The Milk Grotto

As pilgrims to Bethlehem well know, most of the holy spots that are worthy of worship are not to be found on the earthly surface, but rather in underground environments, as in the case of the Nativity cave, and the nearby Grottos. A few meters from these caves there is another one that is universally known as the Milk Grotto, which differs from other loca sancta in its distinctive character. Its public worship was nurtured and kept alive mainly by the local population and particularly by women, Christian and Muslim, who recognized in the whitish powder of its rocky walls a powerful remedy against the momentary loss of breast milk.

The present book can be considered as the biography of a very special locus sanctus, whose multiple lives, thanks to the collaboration of Michele Bacci with two scholars with different backgrounds, are described and interpreted from three different viewpoints: cultural-historical, anthropological, and archaeological.

In his text, Bacci analyses the history of the site and the cultic phenomena associated with it from the first documented moments in the 12th century until our times. Annette Hoffmann’s article delves into the history of the cultic practices associated with the holy site, and more specifically with the habit of ingesting its chalky earth in the aim to obtain the restitution of lacking milk. Carmelo Pappalardo investigates the history of the built structures that are to be found in the plot of ground located above the Milk Grotto.