An ardent desire to observe to the life the memories of Christmas had taken possession of Francis.

He opened his heart to one of his friends, the knight Giovanni di Greccio, who undertook the necessary preparations.
The imitation of Jesus has in all times been the very centre of Christianity; but one must be singularly spiritual to be satisfied with the imitation of the heart.

With most men there is need that this should be preceded and sustained by an external imitation.

It is indeed the spirit that gives life, but it is only in the country of the angels that one can say that the flesh profiteth nothing.
In the Middle Ages a religious festival was before all things else a representation, more or less faithful, of the event which it recalled; hence the _santons_ of Provence, the processions of the _Palmesel_, the Holy Supper of Maundy Thursday, the Road to the Cross of Good Friday, the drama of the Resurrection of Easter, and the flaming tow of Whitsunday.

Francis was too thoroughly Italian not to love these festivals where every visible thing speaks of God and of his love.
The population of Greccio and its environs was, therefore, convoked, as well as the Brothers from the neighboring monasteries.