MERRY CHRISTMAS DAY TO YOU!

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS TODAY!  BABY JESUS HAS ARRIVED AND APPEARS IN THE MANGER!

In 1291 POPE NICCOLÒ IV COMMISSIONED TUSCAN BORN ARNOLFO DI CAMBIO AKA ARNOLFO DI LAPO TO SCULPT A NATIVITY THAT CELEBRATED AND MEMORIALIZED THE FIRST NATIVITY RECREATED LIVE BY ST. FRANCIS ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT 1223 in GRECCIO, RIETI PROVINCE.

The POPE ASKED FOR SIMPLE LINES AND THIS SIMPLE MARBLE SCULPTURE ON DISPLAY AT LA BASILICA DI SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE IN ROME WAS THE RESULT.  IT IS THE FIRST INANIMATE STILL REPRESENTATION OF THE NATIVITY.  ITS SIMPLICITY COPIES THE BASIC FIGURES OF ST. FRANCIS’s LIVE NATIVITY.

This ANCIENT HISTORICAL CONNECTION IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT TO KNOW BECAUSE THIS YEAR 2023 THE VATICAN CHOSE to REPLICATE ST. FRANCIS’s LIVE Nativity FOR THE NATIVITY IN ST. Peter’s SQUARE!  It’s NOT LIVE but IT IS LIFE-SIZE AND RESEMBLES THE SIMPLICITY OF DISPLAYING ONLY BASIC FIGURES ESSENTIAL TO THE SCENE.









SANDRA PANICI, aka THE ROMAN PILGRIM IN PERSON IN ROME


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