This is the hand-carved Nativity at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Lewiston that Father Daniel Greenleaf purchased in Bethlehem last year. And had some relatively short-lived buyer’s remorse about. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

There was a period of fretful days during which Father Daniel Greenleaf had second thoughts about what he’d done.

He had made a big purchase, had Father Greenleaf, pastor of Prince of Peace Parish based in Lewiston. During a nine-day pilgrimage to the Holy Land in April of 2023, Greenleaf had spent thousands of dollars on an olive wood manger scene hand carved by artisans in Bethlehem.

The manger scene is beautiful, there’s no question about that. In it, eight figures gather around to honor the baby Jesus shortly after the savior was born. Joining them are lambs and camels and palm trees, each of them carved so precisely that the tiniest details can be made out.

The piece was purchased from Palestinian Christians who were suffering financially in the years after COVID struck. With travel limited during those terrible years, they had almost completely lost their income.

“They were like, ‘Father, would you buy something from us? Something big?'” Greenleaf recalls.

So he gathered the three dozen parishioners who had made the trip with him to talk over the potential purchase. In the end, they decided to buy that manger scene. It would look spectacular inside the celebrated Basilica in Lewiston where they would later have an altar hand-carved locally to hold it.

The deal was done. Greenleaf forked over $45,000 — he paid for it with his own credit card — and arrangements were made to have the Nativity scene shipped to Lewiston.

That’s when the priest began to sweat.

“I thought, ‘What have I committed myself to?'” Greenleaf says. “‘How am I going to pay for this?’ I started to think I might have to sell my car.”

His parishioners recollect this phase of the purchase with good humor.

The group of worshipers from Lewiston-based Prince of Peace Parish who traveled to the Holy Land last year and had “a trip of a lifetime.” Phil Rioux photo

“He had buyer’s remorse for three nights,” says Bruce Blanchette, who made the pilgrimage with his wife, Linda. “I don’t think Father Dan slept at all until we got back to the States.”

Those who made the trip with Greenleaf consoled him in those days of self-doubt. Other church members would help to pay off the Nativity scene, they were sure of it. And the store where the item was purchased provided the group with 2,000 handcrafted rosaries that could be used to help bring in donations.

“They’re made out of olive wood and there’s a little piece of soil from Jerusalem in the rosary,” Blanchette says. “So, they gave those to Father Dan and said, ‘This will help you bring in donations.'”

They were right as it turns out. Ultimately, the Prince of Peace Parish DID come through, and Greenleaf’s big purchase was paid off in no time.

“He had donations coming in left and right,” Blanchette says. “I would venture to say he had it paid off in three to six months. And Father Dan said, ‘I will never doubt again.'”

WHERE JESUS WALKED 

The pilgrimage to the Holy Land brought the local parishioners to a variety of locations considered sacred by Christians. They walked the same soil that Jesus walked more than 2,000 years ago. Blanchette and others even got to carry a cross through one of the 14 stations where Jesus spent his final days upon the earth.

They visited Caesarea, the capital of Judea where St. Peter preached and St. Paul was imprisoned for two years. They rode in a boat across the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, where Jesus lived during his ministry. They ascended Mount Carmel, home of the prophets Elijah and Elisha.

This photo shows archeological site where the Essenes hid the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Qumran caves were among the sites the group of local parishioners saw during their pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Phil Rioux photo

The group visited sites where the Bible says Jesus performed miracles, including Cana of Galilee where water was transformed into wine. The list goes on and on. Wherever Jesus and his followers traveled, these worshiper from Maine traveled, too.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip,” says Blanchette. “I’m still in awe because of the things I saw there. In your mind, it takes you back 2,000 years. I mean, you’re sitting in the very place where Jesus Christ did something significant.”

“One of the great treasures of this trip,” says Phil Rioux, another local man who went on the pilgrimage, “was that we got to orient geographically all the places we read about in the Bible. It made the Bible come to life.

“We saw where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount,” Rioux continues, “where he grew up, where he started his ministry in Capernaum. We traveled down the eastern side of Israel — including the West Bank, which is largely populated by Palestinians — to places like Jericho, the Jordan River, The Dead Sea, Bethlehem and finally Jerusalem where we stayed three nights.”

It was in Bethlehem, perhaps the best known biblical site of them all, where fate seemed to intervene. That’s where they found the shop run by the Palestinian Christians who had been struggling so badly since COVID.

“There is a big sign stating ‘Bethlehem Nativity Souvenirs,‘” says Rioux. “This place is truly amazing. I’ve never known so many things that can be hand carved in olive wood. That is where we came upon the huge manger scene that we now have at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul here in Lewiston. I have never seen anything like it in size and craftsmanship. It seemed to be a perfect match for the Prince of Peace Parish to honor the birthplace of the Prince of Peace himself.”

