Fathers & Saints

A selection of sayings, writings and accounts of lives of Church Fathers & Saints witnesses to the Orthodox Church's tradition of care for Creation.

Keep the Tradition Given Us!

Ecological Sayings

Photo used with permission from Directions To Orthodoxy

St. Gregory the Great (540 - 604)

God is equally in all things

God is within all, over all, under all, is both above with His power and beneath with His support, exterior in respect to magnitude and interior in respect to subtlety, extending from the heights to the depths, encompassing the outside and penetrating the inside; but He is not in one part above, in another beneath, nor in one part exterior and in another interior. Rather, one and the same wholly and everywhere, He supports in presiding and presides in supporting, penetrates in encompassing and encompasses in penetrating.
Moral Teachings from Job 2:12

Why human perspective of creation can vary

While the monks were still sleeping, Benedict, the man of God, was keeping vigil. Standing in front of his window in the dead of night he was praying to the Lord when suddenly he was filled with an extraordinarily bright blazing light, and it dispelled the darkness and radiated with such brilliance that it would have outshone the light of day. While he was caught up in this light, something extraordinary happened. As he described it later, the whole world was gathered up before his eyes as if in a ray of sunlight....
How is it possible for the whole world to be seen in this way by a human being? ... For a soul who beholds the Creator, all creation is narrow in compass. For when a person views the Creator's light, no matter how little of it, all creation becomes small by comparison in his eyes. By the light of interior contemplation or inner vision, the inner recesses of the mind are opened up and so expanded in God that they are above the universe. In fact, the soul of the beholder rises even above itself. When it is caught up above itself, it is made ampler within. As it looks down from its height, it grasps the smallness of what it could not take in its lowly state.
Therefore, as Benedict gazed at the fiery globe, he saw angels too returning to heaven.... To say that the world was gathered together before his eyes does not mean that heaven and earth shrank, but that the mind of the beholder was expanded so that he could easily see everything below God since he himself was caught up in God.
Dialogues II:35

God as the necessity for all created things

All things would tend to nothing in virtue of their nature if they were not governed by God.
Commentary On the Book of Job, 16, 37,45 (PL 75,1144)

St. Gregory Nazianzus “The Theologian” (329 - 389)

For He is the Maker of all these things, filling all with His essence, containing all things, filling the world in His essence, yet incapable of being comprehended in His power by the world; good, upright, princely, by nature not by adoption; sanctifying, not sanctified; measuring, but not measured; shared, not sharing; filling, not filled; containing, not contained....
Oratio 31, 327

The great architect of the universe conceived and produced a being endowed with both natures, the visible and the invisible. God created the human being, bringing its body forth from the pre-existing matter which he animated with His own Spirit.... Thus in some way a new universe was born, small and great at one and the same time.
God set this “hybrid” worshiper on earth to contemplate the visible world, and to be initiated into the invisible; to reign over earth’s creatures, and to obey orders from on high. He created a being at once earthly and heavenly, insecure and immortal, visible and invisible, halfway between greatness and nothingness, flesh and spirit at the same time... an animal en route to another native land, and, most mysterious of all, made to resemble God by simple submission to the divine will.
Oration 45, For Easter 7 (PG 36:850) as quoted in Olivier Clement, The Roots of Christian Mysticism, New City Press, New York, NY, 1995, p. 77.

St. Gregory of Nyssa (330 - 395)

Perception of God through nature

The one who gazes on the physical universe and perceives the wisdom which is reflected in the beauty of created realities, can reason from the visible to the invisible beauty, the Source of Wisdom, whose influence established the nature of all reality. So also can one who looks upon this new universe of creation which is the Church see in it the one Who is all in all, and thus be led by our faith from things which are intelligible and understandable to a knowledge of the One who is beyond all knowledge.
Quoted in Epiphany Journal, Fall, 1985, p. 84

How the Church recreates the world

The establishment of the Church is a recreation of the world. In the Church there is a new heaven... Here too there is a new firmament, which is, as Paul tells us, faith in Christ. A new earth is formed... Man is created once again, for by his rebirth from on high, he is renewed according to the image of his Creator. There is also a new light, of which He speaks: "You are the light of the world."
On the New Creation, Sermon 13:10491050

