An altar is erected opposite, on the place where the manger stood in which the shepherds found our Lord.

The manger itself is deposited in the basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, in Rome.
This altar belongs to the Roman Catholics.

A little door, quite in the background of the grotto, leads to a subterranean passage communicating with the convent and the Catholic chapel.

In this passage another altar has been erected to the memory of the innocents slaughtered and buried here.

Proceeding along the passage we come upon the grave of St.Paula and her daughter Eustachia on one side, and that of St.Hieronymus on the other.