In 2023 it will be 800 years since the first nativity scene in Italy was recreated by Saint Francis of Assisi. The saint was the driving force behind the staging of the first Bethlehem, or Bethlehem Portal, as they also call the Birth of the Child Jesus. Saint Francis of Assisi wanted to emphasize the humility with which the Son of God was born.

According to Sacred Scripture, the portal of Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, was a stable where an ox and a mule stood. The Virgin Mary, after the birth of the Messiah, placed him in the animal feeder (manger) and turned it into the baby’s cradle, published Periódico Message.

The record-breaking gigantic nativity scene on the Salinas boardwalk draws visitors

This is how the manger was created

In 2019 at the signing of the apostolic letter Admirable signPope Francis reminded that the history of nativity scenes dates back to days after November 29, 1223, when Pope Honorius III Ruler to Saint Francis of Assisi.

“After his journey to the Holy Land, those caves reminded him in a special way of the landscape of Bethlehem. And it is possible that the Poverello (poor) in Rome were impressed by the mosaics of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore depicting the birth of Jesus, right next to where, according to ancient tradition, the tables of the manger stood. preserved.”, wrote Peter’s successor and distributed by AciPrensa.

Fifteen days before Christmas of that year, the saint in Greccio (Italy), the aforementioned media explained, told a man named John (Giovanni Velita) that he wanted to “celebrate the memory of the Child born in Bethlehem” to “ consider “somehow with my eyes what he suffered as a child during his disability, how he lay in the manger and how he was laid on hay between the ox and the donkey.”

A married couple would represent Mary and Joseph, they added in Aleteia.

Juan “fulfilled the wish and on December 25, Saint Francis, together with brothers and other people, found the manger with the hay, the ox and the donkey.”

That of San Francisco de Asís – noted Periódico Message – “we must consider it as the origin of the ‘living manger’, because there are documents and evidence that a few centuries earlier (particularly in the year 1021) a representation of the Nativity was made with inanimate figures (clay or terracotta) in the Church of Santa María in Naples and that it was in this Italian city where the nativity tradition was really born.

According to Sister Mónica Sáenz, coordinator of the master’s program in theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE), quoted in Conexión Puce, “it was Saint Francis of Assisi who recreated the birth of Jesus as told in the Bible. In a manger he gathered townspeople and animals. “This is how the first manger in history was located.”

The origin of this representation from Latin ‘praesēpe‘ and its original meaning (and which is also used today in the livestock world) is that of ‘container or box intended for animal food’ (livestock), said Periódico Message y Conexión.

The importance of the manger

For Pope Francis, the nativity scene is “from its Franciscan origins an invitation to ‘feel’, ‘touch’ the poverty that the Son of God chose for himself in his incarnation” and “a call to find Him and share Him with to serve mercy. to the brothers and sisters who are most in need.”

(…) In his apostolic letter, published by AciPrensa, the Argentine Pope emphasizes that “the heart of the manger begins to beat when we place the image of the Child Jesus at Christmas,” because “this is how God presents himself, in a child, to be received in our arms.’

There will be a plenary indulgence for those who pray in front of the nativity scene (nativity scene) of a Franciscan church.

Church

The popularity of the manger

The custom of setting up these types of nativity scenes came to Spain during the Renaissance, Periódico Message reported.

“But when it really became popular, it was towards the second half of the 18th century, because this custom was exported from Italy by King Charles III of Spain (previously also called King of Naples) and from here it spread to all the colonies and possessions . . of the Spanish Crown (America, the Philippines, Pacific Islands…),” he added.

If you haven’t assembled your manger or nativity scene yet, this is the position the pieces should be placed in and their meaning

For the Pope, setting up a nativity scene “has been learned from an early age: when father and mother, together with grandparents, transmit this joyful tradition, which contains a rich popular spirituality. I hope this practice never weakens; In fact, I trust that where it may have fallen into disuse, it will be rediscovered and revived.”

(JO)