Reflection on dominion

Man was brought into the world last after the creation, not being rejected to the last as worthless, but as one whom it behooved to be king over his subjects at his very birth.... The Maker of All gives him as foundations the instincts of a twofold organization, blending the Divine with the earthly, that by means of both he may be naturally and properly (to enjoy both) God by means of his more divine nature, and the good things of earth by the sense that is akin to them. ... He has a rank assigned to him before his genesis and possesses rule over the things that are before his coming into being.
On the Making of Man IIIV

The meaning of dominion

Man must acquire kingship (dominion) by his own effort. We see the royal stature of man best in those who have become really free by learning to control their own wills. When man wears the purple of virtue and the crown of justice, he becomes a living image of the King of kings, of God himself.
On the Nature of God 151

Human nature in the New Creation

We learn from scripture in the account of the first Creation, that first the earth brought forth "the green herb" and that then from this plant, seed was yielded, from which, when it was shed on the ground, the same form of the original plant again sprang up. The Apostle, it is to be observed, declares that this very same thing happens in the Resurrection. And so we learn from him the fact, not only that our humanity will then be changed into something nobler, but also that what we have therein to expect is nothing else than that which was at the beginning.
On the Soul and the Resurrection I

Made in God's image refers to all of human nature

For the name Adam... is not now given to a created object. For created man has no special name; he is universal man, encompassing in himself all of humanity. So then, by this designation of Adam's universal nature, we are led to understand that divine providence and energy embrace in primordial creation the whole human race. For God's image is not confined to one part of nature, nor grace to only one individual among those belonging to it.... There is no distinction between man formed at the beginning of the world's creation, and him who will come at the end: they bear in themselves the same image of God. Consequently, man, made in God's image, is nature understood as a whole, reflecting the likeness of God. God's image, proper to Adam's person, relates to all of humanity, to "universal man."
On the Structure of Man XVI

The end of time and history

When the formation of man is completed, time also should terminate. Then comes the total reconstitution of the whole universe; along with the transformation of the whole shall take place the reconstitution of human existence, from the earthbound and corruptible to the unchangeable and eternal.
De Hominis Opificio 16, PG 44:185b

Man as microcosm of the universe

There is nothing remarkable in man being in the image and likeness of the universe. For the earth passes away, the sky changes, and all that is contained therein is as transient as that which contains it.... In thinking to exalt human nature through this imposing name..., they did not notice that man has found himself invested at the same time with the qualities of mosquitoes and mice.
Quoted in Vladimir Lossky, Orthodox Theology, SVS Press, 1979, pg. 70.

Man unites the spiritual and physical

There is a connection between the physical and the spiritual; God has created both and rules over them. Therefore, nothing in creation is to be rejected, nor is anything excluded from the community of God. This union of spiritual and physical is embodied by God in man.
"The Great Catechism," chapter 6 as quoted by Clarence Glacken in Traces on the Rhodian Shore, Univ. of Calif. Press, 1967, pg. 298.

The creation proclaims the Creator

The creation proclaims outright the Creator. For the very heavens, as the Psalmist says, declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1)with their unutterable words. We see the universal harmony in the wondrous sky and on the wondrous earth; how elements essentially opposed to each other are all woven together in an ineffable union to serve one common end, each contributing its particular force to maintain the whole....
We see all this with the piercing eyes of mind, nor can we fail to be taught by means of such a spectacle that a Divine power, working with skill and method, is manifesting itself in this actual world, and, penetrating each portion, combines those portions with the whole and completes the whole by the portions, and encompasses the universe with a single all-controlling force, self-centered, never ceasing from its motion, yet never altering the position which it holds.
On the Soul and the Resurrection 4

Nature is also in the image of God

It is not in a part of human nature that the image of God is found, but nature in its totality is the image of God.
On the Creation of Man, 44:185

The great catechism

Belief in God rests on the art and wisdom displayed in the order of the world: the belief in the Unity of God, on the perfection that must belong to Him in respect of power, goodness, wisdom, etc.
The Great Catechism, Prologue to ch. 1

St. Gregory of Sinai (1282 - 1360)

For by renewing man and sanctifying him, even though in this transient life, he bears a corruptible body, God also renewed creation, although creation is not yet freed from the process of corruption. This deliverance from corruption is said by some to be a translation to a better state; by others to require a complete transmutation of everything sensory. Scripture generally makes simple and straightforward statements about matters that are still obscure.
On Commandments and Doctrines, Nr. 11, as quoted in Philip Sherrard, editor and translator, The Philokalia, Vol. 4, Faber and Faber, 1995, p. 214.

