Saints

Saint Francis of Assisi is commonly considered the "father of the nativity scene." At Christmas 1223, after obtaining permission from Pope Onuphrius III, the Saint created the first nativity scene in a forest near Greggio (a place that reminded Francis of Bethlehem). He erected a manger inside a cave and placed a live donkey and ox inside, but without the Holy Family. He then gave his famous Christmas sermon to a large crowd, making the Christmas story accessible and understandable to anyone who could not read. Just three years before passing away that brotherly body, worn out by a life lived in humility, he created something that would influence the next 800 Christmas days. Francis's is not the first depiction of the Nativity: images recounting this episode can be found as early as the 3rd century, with the depiction of the Virgin with Baby Jesus in the catacombs of St. Priscilla in Rome. Originally, the word presepe didn't even refer to the Nativity, but rather comes from the fusion of two Latin words: prae, meaning in front, and saepes, meaning enclosure. Presepe therefore originally meant the "place in front of the enclosure," namely a manger, the one Francis had created to narrate the birth of Baby Jesus in a completely new way. This is precisely why Francis's nativity scene is special! His simple yet innovative depiction of the Nativity is still remembered today as the first of all living nativity scenes, and perhaps it is thanks to that first manger, created 800 years ago to house a donkey and an ox, that the nativity scene is still called that today!