Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

For the Birds? Francis and the Feathered Tribe March 23, 2016

This brilliant illustration is from Hark

The curious episode when St Francis preaches to the birds is one of those famous (everyone knows it) but little read (well have you?) experiences in western hagiography. Today Beach tracked down an English translation from this site and more importantly the Latin from Thomas of Celano, Francis’ first and most interesting biography written in 1228: Francis died in 1226. Thomas had become a friar in 1215 and had certainly met and got to know Francis.

There are three approaches to these preaching episodes that are worth shooting down. First, they are compared to the many episodes in western hagiography where saints command birds not to do something: typically saints become glorified scare-crows and tell sparrows not to eat wheat. They are particularly compared to episodes in ‘Celtic’ saints’ lives and ‘Celtic’ saints’ literature where saints are associated with birds: the problem here is that birds in the Irish and Brittonic tradition are almost always indicators of the authority of the saint or, in more outlandish texts, souls of the dead. There is a strikingly beautiful exception to this in the late seventh-century life of Columba (by Adomnan) involving a stork, but it proves the rule. Second, much is made of a line in the gospel of Mark where Christ sends out his disciples to change the world: ‘And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.’ ‘Et dixit eis: Euntes in mundum universum praedicate Evangelium omni creaturae.’ This is used in a later life of Francis to justify the saint’s eccentric behavior. It is presumably given in Mark 15, 16 just in the sense of ‘all of the created’.

Let’s quickly deal with these two points. First, these stories are not about Francis’ authority: Francis was blessedly free of the desire to impose on others. Though note that he does tell the congregation to be still and Thomas implies he obliges the birds to stay in one place. As to preaching to creation, it seems very unlikely that Francis was reflecting on Mark’s instruction to preach to ‘every creature’. Francis was a spontaneous saint, it is a miracle that he managed to stay within the medieval church hierarchy given that he got up to games like this. This is a post hoc justification. It is hardly credible that Francis read Mark then went out looking for birds. What we have here is a saint who on numerous occasions treats the natural world as a path to God. Others have looked for parallels to this in the Christian tradition and have trawled through medieval Irish nature poetry and some of the ‘glimmers’ in the fathers. Beach doubts very much that any saint before Francis would have come up with Canticle of Nature or systematically called any animal he met ‘brother’ or ‘sister’. Francis was an ‘original’ and the texts that follow are so attractive because they should probably be read in a straightforward manner. Beach is not here claiming that the birds were interested in transubstantiation, but that Francis and his brother really believed they had a mission among the ‘feathered tribe’. That is not to say that Thomas does not edit out awkward moments: there is one added after the triumphal texts below from a later medieval manuscript.

During the time when (as has been said) many joined themselves to the brethren the most blessed father Francis was journeying through the valley of Spoleto, and came to a spot near Bevagna where a very great number of birds of different sorts were gathered together, viz. doves, rooks, and those other birds that are called in the vulgar tongue monade [actually monaclae, a word scan problem?, the word would mean ‘monks’]. When he saw them, being a man of the most fervent temper and also very tender and affectionate toward all the lower and irrational creatures, Francis the most blessed servant of God left his companions in the way and ran eagerly toward the birds. When he was come close to them and saw that they were awaiting him, he gave them his accustomed greeting. But, not a little surprised that the birds did not fly away (as they are wont to do) he was filled with exceeding joy and humbly begged them to hear the word of God: and, after saying many things to them he added, ‘My brother birds, much ought you to praise your Creator, and ever to love Him who has given you feathers for clothing, wings for flight and all that you had need of. God has made you noble among His creatures, for He has given you a habitation in the purity of the air, and, whereas you neither sow nor reap, He himself does still protect and govern you without any care of your own.’ On this (as he himself and the brethren who had been with him used to say) those little birds, rejoicing in wondrous fashion, after their nature, began to stretch out their necks, to spread their wings, to open their beaks and to gaze on him. And then he went to and fro amidst them, touching their heads and bodies with his tunic. At length he blessed them, and, having. made the sign of the Cross, gave them leave to fly away to another place. But the blessed father went on his way with his companions, rejoicing and giving thanks to God Whom all creatures humbly acknowledge and revere. Being now, by grace, become simple (though he was not so by nature) he began to charge himself with negligence for not having preached to the birds before, since they listened so reverently to God’s word. And so it came to pass that from that day he diligently exhorted all winged creatures, all beasts, all reptiles and even creatures insensible, to praise and love the Creator, since daily, on his calling on the Savior’s name, he had knowledge of their obedience by his own experience.

