On 25 December 2023 we shall be celebrating the 800 years since Saint Francis of Assisi commemorated the Nativity of Jesus in the remote fortified village of Greccio, by re-enacting the Nativity scene in a cave. The celebration of the liturgy of Christmas, with the singing of Matins and the Mass of the Nativity, had as a backdrop a simple environment in which a manger with hay was placed under the altar and an ox and ass introduced close by.
The whole scene can still be contemplated on the walls of the cave-church of Greccio, in the fresco of the Giotto school. On one side the Virgin Mary with Child, and Saint Joseph meditating quietly the mystery of the Virgin birth. On the other side, Saint Francis vested as deacon during the Mass and bending over the Infant Jesus in the manger.
This year the celebration of Christmas assumes this special characteristic of poverty and humility which is evident in the link between the Nativity Grotto of Bethlehem and the tiny cave-church of Greccio.Our issue of Spirit+Life is dedicated to this great mystery of our salvation, which Francis lived in a tangible form during the Christmas celebration in Greccio, where the town of Bethlehem (the house of bread), was rendered visible in the Bread of Life, the Word made flesh, in the manger.Francis contemplated the Nativity of Christ and lived the experience of poverty and humility of the Incarnation. Greccio became a new Bethlehem.
Franciscan Studies 
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