amatesura:

Hannibal, Su-zakana,
Peter Bernardone

| Saint Francis of Assisi

(Giovanni di Pietro Bernardone)

Francis considered all nature as the mirror of God and as so many steps
to God. He called all creatures his “brothers” and “sisters,” and, in
the most endearing stories about him, preached to the birds and
persuaded a wolf to stop attacking the people of the town of Gubbio and their livestock if the townspeople agreed to feed the wolf. In his “Canticle of the Creatures”
(less properly called by such names as the “Praises of Creatures” or
the “Canticle of the Sun”), he referred to “Brother Sun” and “Sister
Moon,” the wind and water, and even “Sister Death.” He nicknamed his
long and painful illnesses his “sisters,” and he begged pardon of
“Brother Ass the body” for having unduly burdened him with his penances.
Above all, his deep sense of brotherhood under God embraced his fellow
men, for “he considered himself no friend of Christ if he did not
cherish those for whom Christ died.”