Saint Nicolas

On a winter day in December of 1223, a bearded friar in a coarse gray habit walked toward the town of Greccio. There was a feeling of snow in the air, yet the Brother seemed unmindful of any discomfort. Now and then he stopped and stretched out his hand so that the birds flying about could dart down, perch on his hand, and eat the crumbs he offered. This sight was not unusual. For wherever he went he was surrounded by birds and animals that flocked around him unafraid. "Little brothers and sisters," he affectionately called them.

In that year of 1223, this friar celebrated Christmas in a way the world had never seen before. Since an earlier trip to the Holy Land and a visit to Bethlehem, he had felt a new devotion to the Christmas season. As he walked toward Greccio, he wondered what to preach to the people. Suddenly he remembered the words of St. Luke: "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night."

As though inspired, he knew immediately what he had to do. He must show the people the Christmas scene. In Greccio he had a friend, Giovanni by name, and the friar said to him: "I want to celebrate the holy Christmas along with thee, and now listen how I have thought it out for myself. In the woods by the cloister thou wilt find a cave, and there thou mayest arrange a manger filled with hay. There must also be an ox and an ass, just as in Bethlehem. I want for once to celebrate seriously the coming of the Son of God upon earth and see with my own eyes how poor and miserable he wished to be for our sakes."

On Christmas Eve people began to arrive to view the scene. Some journeyed many miles either on foot or in carts. Everyone who was able to come managed in some way, for they were all eager to hear the friar. As they entered the area that evening they stopped in amazement and then fell to their knees in adoration. For there was the manger scene much as it was before at the Birth of the Child.

And the friar told the wondrous story again, as he stood before the very first Christmas Creche. As the Gospel was sung, he stepped forward in his deacon's vestments. "Deeply sighing, overcome by the fulness of his devotion, filled with a wonderful joy, the holy one of God stood by the manger," says Thomas of Celano. "And his voice, his strong voice, and glad voice, clear voice and ringing voice invited all to seek the highest good."

And it seemed to the people that they too had really been in Bethlehem on that Christmas Eve of 1223. Who was this friar? He is now known to the world as St. Francis of Assisi.

The Miracle of Christmas, by the Editors of Hallmark, Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1981.