Greccio: The First Living Nativity Scene in History, in the Woods of the Sabine Mountains

In December 1223, Francis of Assisi returned from the Holy Land with an idea in his head. With the help of the nobleman Giovanni Velita, he chose a cave in the woods above Greccio, in the Holy Valley of Rieti, and staged the Nativity with real people, a real ox and a real donkey. Brother Thomas of Celano, the saint's first biographer, described that night as something that turned a religious act into a shared emotion: the farmers of the valley arrived with torches, and the forest filled with light. Eight hundred years later, the living nativity of Greccio is still there, in the same place.

The sanctuary carved into the rock

The Sanctuary of Greccio is not a church in the ordinary sense: it is a Franciscan hermitage clinging to the rock face of the Sabine Mountains at about 665 metres, 15 kilometres from Rieti. You reach it on foot from the village along a forest path of about twenty minutes, or by car to the upper car park. Franciscan friars still live here, and even outside the Christmas season they welcome visitors with a sober discretion that suits the place. The cloister, the refectory, the chapel where Francis celebrated that first midnight mass: everything has remained on a human scale, without monumentality.

The living nativity in December

Every year between Christmas Eve and Epiphany, the woods around the sanctuary come to life again: dozens of performers in medieval costume re-enact the scene of that December 1223, with live animals and torches lighting the path among the trees. It is not a re-enactment for tourists: the village of Greccio has cared about it for eight hundred years, and you can feel it. The Christmas market in the village square, a couple of kilometres below, offers local crafts and products from the Sabina farming cooperatives — extra-virgin olive oil, cheeses, wildflower honey.

How to get there and combine the visit

Greccio is reached from Rieti in about 20 minutes by car along the SS79. Those coming from Rome can get to Rieti by train or bus and continue by taxi or by the infrequent local buses. A logical itinerary pairs Greccio with nearby Rieti — an underrated medieval city, with a fine Romanesque cathedral and an old town almost devoid of tourists — for a weekend in the Umbrian-Lazian Holy Valley.