St. Guthlac (673 - 714)

Brother, hast thou never learned in Holy Writ, that with him who has led his life after God's will, the wild beasts and wild birds are tame?
Too often we lose dominion over the creation which is subject to us precisely because we neglect to serve the Lord of all creation, as it is written, "If you be willing, and will harken unto me, you shall eat the good things of the land," and so forth (Isaiah 1:19)....
Felix, Life of St. Guthlac, quoted in Clinton Albertson, SJ, AngloSaxon Saints and Heroes, pg. 197.

St. Hilary of Poitiers (315 - 367)

Why creation is beautiful

“From the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator” (Wisdom 13:5). The sky and the air are beautiful, the earth and the sea are beautiful. By divine grace, the universe was called by the Greeks "cosmos," meaning "ornament." ... Surely the author of all created beauty must himself be the beauty of all beauty?
On the Holy Trinity, 1:1-3

God is in heaven and on earth

The words 'I AM THAT I AM' are clearly adequate as an indication of God's infinity, but, in addition, we need to apprehend the operation of His majesty and power. For while absolute existence is peculiar to Him Who, abiding eternally, had no beginning in a past however remote, we hear again an utterance worthy of Himself issuing from the eternal and Holy God, Who says, “Who holds the heaven in His palm and the earth in His hand,” and again, “The heaven is My throne and the earth is the footstool of My feet. What house will ye build Me, or what shall be the place of My rest?” The whole heaven is held in the palm of God, the whole earth grasped in His hand.
Now the word of God ...reveals a deeper meaning to the patient student than to the momentary hearer. For this heaven which is held in the palm of God is also His throne, and the earth which is grasped in His hand is the footstool beneath His feet. From this ...we should conclude that He has extension in space, as of a body, for that which is His throne and footstool is also held in hand and palm by that infinite Omnipotence. It was written that in all born and created things God might be known within them and without, overshadowing and indwelling, surrounding all and interfused through all, since palm and hand, which hold, reveal the might of His external control, while throne and footstool, by their support of a sitter, display the subservience of outward things to One within Who, Himself outside them, encloses all in His grasp, yet dwells within the external world which is His own. In this wise does God, from within and from without, control and correspond to the universe; being infinite, He is present in all things, in Him Who is infinite all are included. ... Whether shall I go from Thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy face? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I go down into hell, Thou art there also; if I have taken my wings before dawn and made my dwelling in the uttermost parts of the sea, Thou art there. For thither Thy hand shall guide me and Thy right hand shall hold me. There is no space where God is not; space does not exist apart from Him. He is in heaven, in hell, beyond the seas; dwelling in all things and enveloping all. Thus He embraces, and is embraced by, the universe, confined to no part of it but pervading all.
Therefore, ... by the greatness of His works and the beauty of the things that He hath made the Creator of worlds is rightly discerned. The Creator of great things is supreme in greatness, of beautiful things in beauty. Since the work transcends our thoughts, all thought must be transcended by the Maker. Thus heaven and air and earth and seas are fair: fair also the whole universe, as the Greeks agree, who from its beautiful ordering call it “kosmos,” that is, order. But if our thought can estimate this beauty of the universe by a natural instinct – an instinct such as we see in certain birds and beasts whose voice, though it fall below the level of our understanding, yet has a sense clear to them though they cannot utter it, and in which, since all speech is the expression of some thought, there lies a meaning patent to themselves--must not the Lord of this universal beauty be recognized as Himself most beautiful amid all the beauty that surrounds Him? For though the splendor of His eternal glory overtax our mind's best powers, it cannot fail to see that He is beautiful.
On the Holy Trinity, Book I, 6-7 (PL 10:25-30)

Hildebert of Lavardin (1056 - 1133)

God is always present

God is over all things, under all things, outside all; within but not enclosed; without but not excluded; above but not raised up; below but not depressed; wholly above, presiding; wholly beneath, sustaining; wholly without, embracing; wholly within, filling.

