Lost in Translation #151
After devoting two stanzas in his Canticle of the Sun to God and man (which we have traced in our series of article here and here), Francis devotes the rest of his composition to God and material creation. He moves more or less altitudinally, from the highest thing in the physical universe on down. For him, that means starting with the sun:
Laudato sie, mi Signore cum tucte le Tue creature,spetialmente messor lo frate Sole,lo qual è iorno, et allumini noi per lui.Et ellu è bellu e radiante cum grande splendore:de Te, Altissimo, porta significatione.
Which I translate as:
Be praised, my Lord, through all Your creatures,especially Sir Brother Sun,who is the day, and who enlightens us through him.And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor!He brings meaning about You, O Most High.
The stanza initiates a pattern that is common throughout the Canticle: it commands God to be praised by one of his creatures, whom Francis identifies as a brother or sister. This stanza, however, is unique in two ways. First, this is the only time that Francis addresses a creature with a title of respect: he calls the sun not simply a brother but “Sir Brother.” Such deference points to the prominence of the sun in the order of creation. The sun enlightens us, and it is beautiful and radiant with great splendor.
Second, this is the only time that Francis says that a creature discloses something about God. The verse de Te, Altissimo, porta significatione is difficult to translate, but it indicates that the sun carries within itself some meaningful information about God. Of course, that is true of every creature. As Pope Benedict XVI once said, “All Creation speaks of God and is praise of God.” Francis is not denying that every created things speaks of God; he is singling out the sun for being especially indicative of God.
So what is it that the sun and God have in common, or rather, what does the sun tell us about God? Francis mentions three attributes: the sun enlightens us, it is beautiful, and it radiates.
Regarding enlightenment, in the Prologue to the Gospel according to Saint John, the Son of God is described as “the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world” (1, 9), and the same can be said of the other two Persons of the Holy Trinity as well. One can even toy with aligning each Person of the Trinity with some solar quality, as does St. Ambrose in one of his hymns:
O Splendor of the Father’s glory,Bringing forth light from light,Light of light and Font of light,Illuminating the days of days.And true Sun, flow on,Glittering with everlasting brilliance;And the radiance of the Holy Spirit,Pour fourth onto our senses.
Second, the sun’s beauty reminds us of God’s, not only because both are splendid but because both are in a way the cause of beauty in other things. The sun is the “cause” of beauty in visible things insofar as we could not see their beauty without the sun. And it is much more the case that God is the cause of beauty in all things, for He made all things good, and the good is beautiful.
Third, just as the sun’s radiance is the chief source of warmth on earth, so too is God’s love the chief source of spiritual warmth in our lives. In Revelation 12, 1 (not to mention the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose feast we celebrate today), the Blessed Virgin Mary is depicted as a “woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” Mary, full of grace, is basking in God’s love, and so was Saint Francis when he wrote this Canticle.
This article appeared as “Sir Brother Sun” in the Messenger of St. Anthony 127:4, international edition (April 2025), p. 37. Many thanks to its editors for allowing its publication here.
