Saint Francis Of Assisi

St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), popularly called the "Holy Bird" century of Romanticism, is renowned for his extraordinary love for   animals: birds, fish, ants, bees, rabbits, lambs, wolves.

Why did he love them? First, because they are God's creatures. He liked to call them "brothers" and "sisters" because they originate from the same Creator.

It has been told that he had a predilection for suffering animals and for those, like lambs, reminded him of the Saviour.

The Francis' love for animals is to be in the context of his life: the Poverello of Assisi had learned to marvel at all, after his discovery of the Lord. His famous poem, "Canticle of the Creatures," sings the Creator of all beings. This is because of this general attention to our "Sister Mother Earth", he was proclaimed "heavenly patron of ecologists", November 29, 1979.

St. Bonaventure writes:

"By dint of going back to the origin of all things, he had designed for them all, a friendship brimming ...At the Portiuncula, was offered the man a lamb of God, which followed the brothers to the chapel, and  without being drawn,  was a genuflection, thrusting some bleating before the altar of the Virgin prostrated rise to ...In Greccio, a hare preferred to come snuggle on the chest of Francis, who affectionately stroked it ...

Near Venice, the birds made such a racket during the prayer of brothers that Francis silenced them until the end of Lauds. They obeyed him ... In Siena, a pheasant went to eat and flap its wings along with François. At Alverno, the birds were so numerous around his cell that he interpreted as a  farandole this medley to reside there. A hawk woke Francis for prayer ...