A New Bethlehem

IT’S CHRISTMAS, the world’s best-loved feast. Christmas is so popular that even atheists celebrate it, though only as an opportunity to relax from work.

For the liturgical calendar, its importance comes second only to Easter. When looked at from another angle, however, Christmas can be regarded as of greater consequence, because it represents the first ‘visible’ beginnings of the earthly existence of Christ, the first tangible manifestation of the mystery of the Salvation of humanity and the universe – the beginning of a new creation.

One of the best ways of celebrating this feast is by recreating the nativity scene, that intimate spectacle which the shepherds in Palestine encountered when they came upon the Holy Family in the evening of December 24 in the year 0.

Devotion to the crib is no doubt of very ancient origin, but it remained for Saint Francis of Assisi to popularise it and to give it the tangible form in which it is known at the present time. This occurred on Christmas Eve of 1223 in the small village of Greccio, in the very epicentre of Italy.

“It is exactly 783 years ago that Francis of Assisi decided to visibly reconstruct the nativity scene in this very place,” says Father Francesco Rossi, a friar minor who, for the past 18 years, has been receiving pilgrims and tourists from all over the world to the shrine of Greccio.

“As you can see, our shrine is very small. It is situated on the border of this village inhabited by a mere 1,400 souls. Greccio still looks very much like it did during Francis’ days, and this explains its magical appeal. Here the wearied city dweller can find silence, serenity, simplicity, poverty and an atmosphere conducive to prayer and meditation. But these are also characteristic of the Franciscan spirit, which explains why Francis was drawn to this place.

But why did Francis, who lived in Assisi, choose Greccio as the place from which to revive the Christmas crib tradition?

Probably because the landscape around Greccio is highly reminiscent of Bethlehem and its surrounds.

Three years previously, in 1220, Francis had fulfilled his long standing wish of visiting the Holy Land. During that visit, he had sojourned at length in Bethlehem to pray and meditate, and the memory of that town never left him.

We know that Saint Francis was absorbed by the mystery of the Incarnation, of the God who became man. It is therefore quite possible that the decision to set up a Christmas crib was motivated by the desire to use it as a sort of visual aid to help him understand how the nativity actually took place, so as to be better able to fathom that ineffable mystery.

Had Francis been in Greccio before?

He had already been here 15 years previously, in 1208. On that occasion he had resided for some time with a few companions on the mountains surrounding the village. However, the inhabitants of the area, aware of Francis’ holiness, had pleaded him to move closer to them, so Francis eventually settled in the grottos bordering the village, which in those days was just a small homestead of about a hundred people spread around a castle. The area, being swampy and unhealthy, gave an impression of absolute poverty, austerity and silence which must surely have appealed to the Poverello.

What are our primary sources on the whole episode?

The first biographers, Thomas of Celano and Saint Bonaventure, gave a rather detailed account of it. In Chapter 30 of his biography, Celano writes, “Francis’ highest intention, his chief desire, his uppermost purpose, was to observe the holy Gospel in all things and through all things and, with perfect vigilance, with all zeal, with all the longing of his mind and all the fervour of his heart, to follow the teaching and the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ. He would recall Christ’s word through persistent meditation, and bring to mind his deeds through the most penetrating consideration. The humility of the Incarnation and the charity of the Passion occupied his memory particularly, to the extent that he wanted to think of hardly anything else.”

So the dual aspects of the ‘humility’ of the Incarnation and the ‘charity’ of the Passion, in other words, the two most human, but also the two most unique aspects of the earthly life of the Saviour were what interested Francis most.

Many people see the Poverello as a starry-eyed romantic, a poet and a lover of animals and nature. They see him as an isolated mystic locked up in his ivory tower, out of touch with ordinary life. This, however, is a completely misleading image of Francis. Despite all his mysticism and idealism, Francis was, at the same time, extremely practical and down-to-earth. His conversion had instilled in him an immense desire to conform his whole being, right down to his physical body and to very minute action, to the truth of the Gospels.

Francis knew that the mysteries of Christianity were so deep and sublime as to defy human reason, so he lost no opportunity of exploring any means to deepen his understanding of them. It is for this reason that his actions often appeared strange and extravagant in the eyes of his contemporaries, like the act of stripping himself naked in front of the people and the bishop of Assisi in his efforts to imitate Christ’s poverty. Now, as an aid to deepen his understanding of the Incarnation, Francis came up with the idea of a faithful ‘reconstruction’ of the nativity.

How was that first crib scene actually performed? What did it look like?

Francis turned to a close friend of his, John of Greccio, a knight of whom Celano writes, “In the place where he lived he held a noble and honourable position inasmuch as he had trampled upon the nobility of his birth, and pursued nobility of soul,” and gave him precise instructions on how to organise this reconstruction of the nativity. Celano gives us Francis’ exact words to John, “I wish to do something that will recall to memory the little Child who was born in Bethlehem, and set before our bodily eyes in some way the inconveniences of his infant needs; how he lay in a manager; how, with an ox and an ass standing by, he lay upon the hay where he had been placed”.

