Catholic News Service reported on December 28, 2007 that the fragile relics regarded as the infant Jesus' crib from a Bethlehem grotto are quickly degrading. This year, Rome's Basilica of St. Mary Major did not remove them from a chapel crypt beneath the church's main altar and display them above on Christmas Day, an annual event.
The crib's five wooden boards from a sycamore tree reside within an elaborate 19th-century cradle-shaped reliquary made of silver and glass. Its contents arrived in Rome from Palestine after the election of Pope Theodore I (r. 642-49).
A scholarly commission will be established this year to determine restoration methods for both the relics and their container. Woodworms or other parasites are possible causes for what appears to be dust particles visible within the reliquary. All decisions regarding treatment must be approved by the Vatican.
