Letter for the 8th Centenary of the Canticle of the Creatures (1225-2025)
Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Franciscan Family Around the World, May the Lord give you peace!
With this letter we wish to share with you our joy for the 8th Centenary of the Canticle of Creatures, a date we cannot ignore. This anniversary fits fully into the sequence of centenaries that form the unique Franciscan Centenary, from Fonte Colombo to Greccio, to La Verna, to San Damiano and finally to St. Mary of the Angels.
Between the pain and love of La Verna, where Francis received the Stigmata, and the encounter with “Sister Death”, we find this song of praise and reconciliation that sums up Francis’ view of God and the world, of creatures and human beings, of himself and the Most High. The Canticle is a summary of the way Francis saw reality, and together we still want to sing it with joy of spirit!
In 2025, the Holy Year and the Year of the Canticle of Creatures, we wish to rediscover together the depth of this prayer that has spanned the centuries and still speaks to the heart of humanity and the Church. The Canticle, composed gradually by Francis between 1225 and 1226, is not just a poetic text, but a testimony to a comprehensive vision of God the Creator, creation, universal fraternity and integral ecology, themes that Pope Francis has taken up forcefully in his encyclical Laudato si’.
