Francis is well known as the saint who loved animals. He preached to the birds, and wrote the Canticle of the Sun which many Christians will have sung as the hymn ‘All creatures of our God and King’. He responded passionately to the world around him. But this was not a sentimental response. It included the less lovely parts of the natural world as well. He would not step on worms in his path, and when his eye was to be cauterised, he spoke kindly to the fire which was to cause him great pain.

At the heart of his love for creation was an even greater love for its creator. He saw creation as a gift of God, and as a means of knowing God. In some forms of spirituality our eyes are closed to shut out any distraction from the created world; in Franciscan spirituality our eyes are open wide to see everything which God has made, and to give thanks for everything. Bonaventure, Francis’ official biographer, wrote: ‘Francis sought occasion to love God in everything … In everything beautiful, he saw him who is beauty itself, and he followed his Beloved everywhere by his likeness imprinted on creation; of all creation he made a ladder by which he might mount up and embrace Him who is all-desirable.’ (Bonaventure, Major Life of St Francis, IX:1 - Habig)   One of the outcomes of this love for the creator and the creation was a strong sense that everything created was brother and sister to him. God was father to and of all, and so everything and everyone was a sister or brother to Francis. This is why in the Canticle he refers to the Sun, Wind and Fire as brother, and the Moon and stars, Water, and Earth, as sister. Sister water

Francis preeches to the birds

Want to find out more?