Not far from the Basilica and the Grotto of the Nativity, at the top of the hill, is the rupestrian sanctuary of the Milk Grotto, much venerated by the Christians of Bethlehem. Among the relics brought back to Europe from the sixth century onwards are pulverized or ground fragments of the rock. The oldest of them are conserved in the cathedral in Oviedo, Spain; the most recent, in the museum of Jerusalem’s Studium Biblicum Franciscanum. Compressed into little squares, they are stamped with the Marian monogram or an icon of the Mother of God. The relics come from this grotto, still venerated in Bethlehem, that has been served by the Franciscan Fathers since the beginning of the 14th century. Tradition holds that a few drops of milk fell from the breast of the Virgin Mary while she was nursing the Baby Jesus, and they changed the rock from the usual pink color of Bethlehem rock to white.
The powdered rock was mixed with water and drunk by mothers who were unable to nurse their babies and by women asking the Virgin for the gift of motherhood. A small convent and church were built in the grotto in 1871. In 1935 Bethlehem artisans decorated the façade, carving the stone in the same way they work mother-of-pearl.
Remains from the Iron Age have been identified near the grotto, as well as tombs from the Byzantine and medieval eras. The stone plaque decorated with a large sword that covers a tomb hewn into the rock dates to the latter period. The double burial chamber divided by stone plaques set into a mosaic pavement of intertwined circles forming spirals and decorated with geometric shapes, floral designs and animals, among which a fox, peacocks and two fish can be identified, dates to the Byzantine period (6th-7th century). In two of the circles of the second room, an artisan inscribed the date of one of the tombs in Arabic: “This tomb was executed the ninth day of the month of October”. The idea for a new chapel was born of the necessity of responding to the desire of the numerous pilgrim groups that visited Bethlehem during the Grand Jubilee Year 2000. It has also been the desire of the sanctuary’s guardian, Brother Lorenzo Bode, for years, and was encouraged by Don Jan Majernik, a pilgrim guide. The latter had even presented an official request to the Custody of the Holy Land, assuring that the Slovakian bishops encouraged the enterprise. A providential meeting between Father Giovanni Battistelli and Father Costantino Ruggeri resulted in the decision to carry out the idea as a way of meeting the need to find work for Bethlehem residents, exhausted by the Intifada. Thus began the long road to realization of the project and construction of the new chapel of the Mother of God, born of the imagination of Costantino Ruggeri and realized by architect Luigi Leoni, with the help and collaboration of Sister Chiara Rovati, and with Father Michele Piccirille as consultant.
The new chapel is connected to the rupestrian church of the Milk Grotto by a tunnel. It is intended to be, in the words of Father Costantino, “a testimony to the beauty and love of Mary.” He continues, “I created it while thinking of a simple flower accepting into the midst of its petals, as into a cradle, the Baby Jesus. I hope that all the faithful, upon entering the new church, can have a mystical experience there.” Technically speaking, the chapel was realized by Palestinian workers from Bethlehem. It is 300 square meters in size. The walls are reinforced concrete and the roof rests on an iron structure. The exterior envelope is in pink Bethlehem stone, very thick. The stained glass windows, covering a surface of 85 square meters, are of ancient glass, reblown and reset with led. The altar, ambo and throne sculptures are monoliths of local stone. The pews for the faithful were conceived by Father Costantino, as were the glasswork and the liturgical decoration, which were executed in Italy; they were produced by Bethlehem carpenters, thanks to financing by Slovakian Christians.
The connection to the rupestrian sanctuary enabled the installation of another chapel in the basement, reserved for permanent exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament, and other spaces for meetings and storage, over a floor space of 400 square meters. In the new chapel, a statue and an icon of the Virgin will remind pilgrims of the devotion of Slovakian Christians to the Mother of Jesus.
Once the chapel’s structure was completed, the primitive sanctuary, in large part hewn out of the white limestone of the Bethlehem mountain, three meters below street level, could be restored. Appropriate measures freed it of the incrustation of cement that had weighed it down for centuries. The sanctuary has regained its somber dignity as a place of recollection and prayer, much frequented by Bethlehem mothers. Mother-of-pearl ex-voto offerings, presented to the Virgin over the centuries by the city’s expert mother-of-pearl artisans, will be conserved. Palestinian mother-of-pearl work was born in Bethlehem, and has developed thanks to the presence of the Franciscans, who encouraged production of devotional objects in olive wood and mother-of-pearl, and remains at the service of pilgrims. A Franciscan architect, Father Bernardino Amico, who also guardian of the convent around the year 1500, encouraged Bethlehem’s artisans to make scale models of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher and the Basilica of the Nativity, which offer precious testimony to the two sanctuaries in the 17th and 18th century.
The new chapel project was born in 2002, during a period of extreme military tension. (On their arrival in March of that year, Father Costantino and Architect Leoni, accompanied by Father Pascal Ghezzi, Holy Land Commissioner for Lombardy, were “greeted” by heavy bombardment and destruction that brought the poor town, cut off from Jerusalem, to its knees. The project is a sign that peace is possible, a peace to which the population of Bethlehem also has a right after too many years of tension.
