The title of the Papal Encyclical, Laudato Si, is the refrain of the Canticle of Creation by Francis of Assisi. But what did the saint really mean by using this phrase?

In 2013, when the newly elected Pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, chose the papal name Francis after the second most beloved saint in the Catholic Church, St. Francis of Asissi, worldwide hopes rose among environmentalists. To some degree, these hopes appeared to be fulfilled when the title of the Papal Encyclical, Laudato Si!  from 2015 was revealed. Laudato Si! was the refrain of the famous Canticle of Creation written by Francis of Assisi in 1224-06. But what did the saint really mean by using this phrase? And did his poetry align with the explications offered by Pope Francis and his Vatican minions nearly 800 years later?

St. Francis – a gifted playactor

In his lifetime, Francis was not just a beloved spiritual guide, but also a beloved instigator of a new kind of Christian reenactment of the message of the Gospels, which spread as a global firebrand both before his death and in the decades and centuries after. Today, his message reverberates not only in the minds of the millions who go on pilgrimages to Assisi each year. It resonates equally among Christians from all over the world, whether Catholics or not.

The essence of this message was his experience of being called to both “walk the walk, and talk the talk” in a very early Christian Apostolic sense. To be yoked to Christ meant in his view, to follow in the footsteps of the disciples, as recounted by Matthew 10:9-10 (or Luke 9:3): “Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts, or a bag for your journey, or even two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is worthy of his support.” Their objective was, of course, to spread the good Word, the Gospel. [1]

Thus, St. Francis was called to live in this world, not in splendid isolation for this world, as the Ascetic mystics and later monks and nuns did. In this sense, he was a true renovator (at the same time, both a traditionalist and an innovator).

St. Francis – A Nature Mystic

But how do you both live in this world and renounce its less palatable – worldly – life-forms? One way, of course, is to adopt an organic way of thinking about the world. Francis’ call was to partake in the world, less than denounce it. Out of this grew a particular new form of mysticism, which found its most prominent expression in the Christmas miracle in Greccio, where St. Francis set the scene by building one of the first Nativity scenes, complete with the adoring animals – an ass and oxen. Having set the scene in a grotto in this remote part of Lazio, the Baby Jesus naturally came to life amidst the adoring congregation of peasants and mute creatures. 

The life of Francis was resplendent with such vignettes, telling how the he basked joyously in the midst of Creation, reaching a perfect union through the first recorded instance of stigmatization in la Verna.

The Canticle of Creation

It is generally accepted that the precious song of St. Francis, the Canticle of Creation, was a late poetic rendition of this way of thinking about the world. It is also agreed that the first 25 strophes came into being in the winter of 1224 – 25, while the strophes of 26 – 30 were composed somewhat later, and, finally, that the last strophes of “Sister Death” were added a few days before his death.

Here we find the refrain, from which the: “Laudato sie, mi Signore”, the title of the poem and the encyclical has been taken. However, The question has long been whether to understand it as an acclamation of God for his Creation or or an invocation to the Creation to praise the Lord. This question hangs on understanding the small word ‘per’ which crops into the 10th strophe (Laudato si, mi Signore, per sora Luna e le Stelle) and is repeated in the strophes 12, 15, 17,20, 23 and 27.

The word “per” may be understood as an Italian rendering of the Latin “propter” as “for”. (Be praised, my Lord, for Sister Moon and the Stars), which means that St. Francis wished to call us to praise the Creation for its qualities. This is called the “causal” interpretation.

Another understanding, however, sees the “per” as denoting the French “par”; which means the lines should be translated as “Be praised, my Lord, by Sister Moon and the Stars”. This translation would entail that Creation, including humans, should be called upon to be an active agent particpating in the praising.

The controversy about the understanding of this word stems back to the early reflections on the Saint and his overall message.

