The Holy Crib
“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger” (Luke 2:7).
Santa Maria Maggiore, the greatest church of Our Lady in Rome, was rebuilt by Pope Sixtus III after the Council of Ephesus proclaimed Mary Mother of God in 431. Early on it had a chapel reproducing the cave of Bethlehem, and it came to be called Sancta Maria ad Praesepe, Saint Mary at the Manger. Since the seventh century the Church has celebrated the second Mass of Christmas here.
The relic of the Holy Crib consists of five thin boards of sycamore wood, venerated as parts of the manger in which the infant Christ was laid. Since 1802 they have been kept in a reliquary of silver and crystal designed by Giuseppe Valadier, crowned by a figure of the Christ Child. It stands in the confessio, below the high altar, where Pope Pius IX is shown kneeling in prayer.
In 2019 Pope Francis sent a small fragment of the relic back to Bethlehem, to the Franciscan friars who keep the Church of the Nativity. Tradition holds that Saint Jerome, who spent his last decades beside the cave of Bethlehem, lies buried in this basilica too.
- Where
- Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (the confessio beneath the high altar), Rome, Italy
- When to see it
- On view daily in the confessio below the high altar. It is honoured especially at Christmas.
- Map
- Find it on OpenStreetMap
- Read about
- The Blessed Virgin Mary