Jonas Ellerström: Francis and the animals – Helsingborgs Dagblad

Lars Gerdmars icon "saint Francis".Image: Mattias Piltz

whether we look at the world from a christian starting point, as a given us creation, or from the scientific perspective as an evolutionary process, we must today reflect on and consider the way in which humans relate to nature. Whether we see ourselves as the crown of creation or as Homo sapiens, we must note that we take bad care of the world entrusted to us, that we are abusing the position of power that our species has conquered.

In the icon of the lundamålaren Lars Gerdmar, as pope Francis (f d assistant in a chemical laboratory in Buenos Aires) during his visit in Sweden receive as a gift, is the ecological dimension is important. It makes the picture keen even for us who are non-believers.

the Icon shows the saint Francis, it is natural, given the recipient’s choice of påvenamn, but also has a broader meaning. More than anything, the saints are Francis, in connection with the nature that surrounds man, that man today more than ever, need to try to be a part of. Francis praises in his solsång brother Sun and sister Moon, the wind and the rain, and foremost of all, mother Earth. But also creatures like fish and birds was 1200-talsmunkens brothers and sisters. He, God’s little poor man, talked to them, met their eyes, so that he on the icon to look into the wolf’s eyes.

Legend tells of the dreaded wolf from the village of Gubbio, as shown in the picture put his big paw against the saint’s breast. The tenderness in both of their eyes! Around them, with the green of the umbrian hills as the background, growing reeds and lilies, jumping fish in the river, flying birds of many species. A trusting woodpecker has settled on Francis’s shoulder, but the question is whether the duck on the way into the chapel, not looking quite askance at the saint, who concludes his pact with the wolf. Reform always meet resistance from the narrow-minded.

Still there are wolves in Italy’s mountains. Still flowing fresh water, returning birds of spring, blooming lilies and other plants. And yet exploits man ruthlessly, nature, misshushåller of the earth’s resources, pushing the planet towards an ecological and klimatologisk disaster. We seem to know so much less about our place in the world than Francis knew, and he was so intimate with "our lady Poverty". It is a moral request in the image of him in her simple robe, with his hand on the wolf’s head.