After more than two thousand years we are back where we started. The not at all peaceful events of Christmas Eve in the Holy Land with the panicked search for a shelter and other adversities are currently taking place again in a desperate manner. Israeli newborns were brutally massacred as in Herod’s Bethlehemite infanticide; Palestinian children are wandering around Gaza on the run, without a roof over their heads and with too little to eat and drink, and – almost forgotten – mothers are still giving birth there under the most adverse conditions. UNICEF rightly writes on its website: “It’s a lot about whose side you’re on. We are on the side of the children.” Never in history have Bethlehem and the Unholy Land come so close to the end of the year, at least via screen every evening.
Today’s nativity scene is thanks to Francis of Assisi
This December 24th marks the eight hundredth anniversary of the invention of the familiar Bethlehem nativity scene. Christmas in its current form, with its many different rituals, is a wild pasticcio of diverse influences and has grown over centuries. It is thanks to Francis of Assisi that the assistant figures of the ox and donkey, which are not mentioned at all in the biblical Christmas story, are missing from any nativity play today. In 1223 he invented this Arte Povera performance and expansion of the spiritual spectacles of his time in the Marian grotto of the hermitage of Greccio in the Rieti Valley, with live animals, which Francis, as a pre-ecological forerunner, naturally placed on an equal footing with people around a child on the simple straw bed because the idea of the Son of God born into naked poverty and humility was his central concern. And when the entire world rejoices over the birth, for the saint this also includes the animal world. Even the otherwise always forgotten birds, with whom he particularly enjoys talking, are welcomed at the nativity scene. However, artists have been adding ox and donkey as images to their Christmas depictions since late antiquity – the sarcophagus from Sant’Ambrogio in Milan from the late fourth century is the first sculptural example – true to the passage from Isaiah: “The ox knows its owner and the ass his master’s manger.”
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800 years of nativity scenes: grave silent night
Since Milan was replaced as one of the four capitals of the empire, all roads lead back to Rome: For Catholics, the monumental Vatican nativity scene erected in front of the obelisk in St. Peter’s Square is usually a model, but since 2020, many believers have tacitly embraced this nativity scene ultramontanism out of. In those days, Emperor Franz, sorry, Pope Francis, issued the order to erect nineteen bizarre ceramic figures, including an astronaut and a figure in dark armor that resembled Darth Vader from the star saga “Star Wars”. Unfortunately, this year’s presepe isn’t much better. Once again life-sized, arranged by resourceful set designers from the cinematic spaghetti western stronghold Cinecittà, a total of four Franciscans are now standing around the Christ child in such a pitifully threadbare, tattered habit that you immediately want to throw money on the big stage. But Franz, who is covered all over with patches, is much closer to the child than the foster father Joseph; he is Mary’s real counterpart. Of course, the legitimacy of such mendicant order hegemony is due to the 800th anniversary of the Franciscan nativity scene. To justify this, the diocese of Rieti is cited as the sponsor and sponsor of the spectacle, and the saint’s three companions, Fratres Leone, Rufino and Angelo, are dutifully listed by name. But a rogue who doesn’t see it as a crypto-portrait of the self-confident successor of the saint on St. Peter’s throne. On December 1, 2019, he had canonized Franz’s nativity scene as the most authentic in the official apostolic letter “Admirabile signum”.
2023-12-24 10:19:13
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