ABSTRACT
Francis of Assisi is not only one of the best known but also the most universally admired of all the saints. In the modem English imagination, he is chiefly remembered for two things. He is cherished for the literalness of his acceptance of the Gospel injunction to ‘sell all you have and give it to the poor’ (the text which led him to forsake a princely fortune to become a ragged beggar who consorted with lepers); and he is loved for the compassionate view of creation which inspired him to sing in praise of Brother Sun and Sister Moon and to preach the Word of God even to the birds. As mediated through Sunday School lessons and children’s picture-books of the past hundred years or so, the poor man of Assisi has come to seem eminently accessible and denominationally uncontroversial; a ‘Jesus meek and mild’ figure characterised by kindliness towards the poor, compassion for all created things and a particular tenderness for animals.
