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Hand Carved Wood Statuette
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16 inches
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Special Order Item
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Made in Italy
Description
The King Balthazar of the Nativity, Bernardi 16″ Series depicts one of the three kings (also referred to as “magi” or “Wise Men”). Balthazar is traditionally a younger man his 20’s who is standing and offering myrrh to the newborn King of the Jews. This exquisite piece is part of a 16-piece nativity set (or crèche). This King Balthazar is a most important piece to acquire, along with the other two wise men: King Caspar and King Melchior. With these three pieces in hand, you can build out your Bernardi Nativity year by year, whether as a gift for your own or another family, or as a most generous donation to your church. Eventually your Bernardi Nativity will be completed and will be on display during the Advent and Christmas seasons in your school, church, office, home, or workplace. Fashioned with faith, the Bernardi Nativity is without a doubt one of the very finest nativities ever carved from wood by hand.
The Nativity, Bernardi 16″ Series, King Balthazar – A Labor of Love, Hope and Faith
All sixteen pieces of the 16-inch Bernardi Nativity are hand-carved from wood and hand-finished in a northern Italian workshop. The “Nativity scene” (known in Italy as a presepio or presepe) is an authentic Italian tradition. After all, the first nativity scene ever (a “living” one at that!) was done in 1223 by an Italian, now a patron saint of Italy, Saint Francis Assisi (go to History/Story tab). While in the Holy Land, Saint Francis beheld with his own eyes and touched with his own hands the very spot where, according to tradition, Jesus was born: in the cave below the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Saint Francis recreated the birth of Jesus with living persons and animals so that onlookers could focus and intensify their own worship of Christ by engaging their own senses of sight, smell, touch, and hearing. The Bernardi Nativity is then a worthy expression of a long and storied Italian tradition and is as “culturally authentic” as it gets – a genuine labor of love, faith and hope!
The Bernardi Nativity – An Authentic Heirloom Gift for Generations to Come
Every Christmas season, the 16-inch Bernardi Nativity will radiate depth, beauty, and serenity. During every Christmas season in Europe, crèches, large and small, are on display in public places everywhere. May your own church, office, school, home, and workplace be blessed with a crèche of true heirloom-quality, a crèche that expresses with theological and artistic profundity the one true “reason for the season”! This King Balthazar along with the entire Bernardi Nativity is an exquisite gift of unending heirloom quality and will surely be displayed and cherished for many generations to come!
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