The Earliest Crib

The scene with the crib took form first in Bethlehem, and then in Rome, and it has been said that there existed an ancient custom of placing figures in the manger.

The Christmas Crib by Nesta De Robeck (1956)

Ever since the Incarnate Son of God was born in the cave of Bethlehem Christians of each century and country have wanted to represent the scene. We must, therefore, be prepared to find a great deal of variety in their representations. A Crib may be very simple with all attention focused on the central figures; or it may be very elaborate, and that too is justified because the whole world has to be gathered round the manger.

Before deciding how to make our own Crib we want to see what other people have done, and our first step is to turn to Bethlehem where Crib history starts in that grotto and manger which are spoken of in the Synoptic and Apocryphal Gospels, by St. Justin Martyr, St. Epiphanius, and Origen who says that he “saw the grotto and in it the manger where Christ was swaddled.” The Emperor Hadrian was so determined to smother the Christian tradition that he ordered a wood to be planted and a sanctuary to Adonis to be built over the place of the Nativity, and this profanation lasted until A.D. 326 when the basilica of the Nativity was begun by St. Helena and Constantine.

In his vivid letters St. Jerome describes Bethlehem and how he and his companions entered into the cave and adored “the place where the ox had known his Master and the ass the cradle of the Lord.” However, he acknowledges one great disappointment: “if only I might have seen the Crib of clay in which the Saviour lay! Under pretext of honour we have substituted one of silver.” Devotion has never been more cruelly misdirected! Perhaps some of the dust of the original manger mingled with the earth which was carried away by innumerable pilgrims who, according to St. Jerome and St. Augustine, journeyed to Bethlehem from every country.

Among these pilgrims Etheria, who was also an excellent sightseer, expatiates on the wonders of the churches of Golgotha and Bethlehem and on the services in which she took part. Other pilgrims, notably Anthony of Piacenza, Adamanno, Arculfo, and the Venerable Bede, speak of the Grotto as it was in the late seventh or early eighth century, its walls covered with marble and mosaic, and about this time the church was saved by a curious coincidence. During the Persian invasion the enemy noticed the Magi dressed in Phrygian cloaks and caps carved on the facade, and they took them for worshippers of Mithras bringing gifts to his altar. This mistake saved the church, but either the greed of the Persians or of warring Christian sects must have been at work for the silver Crib known to St. Jerome disappeared. But the grotto chapel of Bethlehem remains, one of the holiest places of our earth, with its silver star set in the pavement and the inscription: “Hic de Maria Vergine Jesus Christus natus est.”– “Here Jesus Christ was born of the virgin Mary.”

From Bethlehem we turn to Rome where the cult of the “Praesepe” began in the Basilica now known as Santa Maria Maggiore, but whose original title was Sancta Maria ad Praesepe. Legend records that the site of the church was miraculously indicated on August 5, 352, when dwellers on the Esquiline were surprised to see part of the hill covered with snow. It was revealed to a Roman patrician and his wife that the Blessed Virgin desired a church to be built on this spot, and when it was discovered that Pope Liberius had had the same dream the church was immediately begun. Little trace, however, remains of the Liberian basilica; work on the present church was chiefly carried out under Pope Sixtus III in the middle of the fifth century. The church was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin in honour of the title “Mother of God” which had been decreed by the Council of Ephesus, and the great arch of the nave is decorated with scenes in mosaic referring directly to the maternity of our Lady. Only the Nativity is missing, an incomprehensible omission had there not existed a separate chapel commonly called the Domus Sanctae Dei Genetricis–the House of the Holy Mother of God. Tradition says that it was a crypt, probably built with stones from Bethlehem and copied from the original Grotto. Its chief treasure was a picture of our Lady and the holy Child, said to have been painted by the evangelist St. Luke. This wonder-working picture, which came to be known as the Salus Populi Romani, is the one crowned by Pope Pius XII in the Marian Year of 1954 and is still revered in Santa Maria Maggiore.

Gradually the “Domus” came to be known as the “Praesepe” (crib, manger), and similar chapels were erected in other churches; moreover, in the seventh century, the name “Praesepe” acquired new significance for it was then that the famous relics said to have been parts of the manger were transferred to Rome. It is impossible to be certain what the six small boards really were: we do know that St. Jerome and his friends in Bethlehem collected numerous relics, some of which passed to Constantinople and gradually found their way to the West. During the siege of Jerusalem Bethlehem was in great danger and St. Sophronius the Patriarch is thought to have sent the relics to Rome for safekeeping in the sanctuary of Sancta Maria ad Praesepe.

The first historical mention of the relics of the manger occurs in the eleventh century, but long before the Middle Ages the Praesepe chapel was being lavishly decorated with gold, silver, precious stones, and a wealth of costly ornaments. At Christmas the picture of our Lady was exposed upon the altar, and here the Pope celebrated the first Mass of the Nativity, the ceremonies continued throughout the night and the centre of the Roman Christmas was the Praesepe chapel. There is no doubt that the cult of the Crib took form first in Bethlehem, and then in Rome, and it has been said that there existed an ancient custom of placing figures in the manger. However that may be, it is evident from early Christian writings that the imagination of the faithful saw them there: let us try to recapture something of that imagination.

Read The Christmas Crib, available on EWTN’s website


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