The canticle is considered to be the earliest piece of Italian vernacular poetry. It has an interesting history because Francis (whose father spent a lot of time in France, hence the name) was obsessed with troubadour music, and he made up a beloved called Lady Poverty, who he sang to. He somehow hybridized the life of the wandering troubadour with the wandering monk (sort of a Woody Guthrie prototype, Woody not being a saint or anything). In the lives he and his followers are always singing and carrying on. If you get a chance to read the original lives (not the Little Flowers, which is a later bowdlerization), do. They are among the most moving documents in history: they breathe the clear air of a new thing in the early Italian sunshine. When I went to Assisi, the most extraordinary thing there was a pair of Francis' work clothes, hung up on the wall -- they looked like farmer's overalls!!!

yours, Peter T.