Before Francis time, as early as the fifth century, the Basilica of St.

Mary Major in Rome had a small oratory built like the cave of Bethlehem. The basilicas second title was St. Mary at the Crib. The popes first Mass of Christmas was offered there. Christmas plays, imitating those of Easter, probably grew up in the 11th century. And in the century before Francis lived, ecclesiastics dressed up as the midwives, Magi, shepherds and other persons of the Christmas story, as well as live animals, are already recorded in descriptions of the liturgical drama, the Spectacula Theatricalia, as participants in Christmas celebration.

Thomas of Celano says, He would often meditate on the desolation of Christ and his holy mother with tears, and he maintained that poverty was the queen of the virtues, as she had become so radiantly manifest in the King and his mother. Francis wanted to realize and help people realize exactly what God had done for his people, and how poor he chose to be for our sakes. Francis himself had chosen the bitter poverty of being on the margin of society, with no resources or security. He saw the Son of God placing himself, as it were, on the margin of divinity.

Summary of Christmas at Greccio: Francis considered the Christmas is the feast of the feasts feast above all Solemnities. (2C, 199). When there was discussion about not eating meat, because it was on Friday, he replied to Brother Morico: You sin, brother, when you call Friday the day when unto us a Child is born. I want even the walls to eat meat on that day, and if they cannot, at least on the outside they be rubbed with grease!(2C, 199) If I ever speak to the emperor, I will beg him, for the love of God and by my entreaties, to enact a written law forbidding anyone to catch our sister larks or do them any harm. Likewise, all mayors of cities and lords of castles and villages should be bound to oblige people each year on the Nativity of the Lord to scatter wheat and other grain along the roads outside towns and villages, so that all the birds, but especially our sister larks, may have something to eat on such a solemn feast. Also, out of reverence for the Son of God, whom His Virgin Mother on that night laid in a manger between ox and ass, everyone should have to give brother ox and brother ass a generous portion of fodder on that night. Likewise, on the Nativity of the Lord, all poor should be fed their fill by the rich. One day when he was sitting down to dinner a brother mentioned the poverty of the blessed Virgin, and reflected on the want of Christ her Son. No sooner had he heard this, than he got up from the table, groaning with sobs of pain, and bathed in tears ate the rest of his bread on the naked ground. He used to say this must be a royal virtue, since it shone so remarkably in a King and Queen. When the brothers were debating in a gathering about which of the virtues made one a greater friend to Christ, he replied, as if opening the secret of his heart: My sons, know that poverty is the special way to salvation; its fruits are many, and known only to a few. Play the video