St Francis is greatest related to Assisi however there are additionally essential websites in Lazio the place he left his mark, notably Greccio.
Greek is now not spoken in higher Sabina, because it may need been greater than a thousand years in the past if the legend is to be believed of Greek settlers escaping battle of their nation and settling in Greccio.
Just over an hour away by automotive from Rome, Greccio has an interesting reference to St Francis of Assisi and with the start of Jesus in Bethlehem.
First Grecia, then Grece, Grecce and at last Greccio, this picturesque village perched on rocks among the many holm oak and beech forests of the Sabina mountains overlooking the Rieti plain attracts guests from everywhere in the world.
They come to see the Franciscan church and monastery, elements of which have been based in 1228 – the identical 12 months because the canonisation of the saint – and to have a look at the trendy assortment of nativity scenes set in such contrasting conditions as a tent in sub-Saharan Africa or an Icelandic igloo. Greccio is now a world centre for such fashions displaying the birthplace of Jesus.
The earliest written references to the village seem within the Register of Farfa Abbey compiled by Gregory of Catino within the 1090s, and present that Greccio was being enclosed by six towers and excessive partitions as a part of a defensive ring of fortifications within the space. These protected the approaches to the well-known Benedictine abbey of Farfa that owned most of Sabina and past from the Middle Ages up till the top of the 18th century.
The defensive partitions weren’t, nonetheless, sturdy sufficient to face up to assault by the troops of Frederick II in 1242 because the Holy Roman emperor made his manner from Germany down the backbone of Italy to Sicily, nor when Napoleon invaded and sacked the village on the finish of the 18th century.
Only three towers stay in Greccio as a reminder of that defensive position, however at present most guests head for the hermitage within the rocks outdoors the village the place St Francis is alleged to have slept in self-imposed discomfort, and the place there may be now a monastery, based some 66 years after his loss of life.
For the extra energetic pilgrims, a stroll as much as La Capelletta, a chapel inbuilt 1792 and visual on the skyline of Monte Lacerone (1,200m), may encourage them to relaxation and meditate there as Francis did earlier than them. It was right here within the early months of 1223 that he sought solitude to revise the foundations of his Order to take account of its fast development and its missions outdoors Italy. During his absences overseas in Spain, Palestine and Egypt some elements of the Order had wandered from their strict commentary of the easy guidelines on which it had been based in 1210.
His first try to supply new guidelines resulted in a doc that proved unworkable. He retired to Monte Lacerone in in poor health well being, to “a hut protected by two Hornbeam crops” to redraft them, ultimately sending his newly revised model for approval by Pope Honorious in Rome in Advent 1223. It has remained considerably unchanged to this present day.
It is alleged that Francis began dwelling on Monte Lacerone in 1217 and that the lord of Greccio, Giovanni Velita, had pressed him to come back all the way down to the village to evangelise to the inhabitants and ultimately to reside amongst them. Apparently the holy man responded by getting a toddler to throw a burning firebrand from the mountain into the valley beneath saying that he would reside wherever it landed. Legend has it that it got here to relaxation a kilometre or so north of the village, towards the rocks which then turned his hermitage.
This is meant to have been his favorite hermitage, though he stayed in lots of different locations throughout his travels. When he returned, drained and unwell, to Greccio in 1223, it was there that he organised the primary ever reside re-enactment of the Bethlehem nativity scene, utilizing a donkey and an ox and his followers on Christmas Eve. And it was there that his follower, St Bonaventura, constructed elements of the current monastery after Francis’ loss of life.
Despite a failed try to go to Palestine in 1212 when he was shipwrecked off the Dalmatian coast, Francis’ eventual reference to the Holy Land and Bethlehem happened in 1219. On this event he travelled to Damietta on the Nile delta whereas armies of the Fifth Crusade, proclaimed by Pope Innocent III in 1213, have been besieging the town. Francis – a person of peace – journeyed to Damietta to aim to transform Sultan al Kamil, the top of the Ayyubid empire, to Christianity in order that Jerusalem and Palestine may return to Christian management.
It is unsure what occurred on the assembly between them, though later experiences declare the sultan gave Francis permission to go to Jerusalem and Bethlehem. What is for certain is that the campaign continued for one more two years and resulted in defeat for the crusaders. It was throughout this era that Francis developed the thought of portraying the poverty surrounding the start of Jesus in a Bethlehem steady occupied by an ox and a donkey.
His abiding perception in a lifetime of poverty is effectively mirrored in what his biographer Thomas of Celano experiences was his request to his good friend Velita, lord of Greccio, late in 1223:
“If now it appears good to thee that we should always rejoice this feast collectively, go earlier than me to Greccio and put together every little thing as I inform thee. I need to signify the start of that Child in Bethlehem in such a manner that with our bodily eyes we might even see what He suffered for lack of the requirements of a new child Babe and the way He lay in manger between the ox and ass.”
Velita complied, offered the required props and animals, and phrase quickly unfold among the many Franciscan neighborhood and other people dwelling in Sabina about this extraordinary occasion. Crowds got here carrying candles and burning torches, whereas fires lit the scene and Mass was mentioned over the crib with the animals standing by.
Still at present, the primary ever dwelling nativity scene is re-enacted yearly late on Christmas Eve and on one other six nights following, because it was in 1223, however now added to by different scenes explaining the entire story of St Francis’ involvement. Today a grandstand ensures the trendy, warmly-dressed customer a great view of the proceedings beneath the floodlit cliffs to which the mediaeval monastery clings.
By Philip Biss
Useful data
Greccio is a fairly, little-known village with a large central piazza and occupies a panoramic place overlooking the Rieti plain. The former marshland was drained in early Roman occasions when a canal was dug to the plateau edge at Marmore, permitting the Velino river to cascade into the Terni valley beneath, forming the very best man-made waterfall in Europe, effectively worthy of a go to. Check the web site to make sure of catching the magical second when the water is launched.
There are a number of good eating places in Greccio, not least the appropriately named Nido del Corvo, which has wonderful meals and a spectacular view.
Getting there
By street from Rome: Take the Via Salaria to Rieti after which flip left and proceed about six km in the direction of Terni, turning off left to Contigliano after which following the indicators for Greccio.
By bus from Rome: Cotral bus from Tiburtina to Rieti. Then Cotral bus from Rieti to Greccio.
By practice: from Terni within the course of Rieti, alighting at Greccio station and taking an area bus.
Cammino di Francesco
For those that wish to comply with St Francis’ pilgrim path to Rome, there are good signal posts for the Cammino di Francesco.
For additional data see the Proloco web site. Article first revealed 5 February 2016.
