SISTINE CHAPEL AND MANGER RELIQUEY

 

SISTINE CHAPEL PIC # 704

Commissioned by Pope Sixtus V by trusted architect, Domenico Fontana and finished in 1589. The many icons on the walls are of the ancestors of Christ and stories of the life of Christ and Mary.
The altar which holds the ancient Nativity built in the 13^th Century is in the center. It is beautiful with 4 life size gold leafed bronze angels supporting a church-like structure.
In it’s center is the stairway leading down to the Chapel of the Nativity where the relics of the Holy Crib are now kept.

 

 

CHAPEL OF THE NATIVITY

         This other chapel is underneath the altar of the Sistine Chapel and reached by two marble staircases. At the foot of this staircase is an enormous statue of Pio Nino – St. Pius IX depicted praying before the sacred relics of the Savior’s crib. Behind the statue is an altar – Pic #709 from 1864. In front of the statue is the Sacred Crib with relics – 5 small boards, blackened by the years in a precious urn of crystal and silver shaped like a crib, which contains pieces of ancient wood (sycamore and maple) which tradition holds to be part of the manger where the Baby Jesus was laid. The Ambassadress of Portugal donated the reliquary designed by G Valadier.

         On top of the urn is a golden child Jesus with arm upraised and facing the viewer. A similar object (the 5 boards) was venerated for a long period of time in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem – from testimony by Church father Origen and from St. Jerome around 404. Some professors say that St. Sofronio of Jerusalem sent the remains of the Crib to Rome to Pope Teordoro I in the 7^th century. This was done because of the conquest by Arabs. There is documentation that in 1350 a pilgrim in Rome could venerate the Sacred Crib at an altar and Ciborium at St. Mary Major.