Wooden fragment thought to be from Jesus's manger draws crowds of worshippers in Bethlehem

• Video report by ITV News Senior International Correspondent John Irvine

It's a story that goes right to the heart of the Christmas narrative.

A tiny wooden relic that Christians believe to be part of Jesus’s manger has been drawing large crowds of worshippers to its new permanent home in the biblical city of Bethlehem.

The fragment was believed to have been first sent to Rome as a gift to the Pope some 1,400 years ago.

The return of the relic by the Vatican was a spirit-lifting moment for the Palestinians and coincided with Advent, a four-week period leading up to Christmas.

The homecoming of the thumb-sized piece of wood has seen scores of people line up to see for themselves part of the very fabric of Christianity.

Record numbers of visitors have come to Bethlehem to see a newly renovated Church of the Nativity and the history it contains.

Brother Rami, a priest in the city, said: "As always every time, God gives us a new present and this is his present for us.

"We are grateful to God and we are grateful to everybody who helped in this."

A wooden structure that Christians believe was part of the manger where Jesus was born was sent by St Sophronius, the patriarch of Jerusalem, to Pope Theodore I in the 640s, around the time of the Muslim conquest of the Holy Land.

Christians make up a small minority of Palestinians and Bethlehem is one of the only cities in the West Bank and Gaza where Christmas is celebrated.