All are welcome at the Franciscan Center’s annual “Blessing of the Creche” on Friday, December 2nd at 6:00 pm on the Center grounds at 3010 North Perry Avenue, Tampa. We’ll provide cookies, cider, and caroling, and we encourage guests to bring their nativity scene figurines to be blessed by the Franciscan Friars of Sacred Heart Parish in Tampa. We also invite you to bring an unwrapped non-perishable food item, individually wrapped snacks/wrapped candy treats, and toys for elementary school age children, ages 5-13.
This blessing event is an annual tradition at the Franciscan Center. St. Francis of Assisi commemorated the birth of Jesus with a live nativity scene in 1223. Villagers came to gaze at the nativity as Francis preached about “the babe of Bethlehem.” Legend also claims that the hay used by Francis miraculously acquired the power to cure local cattle diseases.