Eight hundred years of The Canticle of the Creatures

Today, October 4, the Roman Christian calendar celebrates the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, chosen as the patron saint of ecology by the Roman church, it is worth remembering that his famous “Canticle of the Creatures” is 800 years old this year. This hymn of praise, considered the first text in an Italian vernacular language, begins with the words “Laudato sí” that gave title to Pope Francis’ encyclical letter on the care of the common home. In the “Canticle of the Creatures” Francis addresses the Earth as a brother and as a mother, who not only “sustains us”, but also “governs us”.

It seems evident that the global ecological crisis in which we are immersed could not have arisen if the West had maintained its filial and fraternal ties with Mother Earth.

You can read the English translation of the entire canticle here.