On the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the birth of the first nativity scene, he arrives at the Taormina festival Arte FRANCESCO Fratello del cosmos, a show written and directed by Leonardo Petrillo that sees Luca Lazzareschi as the poor man of Assisi. With a cast that includes Rocco Ciarmoli, Antonio Coppola, Bruno Governale, Matteo Montaperto and Gianfranco Teodoro, with the original music by Carlo Covelli, the event, in absolute premiere for the Fondazione Taormina Arte Sicilia, will take place on Saturday 22 July at 21:30 at Parco Trevelyan / Villa Comunale di Taormina.

The action takes place from 10 to 25 December 1223, when Saint Francis, after asking permission from Pope Honorius III, recalls the nativity in Greccio. He calls that reenactment “praesepe” which in Latin indicates the space of animals enclosed by hedges where there is the manger in which Jesus was laid.

The first crib was poor, so as to make visible the hardships in which the Savior found himself, deprived of all the things necessary for a newborn. There were only the ox, the donkey and the manger. St. Francis didn’t want anything else, he didn’t want to “put on a show for the curious to see. The show is disrespectful to the great religious mystery”. That’s why he didn’t want anyone instead of the Madonna, St. Joseph and the child. It was a “visual and true reconstruction” of the birth of Jesus whose presence arrived through the mass celebrated by the Saint.

That first nativity scene, which revived the story lived in Bethlehem with simplicity, poverty and humility, allowed everyone to “go to the Holy Land”. Three years later, the poor man of Assisi (now almost blind) would die. The patron saint of Italy has been many things: half religious half secular, on the margins of the Church but not
heretic, preacher, defender of the poor, animal rights activist, ante litteram ecologist.

In the text of the show, his words mix with those of Pope Francis, like him a supporter of interreligious dialogue and a pacifist, to underline the timeliness of the message: “peace is not an idyllic poetic sentiment, it is resisting evil, love for neighbor, knowing how to forgive. War is never necessary or inevitable. An alternative can always be found: it is the way of dialogue, of encounter and of the sincere search for truth”.

A message that we hope will continue to “travel”, also through our “infinitely small” contribution, since the life of the actors is itinerant like that of the Franciscans.