On the evening of the vigil of Christmas one might have seen the faithful hastening to the hermitage by every path with torches in their hands, making the forests ring with their joyful hymns.
Everyone was rejoicing--Francis most of all.

The knight had prepared a stable with straw, and brought an ox and an ass, whose breath seemed to give warmth to the poor _bambino_, benumbed with the cold.

At the sight the saint felt tears of pity bedew his face; he was no longer in Greccio, his heart was in Bethlehem.
Finally they began to chant matins; then the mass was begun, and Francis, as deacon, read the Gospel.

Already hearts were touched by the simple recital of the sacred legend in a voice so gentle and so fervent, but when he preached, his emotion soon overcame the audience; his voice had so unutterable a tenderness that they also forgot everything, and were living over again the feeling of the shepherds of Judea who in those old days went to adore the God made man, born in a stable.[27] Toward the close of the thirteenth century, the author of the _Stabat Mater dolorosa_, Giacopone dei Todi, that Franciscan of genius who spent a part of his life in dungeons, inspired by the memory of Greccio, composed another Stabat, that of joy, _Stabat Mater speciosa_.

This hymn of Mary beside the manger is not less noble than that of Mary at the foot of the cross.