
Beit Sahour, Bethlehem
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Fourth Day of my Holy Land Trip, Mount Zion, Jerusalem
My Holy Land Trip
"The Shepherd's Field"
Beit Sahour, Bethlehem
In front of Beit-Sahour, originally known as the Village of The Shepherd's Field:
Dome inside The Shepherd's Field Chapel:
Beautiful Dome inside The Shepherd's Field Chapel:
This is a painting of the angels announcing the Nativity. It is inside the Church of the Shepherds in Bethlehem, Israel. It is the location that the angels appeared to the shepherds to lead them to the birthplace of Jesus:
Altar inside The Shepherd's Field Chapel:
Altar inside The Shepherd's Field Chapel:
Outside The Shepherd's Field Chapel:
The Shepherd's Field Chapel:
The grotto outside The Shepherd's Field Chapel:
Caves where shepherds “kept watch over their flock” still abound in the area east of Bethlehem. Here, the Gospel of Luke tells us, an angel announced the birth of Jesus. The angel’s good news was not given to the noble or pious, but to workers with a low reputation. Jewish literature ranked “shepherd” as among the most despised occupations of the time — but Christ was to identify himself with this occupation when he called himself “the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11).
Inside the grotto next to The Shepherd's Field Chapel:
Outside The Shepherd's Field Chapel:
Outside The Shepherd's Field Chapel:
Outside The Shepherd's Field Chapel:
Outside The Shepherd's Field Chapel:
East of Bethlehem, about 2 km from the center, there is a village
called Beit Sahour, the house of vigilant, of lookouts. We can reach there by
walking following along Milk Grotto Street.
Already in St. Helen’s day there was a church here dedicated to
the Angels who had announced to the shepherds the Redeemer’s birth. After
various ups and clowns in the fast century a rectory and a school were built waiting
the time when a church could also be erected. Meanwhile the liturgy took place
first in a grotto called Mihwara, then provisionally in the rectory.
Finally in 1950 the church built by Arch. A. Barluzzi was
consecrated and dedicated to our Lady of Fatima and St. Theresa of Lisieux. The
inhabitants of the village, heirs of Boaz’ generosity cooperated with great
enthusiasm. The fine portico of the church has three pointed arches; the upper
part of the façade is crowned by a flight of slender little arches which run
also on the side walls.
The traditional place of the angel’s visit is the town of Beit Sahur.
Originally known as the Village of the Shepherds, it is now an eastern suburb
of Bethlehem.
The tradition connected with the Shepherds’ Field is complicated by the fact that archaeologists have
identified more than one possible site.
In front of Beit-Sahour, originally known as the Village of The Shepherd's Field:
Of the second monastery we have similarly parts of the apse and
walls of several rooms. Fr. Corbo thinks that many stones of the 4th century building,
re used in the apse of the 6th century Church, come from Constantine’s Nativity
Church.
The place where the monasteries stood is not the best one in this
area because it is not level. The fact that the second church was built exactly
over the previous one further confirms that a special remembrance was tied with
this site.
Beit-Sahour, originally known as the Village of The Shepherd's Field:
The 6th century monastery was destroyed in the 8th century by
Moslems who tried even to erase the Christian signs by chiseling off and
scraping off the stones on which they were engraved. Among the rooms of the
second monastery a few were identified as used for particular purposes:
porter’s lodge, bakery with a big basalt millstone, refectory, and oil presses,
cave cellar, stable. Also a canalization system and several cisterns were
brought to light.
Beit-Sahour, The Shepherd's Field chapel:
The present sanctuary was built in 1953 4 on a design by Arch. A.
Barluzzi. Both the laying of the foundation stone and the dedication took place
on Christmas Day.
The sanctuary stands on a large rock dominating the ruins. It
represents a bedouin camp: a polygon with 5 straight sides and 5 projecting
sides bent towards the Centre, shaped like tents. Light floods the inside
through the glass cement dome and calls to mind the very strong light which
appeared to the shepherds. The bronze high relief on the door lintel was
designed by sculptor D. Cambellotti who created also the portal, the four
bronze statues supporting the main altar in the middle of the chapel,
candlesticks and crosses. Arch. U. Noni frescoed the three apses and sculptor
A. Minghetti cared for the execution of the ten stucco angels of the dome.
Beit-Sahour, The Shepherd's Field chapel:
The inside is divided into a nave and two aisles by two rows of
four columns each. The column shafts of pale red stone of the country at first
sight look a little squat. To make them appear less massive the architect
resorted to a simple optical expedient: the various drums from base to capital
have decreasing height. The very narrow pointed arches create the illusion that
the inside is longer than it actually is. Capitals, massive yet not heavy, are
quite original.
