The Shepherds' Field Chapel (Arabic: كنيسة حقل الرعاة; Hebrew: כנסיית שדה הרועים)[citation needed], or the Sanctuary of Gloria in excelsis Deo,[1] is a Roman Catholic religious building in Beit Sahour, southeast of Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine.

[8] The French official responsible for the excavations claimed to have found the three “shepherds’ tombs” mentioned by a pilgrim who visited Beit Sahour around the year 680.

[citation needed] Franciscan archaeologist Virgilio Canio Corbo excavated the site and found caves with evidence of human habitation during the Herodian and later Roman period, as well as ancient oil presses.

[9] Corbo used his findings as arguments in favour of the hypothesis that a small community inhabited the site at the time of Jesus' birth.

[3] Over the Roman-period remnants, a Byzantine monastery was built at the end of the 4th century, which went through a second, rebuilding and expansion phase in the 6th.