Each Christmas season, thousands of people from around the world travel to Bethlehem in the Holy Land, drawn by the desire to stand where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born. They come seeking a deeper connection to the story of a baby laid in a manger.
But for many believers, you don’t have to travel halfway around the world to encounter that history.
Tucked into the rolling farmland of western Ohio, the farming community of Maria Stein is home to a church that safeguards pieces of biblical history — relics that span from Christ’s birth to His crucifixion, preserved quietly among fields, livestock and rural life.
Beyond the Tannenbaum, the bows and wrapping paper, the gift exchanges, parties and baked treats lies what Christians call the reason for the season. A baby born in a stable surrounded by animals and placed in a manger.
Pieces of that manger — carried across centuries and thousands of miles — have found their way here.
How do such important artifacts end up in the middle of farm country? That’s a good question and one that draws quite the story.
A Journey Rooted in Faith and Farming
The story begins not in Ohio, but in Rome.
In the early 1800s, the Catholic Bishop of Cincinnati petitioned the Vatican to send German-speaking clergy to the American Midwest. Immigration was rising, and German-speaking Catholics were settling across Ohio farmland, looking for spiritual leadership and community.
In 1843, Father Francis De Sales Brunner arrived in Ohio. Soon after, three Sisters of the Precious Blood followed. By 1846, a convent was built in Maria Stein, and their ministry began to take hold.
“It was a self-sustaining property,” explains Caleb Gaier, ministry coordinator. “They were out in the fields. They were taking care of farm animals. Besides sustaining the needs for themselves, they were looking to assist the community too. There was a lot of teaching.”
At the same time, Europe was being torn apart by unrest and war. Churches were being closed, ransacked — or worse. Sacred objects that had been venerated for centuries were suddenly at risk.
In order to protect their precious treasures, or relics, as they’re called, many were sent to the U.S.
“They wanted to protect them, to keep their purpose of helping people grow in their prayer,” Gaier says. “They’d send them away with those whom they could trust and help them to serve their purpose — like Father Brunner.”
Relics With Rules — and Purpose
Official relics don’t travel lightly. Each one comes with documentation and strict rules, vouching for authenticity and outlining how to care for the relic.
“These relics are a connection to these past men and women who’ve lived throughout history and have given their life to the Lord, Gaier says.
Inside the small chapel in Maria Stein are more than 1,200 relics, carefully displayed and preserved. Among them are ornately decorated reliquaries containing what believers hold as fragments of Jesus’ manger.
“If we look above, on the left-hand side of the main altar, at the top window in that center panel on the stand — kind of with the crystals going down from it — that reliquary holds a piece of the manger,” Gaier says.
Nearby are ashes believed to be from the bones of the Three Wise Men.
“Those would have come from the cathedral in Cologne, Germany,” he notes.
The collection also includes relics associated with the massacre of innocent children ordered by King Herod.
“He had all the children, I believe, two and under killed,” Gaier says. “What’s more precious than a child? And believing they are also in heaven.”
At the center of the shrine, splinters believed to be from the old rugged cross are flanked by angels — connecting Christ’s birth in the manger to His death on the cross.
A Place to Pause
For generations, pilgrims traveled to Maria Stein, filling the chapel with long lines and quiet prayer. While the crowds are smaller today, the mission remains unchanged.
“Sometimes it’s easy to get distracted by other tasks throughout the day,” Gaier says. “But when you go back and have a moment of silence — just sitting in the presence of some of the Lord’s relics and the relics of the saints — the shock of it comes back.”
In the busyness of the Christmas season, Maria Stein offers something rare: stillness. A place where pieces of the Christmas story stand quietly, telling their tale not from marble halls or distant lands — but from frozen fields and farm country in western Ohio.