St. Hubertus (650 - 727)

Shortly after the death of his wife, St. Hubertus relates that he went out hunting, and deep in the woods he encountered a beautiful red deer stag. With a glowing cross appearing between its broad antlers, the deer spoke to him, asking, "Why do you shoot only the best stags?"
     Awe struck, St. Hubertus could not answer. The stag warned Hubertus that because he and the other royal hunters shot only the healthiest and strongest of animals, there were not enough strong stags to breed a healthy herd. The deer said that hunters should exercise restraint in their hunting and also take weaker stags to help make a more vigorous herd.
     St. Hubertus was ordained a priest and eventually a bishop, and he told his story to other hunters who joined in practicing this vision of conservation. As his message spread, many hunters altered their way of hunting and the herds of red deer flourished.
     St. Hubertus' attitude toward animals as "beings" rather than just sporting targets for hunters is still reflected in Germany. At his death, Hubertus' last words were, "Stretch the "pallium" (a clerical vestment) over my mouth, for I am going to give back to God the soul which I received from Him."
     Today, hunters in Germany still place a small branch of an oak or evergreen in the mouth of the fallen game. That is an offering of the "last bite," signifying a final salute to the animal and symbolically giving back to God the life which it received from Him.
The Story of St. Hubert

St. Irenaeus of Lyons (129 - 203)

Neither the structure nor the substance of creation is destroyed. It is only the "outward form of the world" (I Corinthians 7:31) that passes away – and that is to say, the conditions produced by the fall. And when this "outward form" has passed away, man will be renewed and will flourish in a prime of life that is incorruptible, so that it is no longer possible for him to grow old any more. There will be a "new heaven and a new earth" (Rev. 21:1); and in this new heaven and new earth, man shall abide, forever new and forever conversing with God.
Against Heresies

That God is the Creator of the world is accepted even by those very persons who in many ways speak against Him, and yet acknowledge Him, styling Him the Creator.... while the very heathen learned it from the creation itself. For even creation reveals Him who formed it, and the very work made suggests Him who made it, and the world manifests Him who ordered it. The universal Church, moreover, through the whole world, has received this tradition from the apostles themselves.
“Against Heresies,” Book II, ch. 9:1, in Ante-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers, Edinburgh, 1865, pg. 143.

St. Isaac the Syrian (640? - 8th century)

Be at peace with your soul; then heaven and earth will be at peace with you. Enter eagerly into the treasure house that is within you, and so you will see the things that are in heaven; for there is but one single entry to them both. The ladder that leads to the kingdom is hidden within your soul. Flee from sin, dive into yourself, and in your soul you will discover the stairs by which to ascend.
Mystic Treatises

What is a charitable heart? It is a heart which is burning with a loving charity for the whole of creation, for men, for the birds, for the beasts, for the demons for all creatures. He who has such a heart cannot see or call to mind a creature without his eyes being filled with tears by reason of the immense compassion which seizes his heart; a heart which is so softened and can no longer bear to hear or learn from others of any suffering, even the smallest pain, being inflicted upon any creature. This is why such a man never ceases to pray also for the animals, for the enemies of truth, and for those who do him evil, that they may be preserved and purified. He will pray even for the lizards and reptiles, moved by the infinite pity which reigns in the hearts of those who are becoming united with God.
Mystic Treatises XXIII

Faith is the doorway to the mysteries. What the eyes of the body are for physical objects, faith is for the hidden eyes of the soul. Just as we have two bodily eyes, so we have two spiritual eyes, and each has its own way of seeing. With one we see the glory of God hidden in creatures; with the other we contemplate the glory of God’s holy nature when he deigns to give us access to the mysteries.
Ascetic Treatises, 72, pg. 281

St. Jerome (341 - 420)

Jerome relates that the desert fathers and mothers went to wild places to flee the corruption of cities, to wage war with their passions, but especially to encounter the holy. He writes, "to me the town is a prison, and solitude is paradise."

St. John Cassian (357? - 435)

On knowing God from creation

God is not only to be known in His blessed and incomprehensible being, for this is something which is reserved for His saints in the age to come. He is also to be known from the grandeur and beauty of His creatures, from His providence which governs the world day by day, from His righteousness and from the wonders which He shows to His saints in each generation.... When we consider that He numbers the raindrops, the sand of the sea and the stars of heaven, we are amazed at the grandeur of His nature and His wisdom.
On the Holy Fathers of Sketis, The Philokalia, Vol. 1, trans. Palmer and Sherrard, pg. 97.

A rule for self control

A clear rule for self-control handed down by the Fathers is this: stop eating while you are still hungry and do not continue until you are satisfied. When the Apostle said 'Make no provision to fulfill the desires of the flesh' (Romans 13:14), he was not forbidding us to provide for the needs of life; he was warning us against self-indulgence... self-esteem and pride....
"On the eight vices," The Philokalia, Vol. I, London, 1979, pg. 74.

