ABSTRACT
The carol is sung every Christmas; and each year in countless schools and churches the nativity is re-enacted. It was a favourite practice of Francis of Assisi, revered for his love of all creatures; and his example did much to establish the custom in Christendom. According to his early biographer Thomas of Celano, Francis asked that a manger be prepared with hay, and an ox and ass brought to stand near it,
For I wish to enact the memory of the babe who was born in Bethlehem: to see as much as possible with my own bodily eyes the discomfort of his infant needs, how he lay in a manger, and how, with an ox and an ass standing by, he rested on hay.
