th bodily eyes His infant hardships; how He lay in a manger on the hay,
with the ox and the ass standing by." The good man prepared all that the
Saint had commanded, and at last the day of gladness drew nigh. The
brethren were called from many convents; the men and women of the town
prepared tapers and torches to illuminate the night. Finding all things
ready, Francis beheld and rejoiced: the manger had been prepared, the hay
was brought, and the ox and ass were led in. "Thus Simplicity was
honoured, Poverty exalted, Humility commended, and of Greccio there was
made as it were a new Bethlehem. The night was lit up as the day, and was
delightsome to men and beasts.... The woodland rang with voices, the
rocks made answer to the jubilant throng." Francis stood before the
manger, "overcome with tenderness and filled with wondrous joy"; Mass was
celebrated, and he, in deacon's vestments, chanted the Holy Gospel in an
"earnest, sweet, and loud-sounding voice." Then he preached to the people
of "the birth of the poor King and the little town of Bethlehem."
"Uttering the word 'Bethlehem' in the manner of a sheep bleating, he
filled his mouth with the sound," and in naming the Child Jesus "he
would, as it were, lick his lips, relishing with happy palate and
swallowing the sweetness of that word." At length, the solemn vigil
ended, each one returned with joy to his own place.{38}

It has been suggested by Countess Martinengo{39} that this beautiful
ceremony was "the crystallization of haunting memories carried away by
St. Francis from the real Bethlehem"; for he visited the east in 1219-20,
and the Greccio celebration took place in 1224. St. Francis and his
followers may well have helped greatly to popularize the use of the
_presepio_, but it can be |107| traced back far earlier than their
time. In the liturgical drama known as the "Officium Pastorum," which
probably took shape in the eleventh century, we find a _praesepe_ behind
the altar as the centre of the action{40}; but long before this
something of the kind seems to have been in existence in the church of
Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome--at one time called "Beata Maria ad
praesepe." Here Pope Gregory III. (731-41) placed "a golden image of the
Mother of God embracing God our Saviour, in various gems."{41} According
to Usener's views this church was founded by Pope Liberius (352-66), and
was intended to provide a special home for the new festival of Christmas
introduced by him,