St. John Climacus (509 - 603)

Dispassion before the world and the senses

The firmament has the stars for its beauty, and dispassion has the virtues for its adornment. For by dispassion I mean nothing other than the Heaven of the mind within the heart, which regards the wiles of the demons as mere pranks. And so he is preeminently dispassionate who has made his flesh incorruptible, who has raised his mind above creatures and has subdued all his senses to it, and who keeps his soul before the face of the Lord, ever reaching out to Him even beyond his strength.
The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Holy Transfiguration Monastery Press, Boston, 1978, Step 29:23

Each animal bears the wisdom of the Creator

Nothing is without order and purpose in the animal kingdom; each animal bears the wisdom of the Creator and testifies of Him. God granted man and animals many natural attributes, such as compassion, love, feelings... for even dumb animals bewail the loss of one of their own.”
The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Paulist Press, New York, 1982, p. 238.

St. John Chrysostom (347 - 407)

God never made some people rich and others poor. God gave the earth to everyone. The whole earth belongs to the Lord, and the fruits of the earth should be available to all.
Homilies on Romans

Creation is not evil. It is both good and a pattern of God's wisdom, power and love of mankind.... It leads us to knowledge of God (and) makes us know the Master better.
Homilies on the devil

The saints are exceedingly loving and gentle to mankind, and even to the beasts.... Surely we ought to show them great kindness and gentleness for many reasons, but, above all, because they are of the same origin as ourselves.
Homily XXXIX: 35 Comentary on Epistle to the Romans

God leaves them who are not minded to receive what comes from Him.... But consider this: He set before them a form of doctrine, which is the world; He gave them reason and an understanding capable of perceiving what was needful....
Homily III, verse 24 Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

We do all things ignoring the fact that we shall have to give account of every thing that goes beyond our use, for we thus misuse the gifts of God. For He has not given us these things that we alone may use them, but that we may alleviate the need of our fellow human beings.
Homilies on Genesis 4

Indeed the magnitude and beauty of creation, and also the very manner of it, display a God Who is the artificer of the universe. He has made the mode of this creation to be our best teacher, by compounding all things in a manner that transcends the course of nature.
Concerning the Statutes

For what purpose does He (Jesus) go up into the mountain? To teach us that loneliness and retirement is good when we are to pray to God. With this view, you see, He is continually withdrawing into the wilderness, and there often spends the whole night in prayer, teaching us earnestly to seek such quiet in our prayers, as the time and place may confer. For the wilderness is the mother of quiet; it is a calm and a harbor, delivering us from all turmoil.
Commentary on Matthew 14, verses 23-24, in Eerdmans’ Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. X, 1888, trans. by Rev. Baronet, p. 310.

John Scotus Eriugena (810 - 877)

God and His creatures

We ought not to understand God and the creatures as two things distinct from one another, but as one and the same. For both the creature, by subsisting, is in God; and God, by manifesting himself, in a marvelous and ineffable manner, creates himself in creatures.
Nature, Man and God

Every creature is a manifestation of God

Every visible or invisible creature is a “theophany” or appearance of God. The Christian is the one who, wherever he looks, sees God everywhere and rejoices in Him.... Man is the microcosm in the strictest sense of the word. He is the summary of all existence. There is no creature that is not recapitulated in man. There is nothing in the universe that is lower than body or higher than soul.
De Divisione Naturae

The universe is permeated with divine goodness

So a grant of the Divine Goodness is the establishment of the universe and the distribution of all creatures according to general and special reasons, a distribution which the Super-essential Goodness, God, lavishes universally upon all from the highest down, i.e., from the intellectual nature, the highest of all creatures, to corporeal, which holds the last and lowest place in the universe.
De Divisione Naturae 307

Understanding the Creator from the creation

Learn to know the Maker from those things which are made in him and by him. “For the invisible things of Him,” as the Apostle says, “are clearly understood by the intelligence, being understood from the things which are made”...
All things, therefore, which were made by the Word, live in Him unchangeably and are life. In him all things exist neither by temporal intervals or places, nor as what is to come; but all are one in him, above all times and places, and subsist in him eternally.
The Voice of the Eagle, Homily X

