Nativity Synonyms

She assured Jerome that, in the church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, she beheld, with the eye of faith, the Christ-child wrapped in swaddling clothes (Ep. 108, 10).

These bells reminded Pierre that it was Sunday and the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin.

The Fast of the Nativity lasts for twenty-eight days before Christmas; that of the Apostles for a variable number of days from the Feast of the Ascension; and that of the Virgin for fifteen days before the Assumption.

The legendary tradition which even Philo accepts gives it a formal nativity, a royal patron and inspired authors.

How long before this the Nativity should be placed the Gospel does not enable us to say precisely, but as Herod's decree of extermination included all infants up to two years of age, and as a sojourn of the Holy Family in Egypt of unknown length intervened between the massacre and Herod's death, it is clear that it is at least possible, so far as the evidence of this Gospel goes, that the birth of Christ preceded Herod's death by as much as two or three years.