The new chapel will be inaugurated on December 31, 2006, at 3:00 p.m., on the eve of the January first liturgical Feast of the Mother of God, the day chosen by the Pope as the Day of Peace to remind the world and those who govern it of the peace brought by Jesus, son of Mary, born in the grotto in Bethlehem.
Michele Piccirillo, ofm
The powdered rock was mixed with water and drunk by mothers who were unable to nurse their babies and by women asking the Virgin for the gift of motherhood. A small convent and church were built in the grotto in 1871. In 1935 Bethlehem artisans decorated the façade, carving the stone in the same way they work mother-of-pearl.
Remains from the Iron Age have been identified near the grotto, as well as tombs from the Byzantine and medieval eras. The stone plaque decorated with a large sword that covers a tomb hewn into the rock dates to the latter period. The double burial chamber divided by stone plaques set into a mosaic pavement of intertwined circles forming spirals and decorated with geometric shapes, floral designs and animals, among which a fox, peacocks and two fish can be identified, dates to the Byzantine period (6th-7th century). In two of the circles of the second room, an artisan inscribed the date of one of the tombs in Arabic: “This tomb was executed the ninth day of the month of October”. The idea for a new chapel was born of the necessity of responding to the desire of the numerous pilgrim groups that visited Bethlehem during the Grand Jubilee Year 2000. It has also been the desire of the sanctuary’s guardian, Brother Lorenzo Bode, for years, and was encouraged by Don Jan Majernik, a pilgrim guide. The latter had even presented an official request to the Custody of the Holy Land, assuring that the Slovakian bishops encouraged the enterprise. A providential meeting between Father Giovanni Battistelli and Father Costantino Ruggeri resulted in the decision to carry out the idea as a way of meeting the need to find work for Bethlehem residents, exhausted by the Intifada. Thus began the long road to realization of the project and construction of the new chapel of the Mother of God, born of the imagination of Costantino Ruggeri and realized by architect Luigi Leoni, with the help and collaboration of Sister Chiara Rovati, and with Father Michele Piccirille as consultant.
The new chapel is connected to the rupestrian church of the Milk Grotto by a tunnel. It is intended to be, in the words of Father Costantino, “a testimony to the beauty and love of Mary.” He continues, “I created it while thinking of a simple flower accepting into the midst of its petals, as into a cradle, the Baby Jesus. I hope that all the faithful, upon entering the new church, can have a mystical experience there.” Technically speaking, the chapel was realized by Palestinian workers from Bethlehem. It is 300 square meters in size. The walls are reinforced concrete and the roof rests on an iron structure. The exterior envelope is in pink Bethlehem stone, very thick. The stained glass windows, covering a surface of 85 square meters, are of ancient glass, reblown and reset with led. The altar, ambo and throne sculptures are monoliths of local stone. The pews for the faithful were conceived by Father Costantino, as were the glasswork and the liturgical decoration, which were executed in Italy; they were produced by Bethlehem carpenters, thanks to financing by Slovakian Christians.
The connection to the rupestrian sanctuary enabled the installation of another chapel in the basement, reserved for permanent exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament, and other spaces for meetings and storage, over a floor space of 400 square meters. In the new chapel, a statue and an icon of the Virgin will remind pilgrims of the devotion of Slovakian Christians to the Mother of Jesus.
Once the chapel’s structure was completed, the primitive sanctuary, in large part hewn out of the white limestone of the Bethlehem mountain, three meters below street level, could be restored. Appropriate measures freed it of the incrustation of cement that had weighed it down for centuries. The sanctuary has regained its somber dignity as a place of recollection and prayer, much frequented by Bethlehem mothers. Mother-of-pearl ex-voto offerings, presented to the Virgin over the centuries by the city’s expert mother-of-pearl artisans, will be conserved. Palestinian mother-of-pearl work was born in Bethlehem, and has developed thanks to the presence of the Franciscans, who encouraged production of devotional objects in olive wood and mother-of-pearl, and remains at the service of pilgrims. A Franciscan architect, Father Bernardino Amico, who also guardian of the convent around the year 1500, encouraged Bethlehem’s artisans to make scale models of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher and the Basilica of the Nativity, which offer precious testimony to the two sanctuaries in the 17th and 18th century.
The new chapel project was born in 2002, during a period of extreme military tension. (On their arrival in March of that year, Father Costantino and Architect Leoni, accompanied by Father Pascal Ghezzi, Holy Land Commissioner for Lombardy, were “greeted” by heavy bombardment and destruction that brought the poor town, cut off from Jerusalem, to its knees. The project is a sign that peace is possible, a peace to which the population of Bethlehem also has a right after too many years of tension.
The new chapel will be inaugurated on December 31, 2006, at 3:00 p.m., on the eve of the January first liturgical Feast of the Mother of God, the day chosen by the Pope as the Day of Peace to remind the world and those who govern it of the peace brought by Jesus, son of Mary, born in the grotto in Bethlehem.
Michele Piccirillo, ofm