Interea dum, sicut dictum est, multi appositi sunt ad fratres, beatissimus pater Franciscus iter faciebat per uallem Spoletanam, qui ad locum quemdam applicuit prope Meuanium, in quo diuersi generis congregata erat animalium maxima multitudo, columbarum uidelicet, cornicularum, et aliarum, quae uulgo monaclae uocantur. Has cum uidisset beatissimus seruus Dei Franciscus, quia homo maximi feruoris erat, magnum etiam circa inferiores, et irrationabiles creaturas pietatis, atque dulcedinis gerens affectum, alacriter cucurrit ad eas, in uia sociis derelictis. Cum autem satis prope iam esset, uidens quod eum praestolarentur , ipsas more solito salutauit. Sed admirans non modicum, quomodo aues non surrexissent in fugam, ut facere solent, ingenti repletus gaudio humiliter deprecatus est eas, ut uerbum Dei deberent audire, et inter plura, quae locutus est eis, hoc adjunxit: fratres mei uolucres, multiim debetis laudare Dominum creatorem uestrum, et ipsum diligere semper, qui dedit uobis plumas ad induendum, pennas ad uolandum, et quidquid necesse fuit uobis. Nobiles uos fecit Deus inter creaturas, et in puritate aeris uobis contulit mansionem, quoniam cum nec seminetis, nec metatis, ipse nihilominus sine omni uostra sollicitudine uos protegit, et gubernat. Ad haec auiculae illae, ut ipse dicebat, et qui cum eo fuerant fratres, miro modo super naturam suam exultantes coeperunt estendere collum, protendere alas, aperire os, et in illum respicere. Ipse uero transiens per medium illarum ibat, et reuertebatur cum tunica sua capita eorum contingens, et corpora. Benedixit denique ipsis, et signo crucis facto licentiam tribuit, ut ad locum alium transuolarent. Beatus autem ibat cum sociis suis per uiam suam gaudens, et gratias agebat Deo, quem omnes creaturae confessione supplici uenerantur. Cum esset iam simplex gratia, non natura, coepit se de negligentia incusare, quod olim non prsedicauerit auibus, postquam audirent tanta cum reuerentia uerbum Dei. Sicque factum est, ut ab ilio die cuncta uolatilia, cunctaque reptilia, et etiam creaturas, quae non sentiunt, ad laudem, et amorem creatoris sollicitus hortaretur, quoniam quotidie, inuocato nomine saluatoris, propria experientia ipsarum obedientiam cognoscebat.

One day (for instance) when he was come to the fortress called Alviano to set forth the word of God, he went up on an eminence where all could see him, and asked for silence. But though all the company held their peace and stood reverently by, a great number of swallows who were building their nests in that same place were chirping and chattering loudly. And, as Francis could not be heard by the men for their chirping, he spoke to the birds and said, ‘My sisters, the swallows, it is now time for me to speak too, because you have been saying enough all this time. Listen to the word of God and be in silence, and quiet, until the sermon is finished!’ And those little birds (to the amazement and wonder of all the bystanders) kept silence forthwith, and did not move from that place till the preaching was ended. So those men when they had seen that sign, were filled with the greatest admiration, and said, ‘Truly this man is a Saint, and a friend of the Most High.’ And with the utmost devotion they hastened at least to touch his clothes, praising and blessing God. And it is certainly wonderful how even the irrational creatures recognized his tender affection towards them and perceived beforehand the sweetness of his love.

Nam cum die quadam ad castrum nomine Albianum, (ut) uerbum Dei proponere aduenisset, ascendens in eminentiori loco spectandus ab omnibus coepit silentium postulare. Silentibus uero cunctis, et reuerenter astantibus, hirundines quamplures garrientes, et perstrepentes multum nidificabant in eodem loco. Quibus garrientibus, quia beatus Franciscus ab hominibus audiri non poterat, auibus locutus est. Sorores meae hirundines, iam tempus est, ut loquar et ego, quia uos satis dixistis. Audite uerbum Dei, et estote in silentio, et quiete, donec sermo Dei compleatur. At ipsse auiculae, stupentibus, et mirantibus, qui assistebant, statim conticuerunt, nec motae sunt de loco ilio, quoadusque praedicatio finiretur. Illi ergo uiri cum uidissent hoc signum repleti sunt admiratione maxima dicentes.

Here is the ‘awkward’ scene. it is apparently quoted in a ‘medieval Franciscan manuscript’. I’ve been unable to track the reference at short notice.

Rapt in devotion, Francis once found by the roadside a large flock of birds, to whom he turned aside to preach, as he had done before to another flock. But when the birds saw him approaching they all flew away at the very sight of him. Then he came back and began to accuse himself most bitterly saying ‘What effrontery you have, you impudent son of Pietro Bernadone’ and this because he had expected irrational creatures to obey him as if he, and not God, were their creator.

Interesting.