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Author photo of Kathleen Brady

Kathleen Brady

Kathleen Brady is the author of Francis and Clare: The Struggles of the Saints of Assisi, winner of a Catholic Media Association award in biography. Her previous subjects include Ida Tarbell and Lucille Ball.

By this Author

The Nativity scene is revealed and the Christmas tree is lit in St. Peter’s Square Dec. 9 at the Vatican. The creche is a reproduction of the scene in Greccio, Italy, where St. Francis of Assisi staged the first Nativity scene in 1223. The baby Jesus will be placed in the manger Dec. 24. (CNS/Lola Gomez)

Did St. Francis invent the Christmas crèche as we know it?

St. Francis has long been widely, but inaccurately, hailed as the inventor of the Christmas crèche, the collection of figurines set up in churches and homes. But a crèche is not what St. Francis created, argues Kathleen Brady.

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