Bethlehem: Church of St. Catherine—Statue
Bethlehem. The statue of St. Jerome looking up heavenward in awe, with a skull at his feet representing the scholar, the sage and perhaps also his asceticism. He stands on a pedestal in front of the Church of St. Catherine in the Crusader cloister that was reconstructed in the late 40's. The Franciscan church, on the northern side of the Church of the Nativity, was built in 1882 over the remains of a 12th century Crusader church. In the church grotto is the cell of St. Jerome, where he lived for 35 years from 385 to 420 A.D. and translated the Old and New Testament into Latin, the famous Vulgate translation.
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