Carmen Álvarez Cuadrado
The cradle of the Christ Child is not in Bethlehem, but here in Rome, inside St. Mary Major Basilica. This is it. And yes, with all that gold and silver, it may not look real. But the relic is inside. Take a look.
These are wooden slats that, according to Christian tradition, were part of the manger where Jesus was laid after his birth.
More than 2,000 years have passed, so it is natural to ask: How has it survived? Why is it in Rome? And how did it get here?
The Gospel of Luke says that when Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem, there was “no room for them in the inn.” So they took shelter in a cave.
After Jesus was born, Mary wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger to protect him from the cold. But don't picture a modern crib. Those didn't exist. It was a wooden structure where straw or grain was placed for animals.
After Christ, the cave became a place of Christian devotion. In fact, early writers like St. Justin and Origin of Alexandria wrote that a well-known cave existed there, identified by local residents as the place where Jesus was born.
And one piece of evidence for its existence came under Emperor Hadrian in the second century. He tried to suppress the Christian devotion there by building a pagan grove, inadvertently preserving the site's exact location.
So, in the fourth century, once Christianity was legalized, there was no need to guess where Jesus was born. Constantine ordered the Basilica of the Nativity to be built over that cave.
As for how the relic reached Rome, tradition holds that in the seventh century, amid the Islamic invasion of the Holy Land, the patriarch of Jerusalem sent the wood to Rome so Pope Theodore I could protect it. Since then, it has been kept at St. Mary Major.
The reliquary seen today was made in the 19th century and is housed in the Chapel of the Confession. That area is about to undergo restoration. So the relic will be moved to one of the altars near the Sistine Chapel, inside St. Mary Major, where the faithful will be able to see it up close.
On December 24, the Holy Crib will be placed on the papal altar for the Christmas celebrations. After, it will return to its original, newly restored location.
