A tiny wooden relic which some believe to come from Christ’s manger has arrived in Bethlehem ahead of Christmas.
The relic was first sent to the Vatican 1,400 years ago as a gift to the Pope.
It is now sheathed in an ornate case and was greeted by crowds in the West Bank ahead of Advent, which will begin on Sunday 1 December and end on Christmas Eve.
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It is believed that the Patriarch of Jerusalem, St Sophronius, donated the relic to Pope Theodore in the 7th Century.
A religious delegation brought the relic to the Franciscan Church of St Catherine, next to the Church of the Nativity – a holy site for Christians in the West Bank where tradition says Jesus was born.
Christians make up a small minority of Palestinians and Bethlehem is one of the only cities in the West Bank and Gaza where Christmas is celebrated.
However, Pope Francis instead sent a thumb-sized wooden piece of it which would stay permanently in Bethlehem.
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, Brother Patton described the return of the piece as a moment of “great joy”.