A contemplation of creation

Consider the infinite, multiple power of the seed – how many grasses, fruits and animals are contained in each kind of seed; and how there surges from each a beautiful, innumerable multiplicity of forms. Contemplate with your inner eye how in a master the many laws of an art or science are one; how they live in a spirit that disposes them. Contemplate how an infinite number of lines may cross through a single point, and other similar examples drawn from nature.
From the contemplation of such examples as these, raised above all things by the wings of natural contemplation, illumined and supported by divine grace, you will be able to penetrate by the keenness of your mind the secrets of the Word and, to the extent that it is granted to the human being who seeks signs of his God, you will see how all things made by the Word live in the Word and are life: “For in him,” as the sacred Scripture says, “we live and move and have our being.”
The Voice of the Eagle, Homily X

Two ways of knowing the divine light

When humanity abandoned God, the light of divine knowledge receded from the world. Since then, the eternal light reveals itself in a twofold manner through Scripture and through creation. Divine knowledge may be renewed in us in no other way, but through the letters of Scripture and the species of creature. Learn, therefore, to understand these divine modes of expression and to conceive of their meanings in your soul, for therein you will know the Word.
Observe the forms and beauties of sensible things, and comprehend the Word of God in them. If you do so, the truth will reveal to you in all such things only he who made them, outside of whom you have nothing to contemplate, for he himself is all things. For whatever truly is, in all things which are, is he. Indeed, just as no substantial good exists outside of him, so no essence or substance exists that is not he.
The Voice of the Eagle, Homily XI

St. John Damascene (675 - 749)

The whole earth is a living icon of the face of God.
I shall not cease reverencing matter, by means of which my salvation has been achieved.
Treatise on the Holy Images 1

It is possible to understand by every tree the knowledge of the divine power derived from created things. In the words of the divine apostle, The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.
Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, "Concerning Paradise," ch. 11

It is not without reason or by chance that we worship towards the East.... Since God is spiritual light, and Christ is called in the Scriptures the Sun of Righteousness and Dayspring, the East is the direction that must be assigned to His worship. For everything good must be assigned to Him from Whom every good thing arises.... The Scripture also says, “And God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed; and when he had transgressed His command, He expelled him and made him to dwell over against the delights of Paradise, which clearly is the West. So then we worship God seeking and striving after our old fatherland. Moreover the tent of Moses had its veil and mercy seat towards the East. Also in the celebrated temple of Solomon the gate of the Lord was placed eastward. Moreover Christ, when He hung on the cross, had His face towards the West, and so we worship, striving after Him. And when He was received again into Heaven, He was borne towards the East, and thus His Apostles worship Him... So then in expectation of His coming we worship towards the East. But this tradition of the Apostles is unwritten. For much that has been handed down to us by tradition is unwritten.
Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, tr. S. Salmond, 1898, reprinted by Eerdmans Publ. Co., 1989, Book IV, chapter XII:1-3

St. Kevin of Glendalough (513 - 618)

A response to an angel on behalf of the animals

While praying in the rugged Wicklow mountains, about thirty miles from Dublin, an angel appeared to Kevin and offers to make his life more comfortable. The angel says, "I would sweep away these hills and crags and rocks and wooded dells where little grows and no one dwells; I'll give you pastures lush and green for kine to graze, a winding stream, and gentle fields to grow your grain in place of this uncouth domain."
Kevin declines this offer, replying, "I pray you humbly, let them stand, the rugged hills, the broken land. For I do love like any child the hunted creatures of the wild; and every bird that climbs the sky is free to wander just as I, or dwell in peace beside the lake. To make them homeless for my sake would grieve me sorely night and day."
Rev. Kevin Daley, speech at the Annual General Meeting, Catholic Study Circle for Animal Welfare, Nov. 4, 1969, Dublin, Ireland, and quoted by the Catholic Study Circle for Animal Welfare, London

Hell and a short life

The old Celtic manuscripts frequently tell of saints who intentionally went to the forests to conduct prayers and special devotions. Kevin however went further in his protection of the forests. “[He] promised hell and a short life to anyone who should burn either green wood or dry from this wood (where he had a special experience in which the trees bowed down at his prayers) till the day of doom.”
In Charles Plummer, Bethada naem Erenn, Lives of the Irish Saints, Oxford Univ. Press, London, Vol. 1, 1968, p. 123

The hunters and the wild boar

Another time some hunters were chasing a wild boar with their dogs in hot pursuit. As soon as the boar saw the dogs near him, he raced down the slope to the glen where Kevin was in prayer, to seek the saint’s protection. Kevin protected the boar and commanded the dogs to stop chasing him. As he did so, the feet of the dogs became stuck firmly to the ground, so that they could not move from that spot in any direction. Shortly after that the hunters came running up and into Kevin’s presence. On seeing their dogs fastened to the ground and the boar under Kevin’s protection, they were astonished and filled with wonder. Humbly and penitently they asked Kevin to please release their dogs and they promised him that they would never again hunt this boar. So Kevin let the boar run back into the forest, and the name of God was glorified.
Edward Sellner, The Wisdom of the Celtic Saints, “Kevin of Glendalough,” Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, 1993, p. 165.

