![]() ![]() Other miracles were reported, brought about by touching the straw of the manger where the Child Jesus had appeared. An eyewitness, Giovanni Veleti, asserted that he saw a real infant appear in the empty manger and that Saint Francis took the beautiful child into his arms, holding him to his chest in an embrace. ![]() According to accounts of the moment, fires lit the dark scene while crowds arrived at the spot carrying candles and torches. That was how, in December 1223, in the rocky crags a short distance outside Greccio, people flocked to see the simple scene during Christmas Mass. According to the first biographer of SaintFrancis, Brother Thomas of Celano, the saint desired to “represent the birth of that Child in Bethlehem in such a way that with our bodily eyes, we may see what he suffered for lack of the necessities of a newborn babe and how he lay in a manger between the ox and ass.” Saint Francis worships the Christ Child by Greccio - Attrib: Wikimedia commons This was the practice that led him to create the first-ever Nativity scene in Greccio, Italy, in 1223. Saint Francis of Assisi spent a great deal of time meditating on the life of Christ. Nativity at the Gate House at the ANF Headquarters in Spring Grove, PA. And it all began with Francesco di Pietro di Bernardone, the Italian mystic and Catholic friar who founded the Franciscans. But there is much more to this connection. What do poinsettias and Nativity scenes share in common? Well, Christmas, obviously. ![]()
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