Relic of Holy Crib to be placed closer to the faithful

By Vatican News

A temporary exhibition of the relics of the Holy Crib is an opportunity for pilgrims and visitors “to contemplate up close a relic intimately linked with the very identity of Saint Mary Major – the Roman Basilica that, more than any other, has preserved the memory of the Nativity of Christ throughout the centuries.”

According to a press release from the Basilica, the relics of the manger in which Christ was laid at His birth will be moved from their place in the Confessio before the Papal Altar of the Basilica into a side chapel in the right nave, “allowing the faithful to approach the Sacred Cradle in an atmosphere of unique intimacy and quiet contemplation.”

The temporary move will allow the restoration of the historic niche and reliquary in which the relics are normally housed, which are “no longer adequate for ensuring optimal conservation conditions.” According to the statement, “The new case will be designed according to modern standards of stability, security, and microclimate control, while simultaneously integrating with the historic structure and the elaborate architectural design of the Confessio.”

Behind the Sacred Cradle, a new blue mosaic backdrop will be created, composed of vitreous enamels and golden tiles, intended to symbolically evoke the sky of the Nativity.

The Basilica of Christmas and the memory of the manger of Bethlehem

The relics today preserved in Santa Maria Maggiore consist of five thin sycamore wooden elements, traditionally identified as fragments of the manger in which, according to the Gospel story, Mary placed Jesus after his birth. An ancient tradition connects its presence in Rome to the devotion that arose around the places of the Nativity and the figure of Saint Jerome, who lived for a long time in Bethlehem between the 4th and 5th centuries.

The veneration of the manger contributed profoundly to defining the liturgical and devotional identity of the Roman basilica, so much so that Santa Maria Maggiore was already referred to in ancient times as Santa Maria ad Praesepe, “Santa Maria near the Nativity Scene.”

From Valadier to Vespignani: two centuries of art around the Holy Crib

In 1802 Giuseppe Valadier, one of the major protagonists of Neoclassicism in Rome, designed the extraordinary reliquary intended to house the sacred relics: a work conceived in the form of a cradle, a visual evocation of the mystery of the Nativity.

A few decades later, Blessed Pius IX gave the Sacred Cradle a new and solemn monumental setting. During his papacy, in a project that lasted from1861 to 1864, the Roman architect Virginio Vespignani created the large Confessio in front of the Papal Altar using an extraordinary repertoire of polychrome marbles – around seventy varieties, largely coming from the excavations then conducted in Rome and Ostia – creating one of the most significant nineteenth-century interventions inside the Basilica.

A journey of faith and art

“The choice of location also holds evocative iconographic significance: the relic will be placed in dialogue with Pompeo Batoni’s Annunciation, a magnificent work of 18th-century Roman painting,” the statement continues. “Thus, within the basilica, the angel’s announcement to Mary will be followed—in a symbolic sense—by the tangible memory of the Nativity: from the Ecce ancilla Domini to the manger in Bethlehem, from the Annunciation to the Incarnation.”

The press release notes that on Christmas Eve, 24 December, the Holy Crib will be solemnly transferred to the Papal Altar, in keeping with the tradition of the Basilica.

The relics will remain there throughout the whole of the Christmas Season, after which, on Epiphany, they will be returned to their historic place, where they will be placed in the new reliquary with the renewed mosaic sky.

The Basilica’s statement notes that the historic conservation intervention will be carried out under the superintendence of the Directorate of Museums and Cultural Heritage of the Governorate of the Vatican City State, and entrusted to Progetto Arte Poli of Verona.