The sixth edition of the exhibition ‘100 Cribs in the Vatican’ is to take place 800 years after the first Nativity scene was set up by St Francis of Assisi in Greccio, Italy

“I would like to represent the Baby born in Bethlehem, and somehow let people see him with their own eyes … how he was laid down in a feeding trough and how he lay there on the straw between the ox and the ass.”

Franciscan sources – the so-called Fonti Francescane - describe thus the desire that burned in the heart of St Francis in the weeks leading up to Christmas 1223 – the desire to represent the Nativity in a way that everyone could experience and take in with a glance the concrete reality of God made man.

2023 is the year that marks the eighth centenary of that first representation of the Nativity scene which Saint Francis set up in Greccio, a little village close to the Italian city of Rieti. In 1223 the future patron saint of Italy stopped off in the valley outside Rieti, probably on his return journey from Rome, where, on 29 November of that year, he had received from Pope Honorius III the confirmation and approval of his new Franciscan Rule.

The grottos which occur naturally in the area around Greccio reminded him of those he had seen in the Holy Land and especially recalled the panorama of Bethlehem.

Two weeks before Christmas, according to the Fonti, Francis called on a man known only as John, and asked him to help him build his crib. So it was, that on 25 December that year, in the presence of many Friars who had made their way to Greccio, St Francis, when he saw the crib with the straw, the ox and the ass, was filled with joy.

“In that moving scene shines forth the simplicity of the Gospel: poverty is praised and humility presented to us in a positive way.  Greccio has become like a new Bethlehem,” said the saint. (Fonti Francescane 469).

Now, 800 years on from that first Christmas crib scene in history being set up, the tradition is passed on in homes and communities, across the world, bringing with it a message of hope and peace which never fades away. 

The sixth edition of the international exhibition ‘100 Cribs in the Vatican’ will also be an occasion to celebrate the historic anniversary as part of the preparations for the Jubilee Year 2025.

Entries for the international exhibition can still be made until the closing date of 30 September 2023, by completing the relevant online form on the website: http://www.evangelizatio.va/content/pcpne/it/attivita/100-presepi-in-vaticano/Candidatura2023.html