Fragment of Jesus' manger returns to Bethlehem

Catholic custodian of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity thanks Pope Francis for right to safeguard holy relic which brings "great honour to believers and pilgrims in the area".

BETHLEHEM - A fragment of wood reputed to be from the manger where Jesus was laid after his humble birth arrived in Bethlehem from the Vatican on Saturday, kicking off Christmas season at the town revered as the place of Jesus' birth.

The small wood piece, about a centimetre wide by 2.5 centimetres long, was once kept in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. It was handed over earlier this week to the custodian of the Bethlehem church, who said it brought "great honour to believers and pilgrims in the area".

The provenance of ancient relics is often questionable. Still, they are revered by the Christian faithful, among them the coachloads of pilgrims who squeeze through a narrow sandstone entrance in the Church of the Nativity to visit the birth grotto that is its centrepiece.

According to the Custos of the Holy Land for the Catholic church, Francesco Patton, the relic dates back more than 2,000 years and was sent to the Vatican in the 7th century.

"We are excited and thank the pope, the holy father, Francis, for the gift and the right to safeguard the holy relic," Patton said in a statement.

Patton said that the seventh-century Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Sophronius, had sent the relic to Rome in around 640 as a gift to Pope Theodore I.

Now the relic is to be installed "for ever" in Bethlehem, he said.

"We venerate the relic because (it) reminds us of the mystery of incarnation, to the fact that the son of God was born of Mary in Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago," Patton said.

Bethlehem has planned celebrations stretching until Christmas for the homecoming.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas had asked Pope Francis to repatriate the crib fragment during his visit to the Vatican for Middle East peace talks in December 2018, said Palestinian envoy to the Holy See, Issa Kassissieh.

Encased in a silver-coloured ornamental table-top stand, the relic was unveiled to the public on Friday at the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center, before it was taken to Bethlehem on Saturday.

A procession of marching bands greeted the relic as it arrived in Bethlehem. It was placed in Saint Catherine's Church, at the Church of the Nativity compound in Manger Square.

"We are proud that part of the manger is back in Bethlehem because we feel that the soul of God is with us more than before," said Chris Gacaman, 53, a Bethlehem homemaker, as she stood outside the church.

Others were a little let down.

"It's a small piece, we thought it would be a bigger piece," said Sandy Shahin Hijazeen, 32. "When we heard that the manger is coming back we thought it would be the whole manger, but then we saw it."

Bethlehem, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, is usually particularly busy ahead of Christmas on Dec. 25, with tourists and pilgrims flocking to the Biblical city. Christians make up around 1% of the Palestinian population in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.