QUICK FACTS
Name: Holy Crib
What it is: Five pieces of sycamore wood
Where it is from: Jerusalem
When it was made: Circa 4 to 6 B.C.
In the 640s, Sophronius, the patriarch of Jerusalem, sent several unassuming wooden slats to Rome for safekeeping after the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem. Sophronius asked Pope Theodore I to protect the pieces of wood, which he said were the remains of the Holy Crib — Jesus' manger.
