Celebrating 800 Years of
St. Francis's First Crib

As Christmas 1223 approached, St Francis of Assisi remembered his pilgrimage to the Holy Land and knew that most of his contemporaries could never visit Bethlehem or realistically imagine the Nativity. Artists who attempted to paint the scene engaged the mind and heart but couldn’t offer the touch, smell and sounds needed to recreate the birth of Jesus.

Francis knew the stable was associated with an inn and was possibly one of many hillside caves close to Bethlehem. At the time, he was staying just outside Greccio, a small town sixty miles south of Assisi and surrounded by the beautiful hills and valleys of Umbria. The town is very hot in summer and piercingly, bitterly cold in winter. If he could find a suitable cave for recreating the Nativity, the people of Greccio could experience the similar low temperatures of a Bethlehem winter’s night. Like Joseph and Mary, they would also feel grateful for any shelter they could find and for a small fire which brought warmth and light into the cave’s darkness.

Francis placed an ox and ass beside the manger, a logical step if Jesus was born in a stable: in Italy, as in Palestine, families lived alongside their beasts and depended on their bodily warmth for extra heating when temperatures dropped. There was, therefore, nothing particularly unusual in placing animals around the manger – and so Francis recreated the Nativity in the first-ever Christmas Crib, 800 years ago this Christmas.

Thomas of Celano (c. 1185 – c. 1265), St Francis’ first biographer, subsequently wrote:
“The day of joy drew near, the time of exultation approached... The manger is ready, hay is brought, and the ox and ass are led in. Simplicity is honoured there. Poverty is exalted. Humility is commended and a new Bethlehem, as it were, is made from Greccio. Night is illuminated like the day, delighting men and beasts. The people come and joyfully celebrate the new mystery. The forest resounds with voices and the rocks respond to their rejoicing. The brothers sing, discharging their debt of praise to the Lord, and the whole night echoes with jubilation. The holy man of God stands before the manger full of sighs, consumed by devotion and filled with a marvellous joy. The solemnities of the Mass are performed over the manger and the priest experiences a new consolation.

The gifts of the Almighty are multiplied here and a marvellous vision is seen by a certain virtuous man. For he saw a little child lying lifeless in the manger and he saw the holy man of God approach and arouse the child as if from a deep sleep. Nor was this an unfitting vision, for in the hearts of many the child Jesus really had been forgotten, but now, by his grace and through his servant Francis, he had been brought back to life and impressed here by loving recollection.”

Today, Greccio’s visitors can still see the altar before which Francis placed his Crib. Since that Christmas Eve in 1223, his Bright Idea has subsequently inspired millions of people worldwide. 800 years later, Greccio still brings heaven to earth!
(Source: Redemptorist Publications - 800 Years of the Christmas Crib)

Further resources are available on: https://www.dioceseofmeath.ie/_files/ugd/f27feb_649e7fe13dd9419b9ab4c7417d22d8b4.pdf