"It's the first crib of the Christian tradition," he said. "San Francisco, on Christmas Eve of 1223, did appear on the baby Jesus manger, said he was too. And down talk, "Francis in Greccio made the first crib of baby Jesus with the Christian story of the ox and the donkey."
For goodness sake, do not go longer around to tell these stories. Sources hand, in fact, they are all false. And it is not dictated by the suspect forcing ideological atheism of the undersigned, to disavow these accounts, publicist disclosed for centuries by the Christian, in fact, we do not want crowds of fierce medieval just a simple reading of the documents. So why the manger who made San Francisco in a remote village nestled in the Apennines of Umbria and Lazio at the time was so successful?
As usual, to find the answers we need to uncover the role of the usual curious to tail and put Frank as the true detective, one of the paths along which it has established more than all the success. The Franciscan path of Greccio.
And the first question with which we must immediately deal is, but why in the holy Greccio decided to set up the crib? Why Francis chose this castle minor wreck of the High Middle Ages, a gesture intended to make the whole Christian community?
Thomas of Celano, Francis' first biographer, gives us very valuable clues to a story that, if the beginning is pleasant, almost idyllic, but in the end accept nothing short of disturbing implications ...
The saint willingly stopped in 'hermitage Greccio, and because she saw him full of poverty, because a cell is secluded, built on a prominent rock, he could devote himself more freely to contemplation of heavenly things. [...]
Now the villagers were suffering from various ills: swarms of ravenous wolves attacking livestock and people, and also the hail struck down every year and put screws. One day Francis, while preaching, he said: "To the glory and praise of Almighty God, hear the truth that we proclaim to you. If each of you will confess his sins and worthy fruits of penance, I give you my word that this scourge will move away permanently, and the Lord, looking at you with love, will be enriched with temporal goods. [...]
Since then, the merits and prayers of the holy father, stopped disasters, hazards and the wolves disappeared, and the storm went over harassment. Indeed, what is more surprising, when the hail pounded the fields of their neighbors and approached the border, stopped or there or headed elsewhere. But the tranquility
increased in number and too enriched material goods. And the health consequences brought the usual: sank his face into the fat and were blinded by pinguetudine or better from the dung of wealth. And so, in relapsed more faults, they forgot to God who saved them. [...] You woke up against them the wrath of God and first joined the scourges of war and outbreak came from heaven that made many victims. Finally, a fire destroyed the entire village avenger. It is fitting that those who
turns his back to the benefits perish. (see ff. 621)
In two words, Thomas argues that the saint praised the amenity of Greccio and also appreciated the perfect Christian conduct of its inhabitants, only to unleash hell against the villagers guilty of having enriched and of having committed some venial peccadillo throat. Needless to say that history is nothing short of surreal, and forces us to debunk the myth of the universality of the crib.
What Francis did in Greccio on Christmas Eve of 1223 to convert the people of this miserable sinners was a fact confined to the inhabitants of the valley, which were coincidentally all shepherds and farmers, so narrowly that the holy Mass Greccio did not take place even in Greccio, but in a cave located along a sheep track of transhumance that rose up from the slopes of Mount Lacerone (above, a photo of the shrine today, with the buildings that hug the steep cliffs). Thomas recounts it with a fresh narrative that oozes with pathos and poetry, but it confirms our suspicions about the true nature of the strange ceremony of Greccio Christmas.
This night is as clear as broad daylight and delicious for men and animals! [...] The forest echoes of voices and the rocks echoing chorus of joyful. (Before Life by Thomas of Celano, cf. Ff. 469)
also Bonaventure, the biographer who in 1263 made a clean sweep of all the Lives of Saint Francis remained outstanding, in recounting the fact it was less.
[...] the forest echoes of voices and that venerable night becomes resplendent with innumerable lights, solemn and harmonious sound of praise. (from Bonaventure's Legenda Maior, cf. Ff. 1186)
Reading one is incredulous: Christmas Mass celebrated in a cave, complete with a procession in the woods? But Church leaders were aware of the fact?
[click to continue reading here, you open the page. Pdf with the complete document]
find the article also published on the website of ' Bibrax Association.