The lesson of the missing otter

There was a monastery in Cell Eithfin to which an otter used to bring a salmon every day. One day when Cellach, son of Dimma, saw the otter coming with a salmon in his mouth, he thought that the otter’s skin would be profitable to the monks, and therefore thought that he would kill the otter for its pelt. The otter immediately perceived the monk’s intention and dropped the salmon in his mouth, dived into the river, and never showed himself again to the monks. As a consequence the monks experienced a scarcity of food, so much so that they decided they must go in different directions. When Kevin saw this, he prayed earnestly to God to reveal why the otter had forsaken the monastery. God then influenced Cellach to go to Kevin and confess, with regret and penitence, that he was to blame. He told how he had the thought of killing the otter, and that it was at that moment when the otter sensed his intention and dived into the river and permanently left the monks. When Kevin heard this, he sent Cellach away to do penance for the evil intention that had caused so much harm.
Story of the otter quoted from ancient sources, in Edward Sellner, The Wisdom of the Celtic Saints, “Kevin of Glendalough,” Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, 1993, p. 163

Lactantius (252? - 317)

Human purpose in creation

You have been born for the sake of seeing the sky and the sun: who has led you to this spectacle, or what does your vision confer to heaven and the nature of things? To be sure, it is that you may praise this immense and marvelous work. Confess, then, that God is the establisher of all things who has brought you into this world a witness, as it were, and a praiser of His work so mighty. You believe it is great to see the sky and the sun. Why, therefore, do you not thank Him who is the Author of this benefit? Why do you not estimate with your mind the virtue, providence, and power of Him whose works you admire?
Divine Institutes

Serving God in the world

We are born that we might contemplate the Maker of all things, that is that we may discern Him with our minds. So, if anyone should ask a man who is truly wise for what reason he was born, he will answer fearlessly that he has been born of the favor of God who has generated us so that we may serve Him. Now to serve God is nothing other than to behold how good are His works and to observe justice.
But if he had said that he was born to behold the world, he would not have fulfilled the function of man because the soul is of as much more worth than the body as God is greater than the world. The world then ought not to be beheld by our eyes because both are bodies, but God ought to be contemplated by our souls, because God, as He is Himself immortal, has intended the soul to last forever.
Divine Institutes, Book III, ix

Nature is the work of God

There is nothing else in life on which our plan and condition can depend but the knowledge of God who created us, and the religious and pious worship of Him; and since the philosophers have wandered from this, it is plain that they were not wise. They sought wisdom, indeed, but because they did not seek it in a right manner, they sunk down to a greater distance, and fell into such great errors that they did not even possess common wisdom....
For they, either being ignorant by whom the world was made, or wishing to persuade men that nothing was completed by divine intelligence, said that nature was the mother of all things, as though they should say that all things were produced of their own accord, by which word they altogether confess their own ignorance. For nature, apart from divine providence and power, is absolutely nothing. But if they call God nature, what perverseness is it, to use the name of nature rather than of God? But if nature is the plan, or necessity, or condition of birth, it is not by itself capable of sensation; but there must necessarily be a divine mind, which by its foresight furnishes the beginning of their existence to all things. Or, if nature is heaven and earth, and everything which is created, nature is not God, but the work of God.
The Divine Institutes, Book III, ch. xxviii, “Of True Religion and of Nature,” p. 97

St. Leontios of Cyprus (556 - 634)

How creation gives glory to God

Through heaven and earth and sea, through wood and stone, through all creation visible and invisible, I offer veneration to the Creator and Master and Maker of all things. For the creation does not venerate the Maker directly and by itself, but it is through me that the heavens declare the glory of God, through me the moon worships God, through me the stars glorify Him, through me the waters and showers of rain, the dews and all creation, venerate God and give Him glory.
Minutes of the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787 A. D.), (Mansi 13:48-49)