{"id":6664,"date":"2026-04-22T13:14:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/?p=6664"},"modified":"2026-04-29T13:17:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T13:17:06","slug":"on-earth-day-a-look-at-st-francis-of-assisi-as-patron-of-the-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/on-earth-day-a-look-at-st-francis-of-assisi-as-patron-of-the-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"On Earth Day, a Look at St. Francis of Assisi as Patron of the Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Katie Yoder, OSV News<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(OSV News) \u2014 St. Francis of Assisi was declared a saint nearly 800 years ago, just two years after his death. Not until much more recently \u2014 about 50 years ago \u2014 was the beloved 13th-century Italian friar called the patron of ecology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJohn Paul II makes that proclamation in 1979,\u201d explained Joshua C. Benson, associate professor of historical and systematic theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington. \u201cPart of what\u2019s happening there is that there\u2019s greater ecological awareness on the part of people \u2014 and in looking for a patron for that, Francis became an obvious choice.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benson and other experts spoke with OSV News about how the founder of the Franciscan order became the patron saint of ecology, amid the Jubilee Year of St. Francis marking the 800th anniversary of his death. Like St. John Paul II\u2019s proclamation, these experts recognized St. Francis\u2019 special approach to creation. In particular, they pointed to his poem \u201cThe Canticle of the Creatures<\/a>,\u201d where he used language such as \u201cBrother Sun\u201d and \u201cSister Moon\u201d to refer to creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you look at St. Francis\u2019 life, he shows a very deep and real care for creation,\u201d said Father Jonathan St. Andre, a Third Order Regular Franciscan friar and vice president for Franciscan life at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. \u201cWe see that in his writings, particularly in a beautiful writing called \u2018The Canticle of the Creatures\u2019 \u2026 he talks about how all of creation praises God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capuchin Franciscan Father Robert Barbato, rector of the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi in San Francisco, said St. Francis wrote the canticle at the end of his life. It draws from the saint\u2019s recognition that \u201cwe all come from the same creator and need to care for one another.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An ecology ahead of its time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While St. Francis\u2019 approach to creation was not unusual in the spirituality of his time, he gave it \u201cpopular and accessible words\u201d in his canticle, said Franciscan Father Joseph Chinnici, president emeritus and professor of history at the Franciscan School of Theology at the University of San Diego.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHis spirituality emphasized the communion between God and creatures in Jesus Christ,\u201d he said. \u201cCreated through the Word of God, all things bore the stamp of the Word. His vision emphasized not so much being the \u2018steward of creation\u2019 as a companion or kin with other creatures, gifts from a most generous God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Father St. Andre added that St. Francis \u201cloves creation at a deeper level, because creation is Christic \u2014 it reflects Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. John Paul II\u2019s 1979 declaration belongs to a larger focus, Father Chinnici said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis focus on the need to be responsible for the environment has been a major theme of Church teaching, culminating in the encyclical letter of Pope Francis, Laudato Si\u2019<\/em>, On Care for Our Common Home<\/em><\/a> he said of the 2015 papal document that takes its name from St. Francis\u2019 canticle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this letter, the late pope<\/a> \u201cshows how this spiritual experience of Francis was one with his concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society and interior peace,\u201d Father Chinnici said. \u201cToday, this timely \u2018integral ecology\u2019 of Francis represents a path for the believer partially to heal a suffering world<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For St. Francis, creation is \u201csacramental\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Benson called St. Francis the obvious choice as patron of ecology because of his tendency to call everything \u201cbrother\u201d or \u201csister,\u201d his interactions with creatures, and his \u201csacramental vision of reality\u201d embedded in his canticle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe liturgy shows us that the created gifts we bring of bread and wine can be transformed by the power of the word and the Holy Spirit into Christ himself,\u201d Benson said. \u201cFor Francis then, all of creation kind of becomes sacramental in a way, in as much as the temporal and the physical becomes a gateway or a window to those things that are eternal and spiritual to God himself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benson said this is connected with St. Francis\u2019 love for creation, and the saint was especially concerned with creatures with a biblical connection to Christ. St. Francis saw the worm in light of the Scripture passage, \u201cI am a worm and no man\u201d (Ps 22:6<\/a>), referring to Christ and his suffering. He saw Christ as the Lamb of God, a title proclaimed by St. John the Baptist (Jn 1:29<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when St. Francis saw a worm on his path, he picked it up. When he saw a lamb about to be butchered, he rescued it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Franciscan Father Jerome Wolbert at the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America noted the stories of St. Francis preaching to the birds and negotiating a truce with a \u201cBrother Wolf,\u201d while, at the same time, disliking when mice ran over him. Like Benson, he said St. Francis rescued lambs because of their connection to Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is also the telling of how when one year Christmas fell on a Friday, and the brothers were arguing over whether they had to keep the Friday fast,\u201d he said. \u201cSt. Francis went into the kitchen and picked up a piece of meat, smearing it on the wall as he said, \u2018It\u2019s Christmas! Even the walls should eat meat!\u2019\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While celebrating St. Francis as the patron of ecology<\/a>, Father St. Andre hopes people get to know the saint more fully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was a lover of Jesus Christ,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was a lover of the incarnate Christ in the crib, a lover of the Christ in the Eucharist, Christ in the cross \u2014 and out of that love, he came to love creation and the leper and the people around him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Featured image: A statue of St. Francis of Assisi is pictured outside an animal hospital in Prince Fredrick, Md., July 22, 2021. His feast day is celebrated Oct. 4. (OSV News photo\/Bob Roller)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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