Whether he accepted this magnetic attraction as true or whether he regarded it as purely symbolicfor this kind of miracle is not dependent on faith,he considered the monk of Assisi as a lover of nature, whose heart was big enough to love everything that lives, to suffer with all that suffers.

Brother Francis, with one companion, was walking through the beautiful valley of the Velino River, toward Rieti, a little city where he came often on his way from Assisi to Rome.