Column 3

View of one of a portion of a restored columns in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.  In the upper portion note the image of a saint.

Most of the red limestone pillars, quarried near Bethlehem, served in the fourth century church.  From 1130, the Crusaders decorated the upper part of the pillars with painting of saints whose names appear in Latin and Greek.

---

Commentary from Murphy-O'Connor, Jerome. The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide From Earliest Times to 1700. Revised and expanded Fifth ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 236.