There is no doubt that Thomas de Celano and Bonaventura [1], who wrote the official Vitae of the Saint, understood his poem in the latter way: as an invocation to nature to participate in the chorus of appraisal. Just as the birds were urged to praise the Lord in the famous vignette painted by Giotto, so was the Canticle to be sung as an exhortation to the whole Creation – including humans –  to align in a prayerful pose. Another argument was that the known models for the Canticle – Psalm 148 and the Canticle of the Three Young Men – also carried this understanding. These liturgical texts were undoubtedly part of the first Franciscans’ daily and weekly liturgies. They echoed this ancient and venerated idea: that Creation should be understood as an aligned chorus albeit with an active role to play, namely praising. To be part of this chorus was the same as to sing and be in unison with the rest of Creation, and to experience a possible mystic unification with God (as in the Stigmata). In short: to be an active participant in the daily alignment with the world.

St. Francis was many things. However, according to this understanding, he was called to be aligned with the birds, bees, and wolves to which he preached.

It is, however, well-known that these Early Franciscans laboured intensely after the death of the Saint to sanitise his life and teachings. It appears that the “unofficial” understanding of the Canticle and the life-work of the Saint as it was recorded in the suppressed Legend, may have differed profoundly with this interpretation leading to a conclusion where the Saint with his text wished to endorse God for his Creation.

It is well-known that only fragments of the unauthorised version were kept for prosperity. One of these suppressed texts is the detailed and informative Legend, written by some of his closest friends and companions. According to this (LP 43) “Francis received a vision in the night, which admonished him to be “glad and joyful in the midst of your infirmities and tribulations: as of now live in peace as if you were already sharing my kingdom”. Upon this happy thought, the story tells us, the Saint began to write his Canticle concerning his creatures, which “minister to our needs every day; without them we could not live; and through them the human race greatly offends the creator. Every day, we fail to appreciate so great a blessing by not praising as we should the creator and dispenser of all these gifts”. And he sat down, concentrated a minute, and then cried out…” [2]

This understanding of the poem – the “causal” – is also substantiated by the grammar used by the Saint (a point made unequivocally by Sorrel). ‘Laudato Si’ is gramatically a passive imperative and not a normal imperative, which would have been the easiest way to invoke Creation to partake in the earthly chorus.

According to Sorrell, there is no doubt that St. Francis specifically wished to invoke humankind to praise, give thanks for and leave space to God’s creatures (his Creation) to fulfil this world. In his Canticle, the creatures were glorified as special gifts of God, useful, beautiful, merciful and more. Sorrell finds the explanation here as to why Francis, in this instance, wrote in his native Umbrian language. The reason was to popularise his invocation by spreading it amongst his fellow townspeople and peasants – exhorting his brothers to entice his people in a human praise of Creation. His was – perhaps – a slightly pantheistic view, which later theologians emphatically tried to erase by flipping the discourse. However, apart from silencing the Saint, this had the grave side-effect of placing humans as passive agents reduced to be members of a voiceless chorus, while the exhortation to mankind to explicitly praise God for his wonderful and useful and beautiful creation, was to call humans to actively uphold this creation; and thus participate in the natural dynamics of the ecosystems of which we are part.

 

Laudato Si in the 21st century

It is apparent from the very first paragraphs in the papal Encyclical, which was presented in 2015, that it is precisely NOT this organic understanding of humans and their relationship to God and his Creation which resonates in the Pope’s “Eco-Encyclical”. In this, the Pope (and his minions) writes that “Saint Francis of Assisi” reminds us that our common home, the Earth, is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother, who opens her arms to embrace us. It is this “sister”, which now “cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her”. In short: there is discoursive strife in this earthly sanctuary because we have absconded us from our “family” in stead of aligning with it (in praise). However, the “minions” have well known that theirs is a balancing role. Tip-toing into the connundrum, the Encyclical in its English translation of the central quotation from St. Francis, goes like this: “Praise be to you, my lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs.” it appears, the Pope subscribes to the official rendition of the worldview of St. Francis reducing nature to instrumentality. By using “trough”, they try to play in both ballparks.

