Just as the faithful clung to religious iconography — whether true relic or icon — during pestilent periods in the Middle Ages, relics remain relevant to the hopeful in the modern era.
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — A tiny wooden relic that some Christians believe to be part of Jesus' manger arrived Saturday in its permanent home in the biblical city of Bethlehem 1,400 years after it was sent to Rome as a gift to the pope.