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The
Life and Times of Francis of Assisi
Francis
Chooses “Lady Poverty”
Francis
Meets the Sultan
The
First Christmas Crèche
An
Ecologist before His Time
Suggestions
for Reading
François
célèbre Noël dans les bois de Greccio
Gertrude Crête, sasv 2002
encre acrylique, 29 x 21,5 cm
Private Collection © Claude Lacroix, ofm
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The
First Christmas Crèche
Francis
of Assisi created the first “crèche,” which we
often find under the Christmas tree. Here is how this tradition
began:
At the end
of 1223, Francis was in Greccio, Italy. His friend, a nobleman
named Giovanni di Velita, had given the friars a grotto (cave)
in the mountain and Francis had transformed it into a hermitage.
That year, Francis told the Lord of his desire to celebrate Christmas
in the grotto and to install a manger in it. “I want to evoke
the memory of the Child of Bethlehem. I want to see Him with my
own eyes, as He was, lying in a manger and sleeping on the hay
between the ox and the donkey.”
All the inhabitants
of Greccio and the hermits from the area came in large numbers
to accompany Francis and to assist by torchlight at Midnight Mass.
The forest was as illuminated as in broad daylight. The Mass was
celebrated with the manger as the altar. Francis assisted the
priest as a deacon and spoke so well to the crowd of the birth
of Jesus and of the true meaning of Christmas that everyone was
filled with great joy.
The legend
relates the vision that Francis had of a young child lying asleep
in the manger. Francis came and tenderly took the infant in his
arms. Then, the baby awoke and smiled at Francis.
The following
year, the inhabitants of Greccio remembered that marvellous Christmas
night with great admiration. That year, they reconstructed the
scene of Jesus’ birth in grottoes or stables throughout the
whole region. Thus began the tradition of the Christmas crèche
and from Greccio it quickly spread throughout the world.
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