(This article originally appeared in the TAU-USA Fall 2023 Issue #110)

by Vickie Klick, OFS

Celebrating the Feast Day at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis

Off on a Day Away – Chapter attendees traveled to downtown
St. Louis for Mass and a tour of the St. Louis Basilica-
Cathedral on a record-breaking 104° day.

National Chapter attendees celebrated the feast of our patron, St. Louis IX, King of France, at a Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis at its 2023 Chapter on the feast day of St. Louis, Aug. 25. Fr. Tom Nairn, OFM, provincial of Sacred Heart province, was the celebrant.

Fr. Nairn is author of “A Franciscan Spirituality of Discernment”, the source of the National Fraternity’s theme “Listen, Discern, Go Forth.” He is provincial minister of the Franciscan Province of the Sacred Heart located in St. Louis.

St. Louis was king of France from 1226 to 1270. He is known for his kindness and service to the poor, which included making sure that those in his community were fed daily. He would often help serve the meals.

Fr. Tom’s homily reflected on how odd it seemed to have a king and a crusader as a patron of our order.  He connected the readings from Wisdom, 2 Timothy, and the parable of the talents from Luke to show St. Louis as a king who was a servant leader, who cared for the poor personally, who worked for peace, and who was a true evangelist. Using Francis’ Letter to All the Faithful, Fr. Tom presented St. Louis as a model of what it means to be a member of the Franciscan family.

The cathedral is a stupendous experience in itself and a representation of Byzantine and Romanesque design. The interior is covered with 83,000 square feet of mosaics, depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments, the religious history of the city of St. Louis, and, in the narthex, the life of St. Louis. One of the scenes shows St. Louis receiving the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis, our Secular Franciscan Order. It was very special to celebrate the feast there.

Originally designated a cathedral, it was given the distinction of a cathedral basilica in 1997 by Pope John Paul II who visited it in 1999. A basilica is the highest designation that can be given to a church building and is only bestowed by the Pope. The three signs that a church has been named a basilica are the presence of the Ombrellino (umbrella), Tintinnabulum (Bells), and the Papal Cross Keys. A cathedral is the home church for the bishop or archbishop of the diocese.

Chapter Day Away

(This article originally appeared in the TAU-USA Fall 2023 Issue #110)

by Bret Thoman, OFS

Greccio grotto where the first nativity scene took place

This year, the Franciscan Family continues to observe a series of eight-centenary commemorations. In 2023, we are reflecting on two important events that occurred 800 years ago: the Approval of the Later Rule and the reenactment of Christmas at Greccio.

Not far from Rieti, in the northernmost part of the eponymous valley, is the hill town of Greccio. Home to just about 100 residents, the village is famed for an event that took place in 1223. Within a grotto nestled within a cliff, here, St. Francis of Assisi reenacted the first nativity scene.

Referred to locally as the “New Bethlehem,” St. Francis desired to recreate a living nativity scene (with live animals and hay) in order to render the feast of the birth of Christ more real. Before this event, the feast of the Nativity of Christ was a minor feast in the liturgical calendar of the Church.

St. Francis had been to Greccio several times and was close to a local knight and tertiary named Giovanni (John).

Francis told John that he wished to “enact the memory of that babe who was born in Bethlehem: to see as much as is possible with my own bodily eyes the discomfort of his infant needs, how he lay in a manger, and how, with an ox and a donkey standing by, he rested on hay” (Thomas of Celano, First Life, Chapter 30).

The site was a cave on the face of a cliff some three kilometers (2 miles) from the village. With John’s assistance, animals were led to the grotto and hay and a manger were installed. St. Francis, a deacon, served at the Mass. The liturgy came to life spectacularly. The people gathered entered into the mystery of the incarnation in an entirely novel way as they saw with their eyes what Christmas meant.

Afterwards, an altar was constructed over the manger and a small church was built around the grotto. A similar Mass was celebrated the following year. In time, the practice spread to other parts of the region, then all of Italy. Soon, people everywhere began reenacting Christmas in such a way.

The hermitage of Greccio stands out prominently on the side of a cliff.

Today, Greccio is visited by tens of thousands of pilgrims each year. A hermitage staffed by OFM Franciscan friars safeguards the grotto where St. Francis recreated the first creche. Around the cave is an ancient hermitage where St. Francis and the early friars lived in the early thirteenth century. It includes a primitive refectory and dormitory. Above it is the newer hermitage (that is, from the mid-thirteenth century), built during the era of St. Bonaventure, the Minister General of the order. The small, wooden cells can be visited along with the ancient choir and church.

Next to the old church is a modern church with a display of hand-crafted creches along an upper corridor. Particularly striking are those from the school of Naples, known for a long tradition of artisanship and nativity scenes. The message is that the birth of Jesus was not an event that took place remotely in a faraway age and place; rather, our Savior is with us here and now

The grotto where the first nativity scene took place

The hermitage of Greccio stands out prominently on the side of a cliff.

Christmas at Greccio (1223)