Patristic A.D. 735
“He is confined in the narrow space of a rude manger, whose seat is the heavens, that He may give us ample room in the joys of His heavenly kingdom. He Who is the bread of Angels is laid down in a manger, that He might feast us, as it were the sacred animals, with the bread of His flesh.”
Catena Aurea: Gospel of Luke, as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on Luke 2:6-7
PD · J. H. Newman (Oxford, 1843) ↗