Many might think that the holy cradle of the Child Jesus is in Bethlehem, but it is in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.

In this basilica is kept a relic that has been the object of devotion for several centuries. It is the remains of the cunabulum, the “sacred cradle” or manger in which, according to the Gospels, the Child Jesus was placed at birth.

In 432 Pope Sixtus III decided to build inside the primitive Basilica of St. Mary Major a “grotto of the Nativity” similar to the one in Bethlehem. The church then took the name of Santa Maria adpraesepem, which in Latin means “manger”.

All this was the object of a popular devotion that motivated many of the faithful, returning from pilgrimages to the Holy Land, to bring as gifts what were considered the wooden fragments of the famous manger of the Child Jesus, and which are currently preserved in a reliquary with the name of the sacred cradle (cunabulum).

In Santa Maria Maggiore is also preserved another relic related to the crib: the panniculum, which is a small piece of cloth the size of a hand and which is kept in a case donated by Pius IX. According to tradition, it is a strip of the cloth with which Mary wrapped the baby Jesus.

Translated and adopted by Mercedes De La Torre on December 24, 2020. Originally published in ACI Stampa.