Bethlehem of Rome: St. Mary Major and the relics of the Holy Crib
By Paolo Ondarza
Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major ties its origins to a prodigious event: a snowfall in Rome in the middle of summer. Our Lady had revealed the miracle to Pope Liberius, 36th successor of Peter, in a dream.
The date was August 5, 359 when the Esquiline Hill turned white. A midsummer snowfall delineated the perimeter on which the Basilica was to be built and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Basilica of St. Mary Major became known as the Liberian Basilica for its founder, Pope Liberius.
On the afternoon of Monday, August 5, 2024, Pope Francis is set to pay a visit there to take part in Second Vespers on the anniversary of the dedication of the Papal Basilica and the Solemnity of Our Lady of the Snows. The celebration, presided over by the coadjutor Archpriest, Archbishop Rolandas Makrickas, begins at 5:30 p.m.
“The original temple was certainly not like this. It was a much more modest basilica, with a single nave”, explains Monsignor Ivan Ricupero, Master of Liturgical Celebrations of Saint Mary Major, to Vatican Media. “The rest was added throughout the centuries. In fact, the Basilica was rebuilt in 432 by Pope Sixtus III. The mosaics on the triumphal arch recall that historic moment.”
With Sixtus III, the Basilica took on the character of a “second Bethlehem”. An Oratory of the Nativity was built inside it. This reproduction of the grotto in which Jesus was born was built using stones from the Holy Land. Moreover, around the mid-7th-century, in 644 to be exact, the precious gift which the then Patriarch of Jerusalem, Saint Sofronio, gave to Pope Theodor I, a native of Jerusalem, arrived there. It was the relic of the Holy Crib or cunabulum.
In those times, numerous Persian incursions devastated many of the places tied to the memory of Christ’s life. The future saint, monk and theologian, a fervent defender of Orthodoxy, gave the Pontiff five pieces of sycamore from the manger of Bethlehem, together with the cloths in which tradition holds Jesus’ small body was wrapped. These relics are still preserved today inside the crystal reliquary decorated with silver bas-reliefs, made by Giuseppe Valadier in the early 1800s.
The reliquary is in the Confessio, which Pius IX requested be decorated with more than 70 different types of marble. A giant statue of Pius IX kneeling, with his eyes looking towards the mosaic in the apse depicting Our Lady’s coronation, was built in his honour.
It is therefore no coincidence that the Liberian Basilica, for centuries called Sancta Maria ad Praesepem, became a destination for Christian pilgrims during the Christmas festivities, as well as an object of great devotion and munificence on the part of pontiffs and sovereigns.
“Since then,” continues Msgr. Ricupero, “the Vigil Night Mass has been celebrated in this Basilica. This practice was then transmitted, and it became a liturgical tradition of the Catholic Church around the world.”
For centuries, on the night of December 24, the Pope would preside over Holy Mass, and until before the Covid-19 pandemic, the reliquary would be carried in procession along the naves while the Gloria was sung.
“Last year,” explains the priest, “we decided to again expose it outside its case, placing it up high, in such a way that it may be venerated on Christmas night and until the day of the Epiphany.”
With the assistance of a sophisticated system of pulleys and winches designed by the architect Domenico Fontana, the old Oratory of the Nativity, which was originally in the right nave of the Basilica, was moved below the imposing golden bronze tabernacle of the monumental chapel of the Most Blessed Sacrament, which Pope Sixtus V Peretti had requested be built out of respect to the norms of the Council of Trent.
Surrounded by frescoes dedicated to Christ’s ancestors and to the stories about the Virgin, the renaissance Pope is depicted on the left wall of the chapel in the funeral shrine dedicated to him. He is shown praying, with his eyes directed towards the medieval altar of the Oratory of the Nativity where, on the Christmas nights of 1517 and 1538, respectively, Saint Cajetan of Thiene had a mystical vision of the Infant Jesus, and Saint Ignatius of Loyola celebrated his first Mass.
“The founder of the Society of Jesus”, explains Msgr. Ricupero, “would have liked to celebrate it in Bethlehem, but he was unable to due to a series of events. He then decided to celebrate it here in Saint Mary Major, considered to be the ‘Bethlehem of Rome’.”
What is said to be the oldest sculpture of the Nativity scene in history was placed here. Made by Arnolfo Di Cambio, it was commissioned by the first Franciscan Pope, Niccolò IV, less than 70 years after Saint Francis’ living representation of the Nativity scene in Greccio.
At least five original marble statues from this unique masterpiece of medieval plastic art, also remembered by Vasari, survived: the figures of Saint Joseph, two standing magi, one kneeling in prayer, the heads of the ox and the donkey.
Added to these is Our Lady with Child sitting on a rock, which has larger dimensions, about one meter tall. Crediting Arnolfo for this last image, which some scholars say was heavily modified in the 1500s, raised controversy. Traces of pigment on the stone indicate that the original Nativity scene, whose exact number of statues is unknown, must have been coloured.
Like the shepherds called by the angel for the Saviour’s birth, in the Holy Year 2025, many pilgrims will visit the Liberian Basilica, the “Bethlehem of the West”.
Crossing the vast liturgical space, their gaze is drawn by the countless mosaics, paintings and sculptures of great value; by the precious relics of the Virgin’s mantle, the hay of the panniculus, the cloths that wrapped the Infant Jesus’ body. Lastly, pilgrims pause before the Salus Populi Romani, the ancient Roman icon which tradition attributes to Saint Luke, patron saint of artists, but which more recent studies have traced back to a period between the 9th and 11th centuries.
The image is very dear to the popes, noted Msgr. Ricupero, “and in particular to Francis, who comes here before and after every Apostolic Journey. The devotion is very popular among the Jesuits: few know that Matteo Ricci, when he began his mission in China, received a small copy of the icon of the Salus from the Pope which he took with him.”
Central to the Jubilee visit to Saint Mary Major is a stop for prayer at the foot of the major altar, on the relics of the Holy Crib, whose historical and devotional value was verified by recent scientific studies.
Pollen taken from inside the sycamore pieces was traced back to the geographic region of Bethlehem in Jesus’ time. A confirmation of what had been attested to for centuries, among others, by Saint Jerome, whose mortal remains were preserved precisely at Saint Mary Major.
“The samples,” recalled the Basilica’s master of liturgical celebrations, “were taken in 2018.” On that occasion, Pope Francis’ made the decision to donate a fragment of the venerated wooden relic to the Custody of the Holy Land.
The Pope will open the Holy Door of Saint Mary Major on January 1, 2025, Solemnity of Mary Most Holy Mother of God.
“Already since 1390,” concluded Msgr. Ricupero, “there have been attestations that there was a Holy Door here which the faithful could walk through to receive the gift of the indulgence. Visiting this Basilica tied to the Nativity is for pilgrims and tourists an opportunity to draw closer to the great mystery of the Incarnation.”
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