The Little Flowers of St Francis of Assisi

The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi illustrates in purest form St Francis' love of humanity and of nature, a love so great that he preached to the sparrows as well as to the people around him. The fioretti, or little flowers, are fables, legends, and folk tales that grew up around the saint and his companions, celebrating their kinship with nature - they addressed all God's creatures as sister and brother - and the denial of vanity and things of the flesh that have made Francis at once perhaps the holiest and yet the most approachable of the great saints of legend.