Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BETH'LEM-ITE, n.

1. An inhabitant of Bethlehem; a lunatic.
2. In Church history, the Bethlemites were a sort of monks introduced into England in the year 1257, who were habited like the Dominicans, except that they wore a star with five rays, in memory of the comet or star which appeared over Bethlehem at the nativity of our Savior. There is an order of Bethlemites also in Peru. – Encyc.