Beit-Sahour, The Shepherd's Field:
Furthermore, at Siyar el Ghanam there are the remains of a guard
tower, now incorporated in the Franciscan hospice. After Rachel had died,
“Israel moved on and pitched his tend beyond Migdaleder” (Gen 35,21), beyond
the “tower of the flock”. The Targumin7 localized this tower east of Bethlehem
specifying that the Messiah would be announced there.
The Talmudic tradition pointed at the same region and the
Christian tradition, after the birth of our Lord, accepted and maintained the
localization. St. Jerome sees the tower at “almost one thousand (Roman) feet
from Bethlehem” and adds that in that place the Angels had announced to the
shepherds the birth of the Redeemer. What remains of the farming settlement and
guard tower explains very well an expression of Luke’s original Greek text.
According to the most qualified exegetes (among whom M. J.
Lagrange) the verb used by Luke does not mean that the shepherds were spending
the night in the open, rather than “they lived in the fields”.
This is a painting of the angels announcing the Nativity. It is inside the Church of the Shepherds in Bethlehem, Israel. It is the location that the angels appeared to the shepherds to lead them to the birthplace of Jesus:
The main altar is especially worth being mentioned. It is a real
jewel, a credit to Palestinian sculpture. In spite of its size it looks like an
ivory miniature rather than carved stone. The frontal and the altar upper part
are decorated with 15 panels representing various scen es from the Annunciation
to the arrival of the holy Family in Egypt.
At the same level as the tabernacle there are four little statues
(the Evangelists) while in the upper part the 12 Apostles surround the image of
Christ. Authors of this work were Yssa Zmeir of Bethlehem and Abdullah Haron of
Beit Sahour. Beit Sahour lies in the middle of the so called ‘Boaz’ fields’. In
the glorious night of the Nativity the shepherds kept watch in one of these
fields. “The angel said to them: ‘You have nothing to fear! I come to proclaim
good news to you – tidings of great joy to be shared by the whole people. This
day in David’s city a savior has been born to you, the Messiah and Lord” (Lk.
2,10 11).
Although the Gospel words do not exactly localize the place where
the Angels appeared, yet the ancient tradition has fixed it at Siyar el-Ghanam,
the field of the shepherds, not far from Beit Sahour.
The excavations carried out by Fr. Virgil Corbo
ofm in 1951 2 were more exhaustive than the previous ones (C. Guarmani, 1859)
and the ruins could be dated precisely. The traces of human life found in
caves, going back to Herodian and Roman times, and the remnants of very ancient
oil presses found under the foundations of two monasteries, demonstrate beyond
every doubt that the place was inhabited at the time when Jesus was born in
Bethlehem. Fr. Corbo gathered enough elements corroborating the hypothesis that
a small community lived here.
Caves where shepherds “kept watch over their flock” still abound in the area east of Bethlehem. Here, the Gospel of Luke tells us, an angel announced the birth of Jesus. The angel’s good news was not given to the noble or pious, but to workers with a low reputation. Jewish literature ranked “shepherd” as among the most despised occupations of the time — but Christ was to identify himself with this occupation when he called himself “the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11).
Inside the grotto next to The Shepherd's Field Chapel:
Excavations have retraced the existence of two
monasteries, one of the 4th 5th century, the other of the 6th. Century of the
first one there are the foundations of the church and those of several walls.
In the 6th century the church was demolished and rebuilt in the same place with
the apse slightly displaced towards the east.
A Christmas crib inside the grotto next to The Shepherd's Field Chapel:
Inside the grotto next to The Shepherd's Field Chapel:
Outside The Shepherd's Field Chapel:
Glória in excélsis Deo
et in terra pax homínibus bonae voluntátis.
Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to people of good will.
One of the caves where believed to be the shepherds stayed:
Outside The Shepherd's Field Chapel:
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