The Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome houses the treasured relic of the wood of the manger upon which Christ was laid on Christmas night. Known as “Bethlehem of the West,” the basilica has safeguarded the relic for centuries, drawing pilgrims from around the world to venerate it.
According to Monsignor John Abruzzese, a former canon of the basilica, the relic arrived in Rome in 650 during the papacy of Pope Martin I. St. Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, arranged its transfer to protect it from the Saracen invasion of the Holy Land in 636.
Msgr. Abruzzese explained that because the relic was so special, the patriarch entrusted it to the Pope for safekeeping, ensuring its preservation over the centuries.
The relic consists of five wooden beams displayed in a crystal and silver reliquary beneath the basilica’s main altar. Research conducted in 1893 by Father Giuseppe Lais of the Vatican Observatory revealed that the beams are made of sycamore wood. Sycamores are native to the Holy Land. Two of the beams would have formed an “X” to support the other three, which would have held a stone feeding trough made from Bethlehem’s limestone.
The reliquary, designed by Giuseppe Valadier in the 19th century, replaced a Renaissance urn stolen by Napoleon’s troops. A statue of the Christ Child on a pillow of hay, symbolizing His birth and the mystery of the Incarnation, rests on top of the reliquary.
People have venerated the manger since the papacy of Hadrian I (772–795), who built the first shrine for the relic beneath what is now the Sistine Chapel of St. Mary Major. This crypt was designed to resemble the Grotto of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Domenico Fontana later embellished the Sistine Chapel with statues of the Nativity, and Pope Pius IV restored the high altar, exposing the relic annually on Christmas Eve for the faithful.
Blessed Pope Pius IX, known for his devotion to the manger, commissioned the present crypt chapel, or Confession, beneath the main altar. This chapel features a statue of Pius IX kneeling in adoration of the relic. Monsignor Abruzzese explained that the statue points toward the altar to signify that “Jesus comes during the Mass… the mystery of Christmas is repeated; Jesus is born again, so to speak.”
To visit the reliquary, pilgrims must walk down a short set of stairs into the crypt chapel, where they can pause before the altar and pray.
The basilica also preserves the relic of the swaddling clothes mentioned in the Gospel of Luke (2:7) and displays the first statuary Nativity scene, commissioned after Saint Francis of Assisi’s live Nativity. These artifacts further enhance the basilica’s role as a center for Christmastide devotion.
In 2019, Pope Francis sent a fragment of the manger back to Bethlehem, where it was enshrined in St. Catherine Church. However, the primary relics remain in Rome, where Mass is celebrated at the manger’s altar during the Christmas novena. Pilgrims can venerate the relics daily and pray immediately in front of the wood of the manger in the grotto beneath the high altar.
Above the chapel of the manger at St. Mary Major are the words of the Gospel of Luke sung by the Church every Christmas night, “And they found the child laid in the manger.”
This article has been updated and originally appeared on CatholicVote on Dec. 24, 2024.
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