The Saints Who Made Christmas: Francis

It was a dark Christmas Eve in the year 1223, and hundreds of townspeople had gathered outside a local cave to watch a man give a demonstration. They held flickering candles and wore many layers to protect from the merciless cold. The man who led the demonstration was a poor religious of average height, his hair shaved into the tonsure style, and he wore no shoes. He appeared to be a dirty outcast to anyone from outside the small town of Greccio, but everyone there knew and loved him. So who was this well-loved friar, and what had he gathered the people for?

Francis had just come to Greccio from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It had been a long, exhausting journey of 1984 miles there and 1984 miles back, but Francis had never been more inspired. He considered the journey, no matter how long and perilous it was, to be the most important physical journey of his life, and he had returned to his beloved Italy a changed man. His love for Jesus, especially for the Christ Child, had swelled while visiting Bethlehem, and now Francis wanted to do something to honor the humble earthly beginnings of the Messiah to replicate his life-changing experience for others who could not make the long journey to see Bethlehem. 

And so Francis had an idea. Covertly, away from the eyes of the people, he began to prepare a Christmas surprise for them. He found a cave a ways from the city and began to stock it with oxen and donkeys and hay. He crafted a manger and found people to represent the people present at the birth of Christ. Finally, it was ready!

Francis showed his work to his brothers first before sending them out to tell the townspeople of the exciting event that would transpire the next day in the cave outside their town. People were at first confused, but when they heard Francis’ name, they became excited, wondering what the radical friar would do next.

The turnout was exceptional, and as Francis exited the cave from the last-minute preparations, he instantly thanked G’D at the sight of the people, waiting to see. Francis nodded to them, and let them come forward to see his Christmas scene, which he had toiled so hard on. Francis pulled out the Biblical account of the birth of Christ from Saint Luke’s Gospel and began to read in a loud voice, so all could hear and reflect on the incredible event of Christ’s birth. 

“Now it happened that, while they were there, the time came for her to have her child,” Francis read, “and she gave birth to a son, her first-born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because…”

At that moment, Francis paused reading and went to kneel in front of the manger. The people, singing songs of praise, craned their necks in order to see what Francis was doing. 

Francis could not believe his eyes. There, in the manger, lay a small child - a baby! - sleeping. Instantly, Francis gently took the child into his arms and began to cry. Everything around him melted away, and to Francis, there was only the Christ Child in his arms. 

This Christmas miracle, born from the mind of Saint Francis, is a practice still widely used today. This is the origin of the nativities you see in your home, which are brought forth from boxes and put in prominent places for all to see. So even if you cannot travel to Bethlehem, as many of us cannot, you can still treasure the events that happened there through a scene, carefully replicated from one crafted by Saint Francis just under eight hundred years ago!