This is the entrance to the underground parts of the Franciscan Monastery, located in the southern wing of the church, the beginning of the tour of the catacombs. It begins with a re-creation of a chapel in Nazareth, a memorial to an important time in the life of the Virgin Mary, who would eventually become the Mother of Jesus.

Below the altar it says "Verbum Caro Hic Factum Est," which is Latin for "Here the Word Became Flesh." This "grotto" is a re-creation of the Grotto of the Annunciation, which is located in the Basilica of the Annunciation, in Nazareth, Israel. It represents the place where the Virgin Mary received word from an angel that she would be the mother of Jesus.

The Broken Pillar was supposedly due to vandals looking for treasure, which they believed was hidden inside the pillar. It was described by Henry Stebbing in his "A Christian in Palestine," in 1847, saying that the local monks provided multiple and unreliable explanations for how it was broken.