* 2002 – Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated.

Bethlehem's chief economic sector is tourism which peaks during the Christmas season when Christian pilgrims throng to the Church of the Nativity.

During the Samaritan revolt of 529, Bethlehem was sacked and its walls and the Church of the Nativity destroyed, but they were rebuilt on the orders of the Emperor Justinian I.

In 637, shortly after Jerusalem was captured by the Muslim armies, ' Umar ibn al-Khattāb, the second Caliph, promised that the Church of the Nativity would be preserved for Christian use.

" In 1009, during the reign of the sixth Fatimid Caliph, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, the Church of the Nativity was ordered to be demolished, but was spared by local Muslims, because they had been permitted to worship in the structure's southern transept.

In 1099, Bethlehem was captured by the Crusaders, who fortified it and built a new monastery and cloister on the north side of the Church of the Nativity.

During the operation, the IDF besieged the Church of the Nativity, where about 200 Palestinian militants sought refuge in the Church.

Nativity scene at the Christ the King Church in Sanok

Socrates Scholasticus ( born c. 380 ), in his Ecclesiastical History, gives a full description of the discovery ( that was repeated later by Sozomen and by Theodoret ) which emphasizes the role played in the excavations and construction by Helena ; just as the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem ( also founded by Constantine and Helena ) commemorated the birth of Jesus, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre would commemorate his death and resurrection.

The Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches celebrate the feast day of the " Holy Righteous Prophet and King David " on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers ( two Sundays before the Great Feast of the Nativity of the Lord ), when he is commemorated together with other ancestors of Jesus.

The Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception ( when Mary was conceived free from original sin ) on 8 December, exactly nine months before celebrating the Nativity of Mary.

* 2002 – The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected terrorists among them deported to several different countries.

The Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar begins on 1 September – proceeding annually from the Nativity of the Theotokos to the celebration of Jesus ' birth in the winter ( Christmas ), through his death and resurrection in the spring ( Pascha / Easter ), to his Ascension and the Assumption of his mother ( Dormition of the Theotokos / Virgin Mary ) in the summer.

** Nativity of the Theotokos ( Orthodox Church )

** Nativity of Mary ( Roman Catholic Church ), ( Anglo-Catholicism )

With all the greatest shrines in the Christian world to choose from, it seemed that when the local Arab Christians had a problem – an illness, or something more complicated: a husband detained in an Israeli prison camp, for example – they preferred to seek the intercession of St George in his grubby little shrine at Beit Jala rather than praying at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem or the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

* 1100: On December 25, Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned as the first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

* The Church of the Nativity is built in Bethlehem.

* April 2 – Israeli forces besiege the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, when militants take shelter there.

* May 9 – A 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem ends, when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected militants among them deported to several different countries.

* The Samaritans revolt and are defeated ; the Church of the Nativity is burnt down during the uprising.

* The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, is rebuilt until 565.

In the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, a Palestinian gunmen was shot dead by Israeli snipers.

The Chapel of the Tablet at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum allegedly houses the original Ark of the Covenant.

The object is currently kept under guard in a treasury near the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion and is used occasionally in ritual processions.

* The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Our Heritage: A Brief History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints ( LDS Church, 1996 ).

File: Heilige Jungfrau Maria von Zeituon Kirche. JPG | Our Lady of Zeitoun Church, Vienna, Austria

File: Heilige Jungfrau Maria von Zeituon Kirche2. JPG | Our Lady of Zeitoun Church, Vienna, Austria

File: Heilige Jungfrau Maria von Zeituon Kirche4. JPG | Our Lady of Zeitoun Church, Vienna, Austria

* Feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes ( Roman Catholic Church ), and its related observances:

Mary is venerated as the Mother of God, Queen of Heaven, Mother of the Church, Our Lady, Star of the Sea, and other lofty titles.

The glorification of Father Herman was performed on August 9, 1970, at Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Kodiak, Alaska by the OCA with parallel services at the Synodal Cathedral of Our Lady, Joy of all who Sorrow in San Francisco by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia ( ROCOR ).

For the Roman Catholic Church the dogma of the Immaculate Conception gained additional significance from the reputed apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes in 1858.

The Hawaii Catholic Church and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace are established as a result.

* 1579 – Our Lady of Kazan, a holy icon of the Russian Orthodox Church, is discovered underground in the city of Kazan, Tatarstan.

* Feast of Our Lady of Peace ( Roman Catholic Church ), and its related observances:

** Our Lady of Prompt Succor ( Roman Catholic Church )

In a Not the Nine O ' Clock News sketch, a bishop who has made a scandalous film called The Life of Christ is hauled over the coals by a representative of the " Church of Python ", claiming that the film is an attack on " Our Lord, John Cleese " and on the members of Python, who, in the sketch, are the objects of Britain's true religious faith.

* May 13 is when the Catholic Church honors the first apparition of Our Lady of Fatima to the three children of Fatima, Portugal – May 13, 1917.

To give two examples, the marble statue of Cristo della Minerva ( church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome ) was covered by added drapery, as it remains today, and the statue of the naked child Jesus in Madonna of Bruges ( The Church of Our Lady in Bruges, Belgium ) remained covered for several decades.

* The Church of Our Lady of the Fright marks the spot where Mary is said to have seen Jesus being taken to a cliff by the congregation of the synagogue

” Our affliction moves us to write to you once again, trusting that you are a loving son of St. Peter and of us, and that, from respect for him, you will come and defend the Church of God and His peculiar people, who are now unable to endure the persecution and oppression of the Lombards.

Richard's naked body was then exposed, possibly in the collegiate foundation of the Annunciation of Our Lady, before being buried at Greyfriars Church, Leicester.

** Our Lady of Walsingham ( Church of England )

Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Saint John

* " The Church believes that by His cross Christ, Our Peace, reconciled Jews and Gentiles, making both one in Himself ".