How to print Status messages block programatically?

I would like to print out the messages block on a page--front.tpl.php template file. The problem is that I do not use the $page variable to print the page content, responsible to print also the messages block, as I have an entirely different design for the front page. I'm trying this with no luck:

<?php

$block = module_invoke('system', 'block_view', 'messages');

print render($block['content']);

?>

Any ideas? Thanks!