Nativity scenes like the famous life-sized wood nativity on display at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles are a creative religious reminder of the birth of Jesus as told in the gospels of Luke and Matthew.
The cathedral’s beautiful nativity, hand-carved in Italy decades ago, is made up of 18 figures in a stable, including the baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph surrounded by the wise men, shepherds, a camel, oxen, burro, goat and sheep.
It was donated to the Los Angeles Archdiocese in 2013 by the family of Bob and Dolores Hope. The comedian, who died in 2003, and his wife Dolores, who died in 2011, displayed their nativity on a raised platform on the front yard of their Toluca Lake home in the 1950s, where it stood for decades during Advent and the Christmas seasons.
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels Christmas Mass schedule on Dec. 25:
– 8 and 10 a.m. in English (10 a.m. Mass is live online on cathedral’s website and social media, and on KABC-7.2 on Spectrum)
– 12:30 p.m. in Spanish (also live online, and on KABC-7.2 on Spectrum)
Mass schedule on Dec. 26:
– 12:30 p.m.
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, olacathedral.org