Wonder and the radical vision of Francis of Assisi

Francis of Assisi’s rediscovery of the divine connection to creatures and creation expresses his wonderment at the world. Much has been written about Francis of Assisi by contemporaries and, since his death, by countless historians and hagiographers, but three aspects of his oeuvre remain mysterious: his ‘ungodly’ view of God; his visionary, borderline heresy and his sense of wonder, all as present in his one great poem – the first poem in the Italian vernacular – the ‘Canticle of the Creatures’.