Francis’ real intent, therefore, was not to stage an entertaining performance for the curious, or to make a mundane spectacle of the Incarnation. That, to him, would have been a grievous sin. His real purpose was to set before his bodily eyes a reconstruction of the Incarnation of God to aid his understanding. Moreover, Francis was aware that this initiative could be badly interpreted. Saint Bonaventure informs us that before going ahead with his plan, Francis sought the Pope’s approval, “So that this would not be considered a type of novelty, he petitioned for and obtained permission from the Supreme Pontiff”.

John of Greccio organised everything as Francis had disposed. On that Christmas Eve the people of Greccio gathered in front of the grotto where Francis and his friars were going to pray. Other people from nearby villages were also present, “Men and women of that neighbourhood prepared with glad hearts, according to their means, candles and torches to light up that night that has lighted up all the days and years with its gleaming star,” writes Celano.

At length Francis arrived and, when he saw that everything had been arranged according to plan, Celano adds that Francis became radiant with joy, and then that “the ox and ass were led in”.

This is an important line, because it proves that Francis reconstructed the scene, the setting, of Jesus’ birth. He did not have it ‘performed’; none of those present played the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, or the Christ Child. What Francis wanted was a visual aid that would help those present to deepen their understanding of the Incarnation during the Mass that was about to be celebrated – for it was the Mass itself that would evoke the Real Presence of Christ in the manger.

This is completely in keeping with Francis’ mentality. Whenever the Poverello referred to priests, he would often compare them to the Virgin Mary, because it was they who, during the Eucharist, had the power to give birth to Christ on the altar. When referring to the faithful in the act of receiving Holy Communion, he would often say that they were like the Virgin Mary bearing the Christ Child in their spiritual womb.

“The saint of God was clothed with the vestments of the deacon,” adds Celano, “for he was a deacon, and he sang the holy Gospel in a sonorous voice,” and goes on to describe how Francis would pronounce the words “Child of Bethlehem” with a voice trembling with sweetness. Both Saint Bonaventure and Celano testify that prodigious events occurred on that night. More specifically Saint Bonaventure states that John of Greccio, “saw a beautiful little boy asleep in the crib, and that the blessed father Francis embraced it in both of his arms and seemed to wake it from sleep”.

So a miracle took place that night?

Celano writes that Greccio, on that night, became like a ‘new Bethlehem’. We have a number of medieval paintings which show Francis with the Baby Jesus in his arms. On Mt. Verna in 1224, the crucifix came to life and impressed the stigmata on Francis’ body. At Greccio, the Christ child may have revealed Himself to some of those present. But that was not the only sign. The hay that had been placed in the manger was jealously preserved, and subsequently became a means through which a number of miraculous healings of animals and people took place.

Was the recurrence celebrated at Greccio?

It was indeed. The Friars residing at Greccio have kept it up continuously every Christmas since then. However, in the course of time some changes were made. People were substituted by small statues, thus slowly giving rise to the crib as we know it.

The shrine at Greccio is built on the exact location where Francis built his crib. After that first Christmas an altar was immediately raised there. Then a small church, consecrated in 1228, was erected around this altar. It was consecrated two years after Francis’ death, on the occasion of his canonisation.

That church was enlarged at the beginning of the 14th century to contain the ever increasing influx of pilgrims. However, there were limits to how much the church could be enlarged because it is situated on a grotto at the side of a mountain.

On that occasion a series of Giotto-school frescoes were painted on the walls. They depict the first crib with Francis at Greccio and the Nativity in Palestine.

A small wooden-convent was subsequently built on the place where Francis and his companions sojourned. In the course of time other rooms were added, always with the scope of housing the growing number of pilgrims. The compound can now contain up to 150-200 people. It is all still rather small, but it fits in with the Franciscan spirit of poverty.

At Christmas, when the influx of pilgrims is at its highest, one can see a winding stream of people waiting to enter the shrine, if only for a few minutes, to savour the magical atmosphere of the place.

I’ve also heard that some people at Greccio have organised a living crib.

It has been set up by the local tourist board, the Proloco. A group of young people organise a performance each year, a historic reconstruction of Francis’ original crib. It is then repeated on the afternoon of December 26, and in the afternoons of January 1 and 6.

What are you organising for this coming Christmas?

As always, we will abide by the same program we have been following for years. At Christmas we are overrun by throngs of tourist and pilgrims, and our task is to receive them and offer them spiritual assistance. So we are very busy hearing confessions, celebrating masses, and in showing people around.

Which countries are most of your visitors from?

Most are Italian, but an increasing number are from America, particularly Latin America, then come Spaniards, Germans, Canadians and even Koreans.