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Sunday, December 24, 2023

12/25/23 Report - Merry Christmas. The First Christmas Nativity Scene. One of My All-Time Favorite 1715 Fleet Finds. And a Mistake.

 

Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.


St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and founder of the Catholic Church's Franciscan Order, began the Christmas tradition of nativity scenes (also called creches or manger scenes) because he wanted to help people gain a fresh sense of wonder about the miracles that the Bible records from the first Christmas.

Up until Francis set up the first nativity scene in 1223, people celebrated Christmas primarily by going to Mass (a worship service) at church, where priests would tell the Christmas story in a language that most ordinary people didn’t speak: Latin. Although churches sometimes featured fancy artistic renditions of Christ as an infant, they didn’t present any realistic manger scenes. Francis decided that he wanted to make the extraordinary experiences of the first Christmas more accessible to ordinary people.

Francis, who was living in the town of Greccio, Italy at the time, got the Pope’s permission to proceed with his plans. Then he asked his close friend John Velita to loan him some animals and straw to set up a scene there to represent Jesus Christ’s birth in Bethlehem. The nativity scene could help people in the area imagine what it may have been like to be present on the first Christmas long ago...

Here is the link for more about that.

First Nativity Scene: Saint Francis Christmas History (learnreligions.com


I don't know how to say this, but I really like St. Francis.  That is a poor way to express what I mean, but I'll let it go at that.  And one of my favorite all-time 1715 Fleet finds is the Franciscan medallion, which was found years ago at John Brooks beach, is shown below. 

I didn't have any idea what I had when I found the object.  In fact, it remained in a pile of heavily corroded and encrusted metal detected coins before I finally decided to dump the coins in a tumbler.  When I took the coins out, I discovered that one of them was not a coin at all, but rather a religious medallion.  It was so encrusted that it originally looked round and I thought it was a coin like the others in the pile.  After removing the coins to check on them (fortunately I don't leave things in a long time before checking on them), I could see that it had a cross-like shape and was definitely a medallion instead of a coin.  

[Note: Be very careful about what you put in a tumbler.  What a regrettable mistake I made!]


Franciscan Medallion Showing St. Anthony of Padua
Being Forgiven Upon the Return of a Stolen Psalter.


The medallion shows St. Francis forgiving St. Anthony (on his knees).  My readers provided that information.  

St. Anthony is the patron saint for lost objects.  What a coincidence!  Finding a Franciscan medallion depicting the patron Saint of lost objects.  


Back of Same Medallion Showing a Prayer


With the help of the readers of this blog, the mystery of this medallion, including the Latin prayer on the back, was solved.

I was told that the words on the back are a blessing that St. Francis wrote to Brother Leo.

"Benedicat tibi Dominus et custodiat te;
ostendat faciem suam tibi et misereatur tui.
Convertat vultum suum ad te et det tibi pacem"

I was able to clearly make out the following words on the medallion: Custodiat, ostendat faciem, miseratur. and convertat vultum.


That prayer is known as the "May the Lord give you peace" prayer.

Here is the translation.

"The Lord bless you and keep you;
may He show His face to you and have mercy.
May He turn His countenance to you and give you peace."

One of the blog's readers, Moe, provided the translation.

Here are two of my original posts on the medallion, including a bit of additional information.


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