Hand-carved biblical items are on display at the Bethlehem Nativity Souvenirs shop, where the group from the Prince of Peace Parish bought the Nativity scene. Phil Rioux photo

The manger scene itself was carved by the Zakharia Brothers, members of a Catholic family that run a small workshop that specializes in hand-carved Nativity scenes out of olive wood. The brothers are world famous, having provided their elaborate pieces for popes, prime ministers and U.S. presidents. President Joe Biden, in fact, received one of the brothers’ manger scenes during a trip to Palestine two years ago.

Now one of their celebrated works of biblical art sits in the basilica right here in Lewiston. The scene is bought and paid for, much to the relief of Greenleaf and others who made the decision to purchase it.

But where to put it?

A LABOR OF LOVE

What Greenleaf and his flock needed next was a grand altar on which to display the manger scene, and here we meet David Madore, a 20-year-old member of the church who happens to have some woodworking skills of his own.

When Greenleaf asked Madore to create an entire altar for this purpose, Madore was flattered. Honored. And a little bit daunted.

The altar, you see, had to match the style of other work inside the massive basilica.

“It was a little tricky,” says Madore, “to match the Gothic style of the church and to apply those Gothic elements to the altar.”

Madore, a carpenter by trade, did all the carving right at his own apartment. It took him seven months to complete the entire altar and 300 hours of that was spent just hand carving the ornate, delicate features that make the altar so unique and so fitting for the church it inhabits.

The hand-carved Nativity at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Lewiston is supported and surrounded by detailed woodwork done by David Madore, a Prince Of Peace Parish member who spent seven months on the project. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

The end product is an altar that has drawn gasps of praise from other parishioners. Beholding it, one wouldn’t guess that the altar is new. It matches the rest of the basilica decor so flawlessly, it might have been created a hundred-plus years ago when the basilica was first built.

If there’s anything that draws the eye away from the Nativity scene carved in Bethlehem, it’s Madore’s work.

“You can’t tell the difference between the work they did in Israel and what this gentlemen did,” says Blanchette. “It’s absolutely amazing.”

For Madore, who is mostly self-taught when it comes to woodcraft, the opportunity to make the altar was something he is grateful for.

“It was quite an honor,” he says, “to build something that belongs to the basilica.”

An angel in the hand-carved Nativity. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

A TRIP OF A LIFETIME

A lamb in the Nativity. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Five months after Greenleaf’s group of parishioners departed the Holy Land and headed for home, hostilities broke out in the Middle East on Oct. 7 of 2023.

The region has been in a turmoil since.

“It is good that we went when we did,” says Rioux. “The situation today in Israel is tragic. We pray that peace is restored, and pilgrimages can continue there. I was very impressed with how people in Israel, for the most part, were able to live and work together. We hear about the violence. Thankfully that seemed to be the exception.”

Greenleaf made the decision to inaugurate the new altar at the Basilica tomorrow, Monday, Oct. 7, to mark the date.

“We are planning to celebrate Mass at the Basilica with the bishop who will pray for peace in the Holy Land on the anniversary of the start of the war and the taking of hostages,” Greenleaf says. “We are inviting the entire parish to join us and anyone else who wants to pray for peace in the Holy Land.”

Figures in the Nativity. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

The Mass will begin at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the altar with the Most Reverend James T. Ruggieri, bishop of the Diocese of Portland, in attendance.

Those who made the pilgrimage still speak with great reverence about the things they saw, experienced and felt during their trip to the Holy Land. Blanchette speaks of riding up Mount Tabor in the Golan Heights and passing a road, a half-mile from both the Syrian and Jordanian borders. This was a road they could not travel because of the hostilities that were already present in the area.

It turns out, Blanchette learned, that off-limits stretch was the road to Damascus; the very road that Paul the Apostle walked during his conversion.

Blanchette also speaks about seeing a turbulent lake in Capernaum going dead still as Father Greenleaf began Mass for the group of travelers.

The hand-carved baby Jesus in the Nativity. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

“I almost fell over,” says Blanchette. “I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

There were so many transformative experiences like this, Blanchette doesn’t have anywhere near the time to describe them all. Every new stop on their journey was a powerful experience for those who traveled so far to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

“We were just so awestruck. It just hits you and you think, am I actually seeing this?” Blanchette says. “Now, when we see things or when we’re listening to a reading in church, you’re not just relying on your imagination anymore. These are things we’ve actually seen.

“It was just amazing,” Blanchette says. “It was truly a bucket list trip. A trip of a lifetime.”