Page:The Second Christ, Saint Francis of Assisi and Ecological Consciousness.pdf/6

Page 6 of 9Original Research were rather to elevate his special (saintly) status instead of being correct in natural terms. A similar marvellous story is that of the cicada (cricket) which Francis kept in his cell in Portiuncula. When he called her (referring to her as ‘sister’) to his hand, she would come and on his command sing praises to God. Francis would often join her in singing and then send her back to her little hiding place. Armstrong (1973:155, fn. 17), however, also notes the interesting point that insects of this kind are known to duet with tapping sounds or sounds of the mouth.

Armstrong (1973:160) indicates that Francis was one of the few saints that felt empathy for fish as fish is ipso facto considered as food. It was near lake Rieti that fisherman caught a large tench which they gave to Francis. As he was sitting in the boat, he felt the same empathy for it as for other living things, addressed it as ‘brother’ and set it free. However, to ‘add radiance to the saint’s halo’ (Armstrong 1973:161), his biographers embroidered on this anecdote – the fish refused to swim away but seemed to be drawn to Francis’ love. Celano relates that it swam away only after he had said a prayer whilst Bonaventura made Francis bless the fish before it went its way. It is clear that both of them idealised a revived earthly paradise like before the Fall, a paradise in which Francis was instrumental (Armstrong 1973:161).

Although Francis was not a complete maverick in his ecological consciousness but echoed many that went before him, his nature mysticism made him unique: ‘Francis’ nature mysticism was his most untraditional positive reaction to creation’ (Sorrell 1988:79). The story most famously told to prove that Francis was a nature mystic is about the waterfowl (probably a water-hen or duck – Armstrong 1973:84) that he held in his hand and then went into ecstasy. It was again in the vicinity of lake Rieti, on his way to Greccio, that someone brought him a waterfowl that probably got stuck in fishing nets. Celano (Armstrong 1973) verbalises this incident as follows:

"On receiving the bird Francis invited it to fly away, but it crouched in his hands ‘as in a little nest’ while the saint prayed and went into ecstasy. After a long time and ‘as though coming back to himself from elsewhere’, he told the waterfowl to depart and gave it his blessing. Thereupon it flew joyously away. (pp. 84–85)"

Following Celano, Armstrong (1973:85) reiterates that this was probably the only instance where a saint fell into a trance whilst holding a bird. Many other legendary accounts of interactions between Francis and birds, apart from his Sermon to the Birds, were told. One example is the rescuing of turtledoves that have been caught in a trap by a young boy and making nests for them. Here they were fed by friars, reared their young and would not depart until told so by Francis. The duet with the nightingale where both Francis and the bird praised God antiphonally is another example as is the kindly falcon who kept watch over Francis, as if it had supernatural intuition, whilst he was sojourning in meditation at a place at La Verna (Armstrong 1973:52, 68, 78). However, Francis also rebuked noisy swallows at Alviano whilst preaching, and they kept silent till the end. This legendary tale greatly impressed his audience, and they believed only someone who was a friend of the Most High could achieve such a feat.

Moving on to mammals, it brings us to the anecdote of the Temptation by Mice. One of the severe criticisms against the ascetics of the middle ages was their negative view of nature, namely that it often harboured demons in its beauty to trap naïve humans. Despite Francis being an exception to this, he, as a child of his time, could not escape this conviction. He fell sick whilst in a cell near St Damian’s and was constantly tormented by mice. Amazingly he endured this ‘diabolical temptation’ with cheerful patience (Armstrong 1973:184) and allowed them to keep on running over him instead of considering some kind of exorcism to drive them away. This ‘grey’ (see Habel above) anecdote, however, is by far overshadowed by the majority of ‘green’ ones, exemplifying his sincere love for nature’s creatures, which also marks his contextual innovativeness (Sorrell 1988:46).

Two other ‘furred beasts’ (Armstrong 1973:184) that Francis lovingly reached out to were the hare and the deer. At Greccio, a leveret that was caught in a snare was brought to him. As we have become used to by now, Francis called him ‘Brother Leveret’ and fondly caressed him. As soon as he released the hare, it would simply jump back onto his bosom and repeated this behaviour. At long last, Francis had to ask his fellow brothers to go and release it in the woods. Here we again clearly detect the imaginative hand of hagiography. However, what we should notice behind this legendary tale’s ‘unnaturalness’ is the highlighting of Francis’ sincerity and sympathetic character, even to the extent of being feminine or maternal (Armstrong 1973:190–196). People knew he was the right person to whom to bring an injured or distressed animal. The medieval conviction that true saints have power over animals is also illustrated by Bonaventura’s tale of the deer in the woods crossing Francis’ path. He commanded the deer to stand still, laid his hands on him and told him to go and praise God, and only then the deer bounded away. Again we get the idea of Francis being a wonder-worker, perhaps more than an animal lover (Armstrong 1973:198) although the latter is most certainly not absent.

Still in the realm of fable-like anecdotes is the tale of the most widely known act of Francis, apart from the Sermon to the Birds and the Canticle of Creatures, namely his miraculous taming of the Wolf of Gubbio. Armstrong (1973:212) eloquently refers to this animal as ‘a beast from the books, not from the woods’. This wolf, so it is told, was constantly harassing, menacing and even killing (some) of the inhabitants of Gubbio as soon as they set foot outside the http://www.ve.org.zadoi:10.4102/ve.v35i1.1310