Come to the Stable

Come to the Stable is a 1949 American film which tells the true story of the Abbey of Regina Laudis and the two French nuns who come to a small New England town and involved the townsfolk in helping them to build a childrens hospital. It stars Loretta Young, Celeste Holm, Hugh Marlowe, Elsa Lanchester, Thomas Gomez, Dooley Wilson and Regis Toomey.

One winters night, two French nuns, Sister Margaret and Sister Scholastica, come to the small New England town of Bethlehem most likely modeled after Bethlehem, Connecticut given the Abbey of Regina Laudis in that real town and the proximity to New York City, where they meet Amelia Potts, a painter of religious pictures. The Sisters announce that they have come to build a hospital there, and Chicagoborn Sister Margaret explains that during the war she was in charge of a childrens hospital in Normandy when it became a potential target during a military campaign. As many of the children could not be evacuated, Sister Margaret made a personal plea to an American general not to shell the hospital, which the Germans were using as an observation post. The hospital was spared but at the cost of American lives, and Sister Margaret made a promise to God that, in gratitude for saving the children, she would return to America to build a childrens hospital.When Miss Potts is puzzled as to why they chose Bethlehem, and Sister Margaret tells her that they had received a postcard with a reproduction of a nativity scene painted by Miss Potts, entitled Come to the Stable, with information about the Bethlehem area. The Sisters then decide that a local hill depicted in another of Miss Pottss paintings would be a good site for the hospital. ........

Source: Wikipedia