1226 – 2026
(The following is an excerpt from a press release of the Office of Communications of the Seraphic Province of St. Francis of the Order of Friars Minor.)
The 800th anniversary celebration of the Transitus of St. Francis will officially begin on January 10, 2026, at 10:00am (GMT+1 – 6 hours ahead of EST) at the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels. The Basilica holds, behind the Porziuncola, the Chapel of the Transitus – a memorial of the last earthly moments of St. Francis. On October 3, 1226, already blind and marked by the stigmata, Francis asked to be laid “naked on the bare earth” – a supreme gesture of faith in the fatherhood of God and acceptance of Sister Bodily Death.
The ceremony will serve as a bridge between the 800th anniversary of the composition of the Canticle of the Creatures (2025) and 800th anniversary of the Transitus of St. Francis (2026). It will incorporate the Canticle’s final two stanzas on reconciliation and Sister Death.
The great Franciscan Jubilee journey from 2023 to 2026 retraced the final years of St. Francis: from the approval of the Rule and the Christmas at Greccio (2023), to the gift of the Stigmata (2024), and the composition of the Canticle of the Creatures (2025). The Transitus marks the end of this journey.
The Canticle’s final stanza— “Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death, from whom no one living can escape”—provides the true key to this 800th anniversary event. Francis’s testimony as he died, singing, surrounded by his brothers, leaves a legacy of reconciliation and a prophecy of fraternity: only a free and humble heart can welcome death as a friend.
Everyone, sons and daughters of St. Francis, Christian and civil communities, young and old, are invited to join in this great spiritual jubilee. The opening will be streamed live at www.centenarifrancescani.org. The guide to the Opening Rite of the 800th Anniversary of the Transitus of St. Francis is available in multiple languages. You can download the guides and read more at https://www.ofmconv.net/en/apertura-dellviii-centenario-del-transito-di-san-francesco-1226-2026/
