by Mary Kroner
* Taken from Lincolns Diocese’s website (https://www.lincolndiocese.org/)
St. Francis is the patron saint of animals because of his profound sense of brotherhood with all creation. Like Adam in the Garden of Eden, St. Francis had a heart for all created things as manifestations of God’s power and goodness.
The beauty of the world fascinated Francis, and his love for creation was a means to express his love for the Creator. For example, he would pick up worms lying on the road and move them so they would not be crushed underfoot. He built nests for doves and provided honey for bees to help them through the winter months.
His biographers relate not only instances where he showed this holy affection for animals, but also numerous miraculous instances of animals showing affection to Francis. Examples include a fish that would regularly seek his blessing, a cicada that would come at his call and sing God’s praises with him, and a sheep that would accompany him to recite the Divine Office.
There was one creature with which Francis took issue. He criticized ants for their constant haste and preoccupation with storing up for themselves necessities for the future.
To Francis, they seemed to fail to heed Christ’s exhortation in Matthew 6:25-26, which says, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”
For this reason, he loved birds above all the other animals.
A popular story of Francis preaching to the birds begins when he was walking from one city to the next to acquire more members for his new religious order. He noticed on the way a multitude of birds gathering in the trees and he was inspired to preach to them about their duty to always praise God.
In his work “St. Francis of Assisi: A Biography,” Omer Englebert recounts the homily St. Francis gave to the birds: “My little sisters, many are the bonds which unite us to God. And your duty is to praise Him everywhere and always, because He has let you free to fly wherever you will, and has given you a double and threefold covering and the beautiful plumage you wear.
“Praise Him likewise for the food He provides for you without your working for it, for the songs He has taught you, for your numbers that His blessing has multiplied, for your species which He preserved in the ark of olden times, and for the realm of the air He has reserved for you.
“God sustains you without your having to reap or sow. He gives you fountains and streams to drink from, mountains and hills in which to take refuge, and tall trees in which to build your nests. Although you do not know how to sew or spin, He gives to you and your little ones the clothing you need.
“How the Creator must love you to grant you such favors! So, my sister birds, do not be ungrateful, but continually praise him who showers blessings upon you.”
The birds listened to Francis’ homily and flew away, forming the shape of a cross. Francis marveled at their beauty and joined them in praising God.
Both St. Francis’ immense love for God and his deep trust in His Providence serve as a model for Christians to imitate.
St. Francis of Assisi died Oct. 3, 1226. Pope Gregory IX, his friend and devotee, canonized him in 1228.
St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us!