Sydney
22 December 2002
Home
Archive
Subscribe
Links
Contact
Madonna and Christ child by Fra Angelico
Clouds, silver linings and life
Bl Mary in the Eye of the Beholder
Catholic Welfare concern at reforms
Old boys go back to Marist school after 50 years
'Phone home' - a mother's plea
Where do you get it?
What if Egypt's border guards had turned the Holy Family back?
Transport, food need at lunch
Schoolkids deliver petition, armbands and a warning of the plight of kids overseas
Sydney dinner to honour Coptic leader
What do you give a refugee for Christmas?
How the 'Sacred Heart six' came to the rescue
Editorial: Time of prayer, hope
Letters: Euthanasia
Conversation: Stephen Said - pastoral support services co-ordinator - Helping children cope with crisis
Practical tips for the festive season
Roses greet a saint in a year of turmoil
Where Christmas is celebrated every day of the year
Where Christmas is celebrated every day of the year
St Nicholas of Bari is portrayed in a church window with a bag of coins
By Dr Joe Morley
The festive Christmas season lasts for a few weeks, in thousands of places, to the accompaniment of jangling cash registers.
Its real purpose, commemoration of the greatest event in the history of mankind - the birth of Jesus Christ - is given varying degrees of recognition.
In many places the event is ignored or submerged beneath the trappings of materialism.
However, there are three places where it is honoured every day of the year.
The first is in Bethlehem at the birthplace of Jesus, in the Grotto of the Nativity in the crypt beneath the Basilica of the Nativity. A star in the marble paving marks the spot where the Infant lay in the manger.
The circle surrounding the star is inscribed with the words: Hic de Virgine Maria, Jesus Christus natus est (Here Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary).
Above the star, all day and night throughout the year, 15 lamps burn - six for the Greek Orthodox, five for the Armenians, and four for the Latin Church.
Pilgrims flock there in their millions throughout the year to pray at the sanctified spot. They rub shoulders with hordes of tourists who go there out of curiosity.
Next are two Italian centres - Greccio and Bari.
Greccio is a small town some 60km north-east of Rome and about 30km north-west of Rieti, in the Alban Mountains.
It was here that St Francis of Assisi and his followers led the people of Greccio up the slopes of Mt Lacerone to their small monastery and celebrated the first modern midnight Mass on December 24, 1223.
A layer of straw had been placed on the floor of the grotto; in the corner stood a crib.
At midnight, Francis lovingly placed a representation of the Child Jesus into this Nativity tableau in the cave that is known today as the Franciscan Bethlehem.
On the cave wall is a fresco depicting the Nativity in Bethelem and the original Greccio crib.
The monastery complex is in two parts - the original sanctuary of Greccio, erected in 1260, and the large modern church built in 1959, which houses a huge, elaborate Nativity.
The whole structure perches on the mountain face 640 metres above the valley floor.
In a cave where Francis slept, on the upper level of the original monastery, is a portrait of Francis painted when he had gone blind.
Streams of pilgrims and tourists either drive or walk (as I did) up the paved, winding road each year to look at the site of that first Nativity tableau, a reminder of what occurred in Bethlehem 2000 years ago.
Within the monastery is the Chapel of St Luke, also known as the Chapel of the Crib, which houses a large rock topped by a modern altar slab bearing an inscription recording that first Midnight Mass.
Bari, the second largest city in southern Italy after Naples, is a seaport on the Adriatic, a thriving tourist centre and one of the major ports for ferry travel to and from Greece.
It is also where the relics of St Nicholas, known to millions as
Santa Claus, are venerated.
St Nicholas is synonymous with the gift-giving which marks Christmas. He can be seen as a pointer to the greatest gift of all - the Nativity.
The legend that he saved young girls from a life of prostitution by throwing bags of gold into their windows at night, providing them with dowries, led to him being named the patron of all children.
He is also the patron saint of sailors, travellers, scholars and brides-to-be.
While millions of pilgrims and tourists throng Bari's streets year long, it is packed - beyond its capacity and in carnival mood - from May 7-10 when the festival of St Nicholas takes place.
In 1071, Robert Guiscard, the Norman King of Sicily, captured Bari from the Byzantine Empire; in 1087 Barinese sailors raided Myra, the saint's birthplace in Asia Minor, and took his relics.
A large Romanesque basilica to house the precious relics was built on the ruins of the palace of the Byzantine governor of Bari.
In 1189 Pope Urban II consecrated the crypt where the relics had been placed beneath a magnificent altar.
The Basilica of St Nicholas was completed in 1197.
The relics of St Nicholas are said to exude 'manna' to which miraculous powers are attributed.