In this version of St. Francis, harmony will, it seems, be restored when we step ascetically aside or backwards, repenting our sins while at the same time joining the heavenly chorus of the Creation in singing God’s praise together with the Angels. In short, we should align with Mother Earth, Mother Church, and Mary, the Queen of all Creation while tending to Her as we do to our garden. It is in the view of this, we must read the final remarks in the introduction to the Encyclical, where the Pope writes: “All of us can cooperate as instruments of God for the care of creation, each according to his or her own culture, experience, involvements and talents.” (Introduction § 14). The point here is bestowing upon humans an active role as caretakers in aligning nature to once again sing in perfect harmony.

However, this was apparently not the view held by St. Francis, who wished for us to embed ourselves as “partners in crime” letting Nature move forward by releasing and rewilding it as best we can.

Conclusion

We may believe that this has no specific relevance. Here is a Pope, who does his best to get humanity to concern itself and take action in view of the manifest increasing numbers of hurricanes, droughts, animal extinctions and blatant destructive acts of the Blue Planet, of which Climate change is one of the most prominent symbola (and to a large extent direct cause).

As such, the Encyclical has already stirring a magnitude of hornet’s nests. When a Pope tries to rally his troops, 1.2 billion people is no minor thing.

It becomes apparent reading chapter six, “Ecological Education and Spirituality”. Here, we are called to curtail our compulsive shopping and turn our back on our consumerist lifestyle; instead, we are urged to reach out to “the other”. To bring this about, the Catholic Church urges us to engage in widespread “environmental education” aimed at creating an “ecological citizenship” and the basis for an “ecological conversion” towards a communitarian understanding of the world.

There is no doubt that the Encyclical is very beautiful and uplifting for Catholics. It may even lead some politicians and businessmen towards a much-needed repentance and conversion. But written in the spirit of St. Francis of Asissi, it is not. Rather, there is a decided whiff of the Jesuit in the air stressing the call for a very active intervention of human beings to repent and restore what has been broken.

Of course, the question then remains: what might St. Francis have suggested had he lived in our time? Following Sorrell, we may perhaps speculate that he would have urged us to simply slow down and take our time to really enjoy the wilderness and creatures large and small with gratitude and in prayerful contemplation of their reenactment of their destiny. To rewild ourselves and our surroundings rather than being so busy, busy, busy with restoration. To live in nature, rather than for nature. Perhaps that might even be the best way of saving our Mother, the Earth!

Legacy of St. Francis

Even in his lifetime, Frances of Asissi was a controversial figure. Only the intervention of his friends preserved him from the fate of other contemporary lay preachers, who were condemned as heretics. Later, Francis of Assisi’s legacy has reverberated in manifold ways throughout the last 800 years. 

As such, he has often played the role of “a man of all times”, while being both used and abused by the multiple generations that followed in the footsteps of this little, big man.

It appears, he continues to play this role.

NOTES:

[1] Thomas of Celano: Life of St. Francis. Quoted from: Francis of Assisi. Early Documents, Ed. by Regis J. Armstrong. New York City Press 1999, Vol I.

[2] Legend of Perugia § 43 Quoted from: Francis of Assisi. Early Documents, Ed. by Regis J. Armstrong. New York City Press 2000, Vol II: p145

Written in fond remembrance of Brother Clark Berge and his brothers and sisters, who came to Copenhagen in 2009 during Cop 15 and with whom I spent some peaceful hours in St. Alban’s.
Karen Schousboe

NOTES:

[1] Thomas of Celano: Life of St. Francis. Quoted from: Francis of Assisi. Early Documents, Ed. by Regis J. Armstrong. New York City Press 1999, Vol I.

[2] Legend of Perugia § 43 Quoted from: Francis of Assisi. Early Documents, Ed. by Regis J. Armstrong. New York City Press 2000, Vol II: p145

SOURCE:

St. Francis of Assisi and Nature. Tradition and Innovation in Western Christian Attitudes toward the Environment
By Roger D. Sorrell
Oxford University Press (1989) 2009

Lettera Enciclica Laudato si’ sulla cura della casa comune

Published in Arabic, French, English, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and German

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It stands to reason that YouTube presents us with a virtual cornucopia of videos with Franciscans performing the Canticle of Creation. Here is a favorite, tacky yet lovely: