Saying Christmas means Assisi
Saying Francis during Christmas time means Greccio, in memory of when Francis wanted to celebrate Christmas in a castle in the Holy Valley near Rieti. Such desire, in order to remind everyone how God had chosen to have his son born among the poor, not out of bad luck but by choice, surrounded by the straw, heated by the ox and the donkey, with shepherds and their wives rushing from the surrounding mountains: not necessarily the last ones of the Earth, but surely the most sincere people, the most true.
To say Francis means Assisi, because it was in the garden of Assisi that Francis planted his seed, from which seed was born a vigorous plant that grew so much to be seen in all the lands of the world.
To say Christmas means Assisi, because the brothers of Francis continued to celebrate Christmas in their churches in all the cities of the world: the Christmas of the child who was born poor, not out of necessity but out of love.
Thus, in the stories from the life of St. Francis painted by Giotto on the Assisi church walls, the episode of Greccio’s Nativity scene does not portray Francis in a cave with the shepherds and sheep, but portrays him inside a church surrounded by his friars, singing next to the altar where the Christmas mass is celebrated, next to the statues of the Bambinello, of an ox and a donkey arranged on the stones of the floor: it is a representation of the Christmas Nativity scene as it was celebrated at Assisi when these paintings were made, a time when a Franciscan friar was pope in the last decade of the thirteenth century.
The area portrays the lower church of St. Francis as it appeared back then: the altar protected by a ciborium, the presbytery divided from the nave thanks to the choir’s espalier. What was painted over the Saint’s tomb we no longer know. There is only one painting left on the wall next to the altar, which was saved as Saint Francis is portrayed standing next to an enthroned Holy Mary, surrounded by angels. Cimabue, a Florentine painter, painted Francis clutching a book to his chest.
Surely the book is the Gospel, where the life of Jesus of Nazareth is told, starting from the episode of his birth, in the stable of a Jerusalem outskirts village. Surely the character is Francis, because only Francis had eyes as kind as the sky and poorly dressed like the child of Bethlehem.
Under your protection
we seek refuge,
holy Mother of God:
do not despise supplications
of us who are in trial,
but deliver us from all danger,
oh glorious and blessed Virgin.
Mary Mother of Jesus
give me your heart
so beautiful pure immaculate
full of love and humility
so that I may receive Jesus...
