Blind at San Damiano, St. Francis makes the Praises of the Creatures

SAN DAMIANO, below Assisi, September 1225 AD — Saint Francis of Assisi has made a poem this month in a hut of reeds in the monastery garden at San Damiano, below the walls of Assisi. He is forty-four, worn out by eighteen years of unbroken work, and so far gone in a disease of the eyes that he is almost completely blind. The poem praises God for the sun, the moon, the wind, the water, the fire and the earth. He has taught his companions the words and the tune. It is not in Latin but in the Umbrian that people speak in the street.

San Damiano is the small church he rebuilt with his own hands as a young man. Since 1212 AD it has been the house of Saint Clare of Assisi and her sisters. Cardinal Ugolino had summoned him to Rieti, for treatment by the physicians who came with the Pope’s court. He came down in the summer to say goodbye to St. Clare before the journey. He has been here since the end of July, and his arrival made the illness worse: for fifteen days he could not tell light from dark.

The Mirror of Perfection records those nights: for sixty days and more he could see neither daylight nor firelight, and mice ran over him so that he could neither pray nor rest. One night he prayed: “Lord, look upon me and succour me in mine infirmities that I may endure them in patience.” In the morning he told his companions he meant to make “a new song of praise as concerning those creatures of the Lord whereof we do every day make use and without whom we are not able to live”. He sat down, thought a while, said the first line and put music to it.

The Assisi manuscript carries a heading over the poem, in Latin. It reads: Incipiunt laudes creaturarum quas fecit beatus Franciscus ad laudem et honorem Dei cum esset infirmus ad Sanctum Damianum (Here begin the Praises of the Creatures which the blessed Francis made to the praise and honour of God while he was ill at St. Damian’s). The English below is Paschal Robinson’s. The editions differ on the date: the Catholic Encyclopedia’s life gives September 1225 AD, Robinson the close of the year.

It opens Altissimu, onnipotente, bon signore: “Most high, omnipotent, good Lord, / Praise, glory and honor and benediction all, are Thine. / To Thee alone do they belong, most High, / And there is no man fit to mention Thee.”

Then the sun. “Praise be to Thee, my Lord, with all Thy creatures, / Especially to my worshipful brother sun, / The which lights up the day, and through him dost Thou brightness give; / And beautiful is he and radiant with splendor great; / Of Thee, most High, signification gives.” He holds the sun fairer than the other creatures and a nearer likeness of the Lord, and calls the whole poem The Song of Brother Sun.

The rest follow in order. Sister moon and the stars, “In heaven Thou hast formed them clear and precious and fair”. Brother wind, “By the which Thou givest to Thy creatures nourishment”. Then sister water: “Praised be my Lord for sister water, / The which is greatly helpful and humble and precious and pure.”

Brother fire is next: “Praised be my Lord for brother fire, / By the which Thou lightest up the dark. / And fair is he and gay and mighty and strong.” St. Francis has given his companions his own account of why those two creatures in particular are owed praise every day: “In the morning when the sun ariseth, every man ought to praise God that did create him for our use, for that by him are our eyes enlightened by day; but in the even when the night cometh, every man ought to praise Him for brother fire, for that by him are our eyes enlightened by night, for we be as it were all blind and the Lord by these two brethren doth enlumine our eyes.”

Then the earth: “Praised be my Lord for our sister, mother earth, / The which sustains and keeps us / And brings forth diverse fruits with grass and flowers bright.”

The strophes for the moon and stars, the wind, the water, the fire and the earth each open laudato si, mi signore (praised be my Lord). Then comes per and a name: per frate vento (brother wind), per sor acqua (sister water), per frate focu (brother fire), per sora nostra matre terra (our sister mother earth). The sun strophe opens differently, cum tucte le tue creature (with all Thy creatures), and so does the last one, laudate et benedicete mi signore (praise ye and bless ye my Lord). Robinson renders the per that opens a strophe as “for”. Inside the sun strophe the same word comes again, and there he renders it “through”: “and through him dost Thou brightness give”.

The last strophe turns to whoever is listening: “Praise ye and bless ye my Lord, and give Him thanks, / And be subject unto Him with great humility.” When the illness turns bad he sings the lauds, then has his companions sing them, so that in thinking about the praise of God he can get past the pain.

The sisters at San Damiano have been hearing songs they do not know, coming from the hut of reeds through the olive trees and the pines. The heading over the poem says where it was made: cum esset infirmus ad Sanctum Damianum (while he was ill at St. Damian’s).