Christians on Friday celebrated the return to the Holy Land of a tiny wooden relic they believe was part of Jesus' manger nearly 1,400 years after it was sent to Rome as a gift to the pope.
The thumb-sized relic was unveiled to worshippers Friday at the Notre Dame church in Jerusalem for a day of celebrations and prayer.
On Saturday, it will be sent to its permanent home at the Franciscan Church of St. Catherine, next to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the West Bank holy site where tradition says Jesus was born.
Its arrival will coincide with Advent, a four-week period leading up to Christmas.
Christian tradition holds that Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem to register for the Roman census and found no room at the inn, forcing her to give birth to Jesus in a manger where animals were held.
The idea that the son of God was born in humble surroundings is central to Christian theology.
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A wooden structure that Christians believe was part of the manger was sent by St. Sophronius, the patriarch of Jerusalem, to Pope Theodore I in the 640s, around the time of the Muslim conquest of the Holy Land.
Yisca Harani, an Israeli expert on Christianity, said many relics were relocated from the Holy Land in the Middle Ages as Rome and other cities were establishing themselves as centers of Christian life and pilgrimage.
A relic from the manger would have been particularly useful for dispelling heresies holding that Jesus was more of a spiritual than a physical being
She said the return of such an important item "is definitely a statement saying the Vatican and the Holy Land are together."
"Today is like Christmas."