1948
At Christmas, when cribs abound around the world, we share with you some of those most special to the Medical Mission Sisters.
Let’s go back to the year 1948, when this article appeared in the Medical Missionary magazine:
“Every year when the days grow short and the nights are long, we celebrate the mystery of the Nativity of Christ. And each year as we grow older, we approach this mystery from a different standpoint. The actualities during 365 days may change aspect, but two essentials remain when we meditate on this mystery. The spotlight falls always on the Child in the Crib, and we have to become children, if we wish to understand this mystery.
It was a very particular crib which captivated my mind on December 25, 1947. This crib, which belongs to the Medical Mission Sisters, is a masterpiece of art and devotion. It came from the Tyrol, Mother Dengel’s native country. Carved by a young disabled artist, who died at the premature age of 25, as a son of St. Francis, the great lover of the crib, it is a prayer translated into wood.
There is the Virgin-Mother and the Infant, the Cause of Our Joy, here are the Angels who bring glad tidings to a world in darkness. The shepherds in the fields were probably modelled from everyday life in the Tyrol. With delightful naturalness and simplicity, they manifest their surprise, fear and consternation at the events taking place. In the distance, shepherds in caves are dazzled by the light streaming from the crib. On the other side, the Bethlehemites are attracted by the unusual light and leave their little town with their mules. The feminine element is not missing and is humorously interpreted by the artist by three women at the well, busily discussing the mysterious rumour.
Each figure is a work of art in itself and fits in the whole so as to make it a carved hymn of glory to the new-born Infant. For a moment, He has laid aside His Majesty. “The benignity and humanity of the Saviour” has appeared. Kindness, simplicity and devotedness are the three gifts which His generosity bestows on the Medical Mission Sisters whose work is born at the Crib, their crib, because it was made with love, given with love and treasures Eternal Love."
Sadly, this particular crib has not survived as a full set of carvings, but a copy of it, seen opposite, helps us to imagine what it was like. There is also this earlier description of it from 1933, as follows:
“On Christmas morning at the Medical Mission House, the Eucharistic Lord will be reminded of the first Christmas at Bethlehem, not only by the cheerful poverty of the motherhouse of our Society, but also by the artistic representation of His birth in that memorable stable of Palestine.
Our crib is not an ordinary one. Indeed, it is perhaps one of the most artistic and exact, from the standpoint of geography and history, in all the country.
The 80 individual figures, from the tiny Infant to the smallest lamb of the sheepfold, are hand-carved masterpieces, the productions of a pious Tyrolese artist. Each one is an individual as the character it represents in this joyful drama. Indeed, so individual are these figures that the character of each is a household word amongst us. Names have been given to some of the most interesting. Every one of us knows Dr Dengel’s preference for a little mountain goat whose bell (hardly as large as a pea), when once thought lost, almost broke up the community.
To permit these carved actors to play their part in the sweetest story of history, our Scripture class, both professor and students, have been working for months to prepare the proper historical and geographical setting for the crib. For this purpose, the whole parlour has been turned over to us. But it is really more than a crib. It is a chapter of our lives, something like the Oberammergau Passion Play, something that is prepared by loving hands of members whose hearts are annually moved profoundly by the events of Christmas ….”
At the motherhouse, there was also a crib with life-size figures carved in stone - as you can see opposite in 1953.
A copy of a Christmas card sent by the Dengel family, living in the Austrian Tyrol, is also displayed.
Finally, we wish you to enjoy this festive season with a beautiful carol, composed by Sister Miriam Therese Winter, reminding us what Bethlehem was like on that very first Christmas: O What a Happening!