Saint Ambrose’s “Ancient Morning Hymn” and Saint Francis of Assisi’s “Canticle of the Sun” are two pieces of poetry written at different ages. Ambrose was a Bishop of Milan who lived 340-397 AD. In contrast, Saint Francis of Assisi was living in a time from 1182 till 1226. Even though almost a thousand years are separating the two poetries, they still have some similarities and features.
In terms of appealing to their audience, both poems try to turn readers’ attention to the greatness of God. It can be seen in the first lines of both poems, which are: “O Splendor of God’s glory bright” and “Most High, all-powerful, all good, Lord!.” On the other hand, it is also the appeal to God, as the beginning of a conversation with him. Direct appeal to God can already be seen through the second lines of the text: “O Thou who bringest light from light…” and “All praise is yours, all glory, all honor…”. Also, both texts are written in a way as the authors referring to God on behalf of all people. For example, Saint Armose writes “our prayers,” and Saint Francis of Assisi uses the words “you give to us.”
Both authors portray the Christian message by connecting the greatness and holiness of God with nature. For example, Saint Ambrose relates innocence to the dawn, faith to the noon, and God to the sun. At the same time, Saint Francis of Assisi refers to the moon, stars, wind, air when describing God’s greatness. The main Christian message of both authors is that God and his holiness are everywhere, which can be seen throughout the nature around us. The gothic architecture was designed based on God’s vision and religious streams (Nafisi Poor, and Javid 90). Both authors, being highly influential religious characters of their times, affected the design of gothic architecture by spreading their vision of Christianity to all people. For example, both authors described God as a Sun and paid a lot of attention to the light. It resulted in large window sizes in gothic architecture. Also, the authors’ beautiful and powerful representation of God can be seen through beautiful details and the enormous size of gothic structures.
Reference
Poor, P. Nafisi, and P. Javid. “Philosophy, Geometry, and Purpose in Islamic and Gothic Architecture as Two Religious-Based Styles.” International Journal of Architectural and Environmental Engineering 15.2 (2021): pp. 90-97.