Poverello and the Birds

On an excursion to a village cathedral several summers ago, I captured a photograph of a plainly dressed man feeding birds in the church courtyard. In the busy midst of buses, shoppers, and tourists, the birds and the man shared a simple and probably frequent communion. The scene reminds me of stories of Saint Francis of Assisi— known to townsfolk as Poverello, “the poor one”—so I named the quilt Poverello and the Birds.