Devout (and curious) visitors to Rome over the Christmas holidays will certainly want to make a stop at the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore on the Esquiline Hill, as the massive 5th century church is home to Rome’s most treasured holiday relic - boards that comprised part of the manger in which the Baby Jesus was laid after his birth in Bethlehem.
Called the “cunambulum” or “sacra culla,” the relic comprises five long and narrow pieces of sycamore wood that are said to have been brought to Rome under the reign of Pope Theodore, between 640 and 649 AD. (The origins of the boards are uncertain. Some suggest that they were discovered in the Holy Land by Saint Helen, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, and thereby made the trip to Rome in the 4th century AD.)
Those truly devoted to the relic attend Midnight Mass at Christmas, an extraordinary ritual in which the relics and their elaborate reliquary (designed by Giuseppe Valadier) are unveiled. Usually, the relic is then exposed for veneration until Epiphany, 6 January, with a consecrated host placed in the crib to commemorate the laying of the body of the Christ Child in the Manger.
This year that won’t be happening. Italian newspapers are awash with the news that the Sacra Culla or Holy Manger is crumbling and needs immediate attention in order to be preserved. Thus, this year, the boards will not be exposed for veneration over the holidays, but rather will remain in their traditional place in order to prevent them from suffering damage that might be incurred if they were to be subject to movement or sudden changes in temperature or light. And, after the holidays a scientific committee will be appointed to oversee the work necessary to insure their preservation.
Because the Sacra Culla could not be part of the usual Christmas festivities at Santa Maria Maggiore, this year another precious relic kept at the church and rarely exposed to the public was celebrated. The panniculum, a 15 x 20 cm piece of cloth said to have been part of the clothes in which the Virgin Mary wrapped the Baby Jesus after his birth, was honored in the midnight mass instead.
Photos: The reliquary of the Sacra Culla by Giuseppe Valadier (above and below, left) and the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore (below, right) in which these relics are kept.
To read about the miraculous snow that fell on the site of Santa Maria Maggiore in the 4th century AD, click here.
