For several years, Francis was handless. This past winter, Francis also became headless. I can’t have a garden without St. Francis so I purchased a new two foot statue. Once again, Francis stands among the flowers and feeds the birds.

Who hasn’t seen St. Francis in a garden? Even the scholar Lynn White, who critiqued Christian arrogance toward nature as providing the roots of our environmental problems, admires Francis.

“ With him the ant is no longer simply a homily for the lazy, flames a sign of the thrust of the soul toward union with God; now they are Brother Ant and Sister Fire, praising the Creator in their own ways as Brother Man does in his…. The greatest spiritual revolutionary in Western history, Saint Francis, proposed what he thought was an alternative Christian view of nature and man’s relation to it: he tried to substitute the idea of the equality of all creatures, including man, for the idea of man’s limitless rule of creation.”

At the very end of his article, White declares:

“ I propose Francis as a patron saint for ecologists.”

The famous fresco from the Basilica of St. Francis certainly supports Francis as “patron saint for ecologists.”

Here in Assisi I see St. Francis the ecologist. Whatever the multitude of causes for our environmental crisis, I am reminded of Francis alternative and more gentle attitude toward the world around us. As with “Pax”, I see symbols for Francis and a humble attitude everywhere.

Francis wrote the beautiful Canticle of the Sun or Canticle of the Creatures in 1224. My old copy hanging in our kitchen; a newer copy hanging in an Assisi store for sale. The words are ageless.

. Parts of the Canticle goes as follows:

“Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures,

especially Sir Brother Sun,

who brings the day; and you give light through him.

And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendour!

Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,

in heaven you formed them clear and precious and beautiful.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind,

and through the air, cloudy and serene,

and every kind of weather through which you give sustenance to Your creatures.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water,

which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire,

through whom you light the night and he is beautiful

and playful and robust and strong.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth,

who sustains us and governs us and who produces

varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.”

May Francis help us overcome our arrogance toward the environment and recognize its intrinsic worth.