The Reliquary of the Manger, Church of São Roque, Lisbon

Abstract

The Reliquary of the Manger (Relicário do Presépio) in the Church of São Roque in Lisbon was created in the early seventeenth century to house supposed fragments of the crib in Bethlehem, given to the Jesuits in Lisbon by Pope Clement VIII. The gilded and silvered bronze reliquary was paid for in part by a donation of c. 1615 from Donna Maria Rolim de Moura, wife of Luís da Gama, a great-grandson of Vasco da Gama. The size of the donation—specifically, the coin involved--has been variously reported and this investigation argues for a correct value, as well as presenting its equivalence in modern currency. The argument is backed up by the discovery in Lisbon of an early seventeenth-century inventory which records the donation.